Economics for IAS/IES/UGC-Net

Guys,

I have already recorded the first layer of recordings last year itself. Now to polish the course further, I have decided to add more videos on each of the topics again, pertaining to Indian Economic Services exam and IAS Economics Optional. I thought of preparing the notes of the entire course not as a teacher, but as a student. I cannot be a good teacher, if I am not a good student. So, I have prepared these notes, around the kind of questions which were asked in these exams, and then recorded it.

Sometime during Wednesday, 15th May 2018, I did my first recording. Consumer Surplus. Have decided to make recordings everyday and post it here. I have no compulsion to complete the course in a month or a two, I will take my time, but with the commitment of producing a video everyday [will not beat myself if not been able to do it everyday, but I will try :)] and posting on a blog every Sunday. I pray for the will power which is required in this endeavor.

I did four recordings this week. The following are the demos of these recordings. In the real course, you will get more content.

• Consumer Surplus
• Utility Functions
• Substitution Effect and Income Effect
• Elasticity Theorems

I urge all of you, who are preparing for this exam, to do previous years papers. I am not saying that you will be getting the same question, but you may get a similar question. And while preparing for these exams, writing practice is must. So keep on making notes.

Happy Studying

N

Hello Guys, today I have completed (actually two weeks before, to be more precise) the online course for Indian Economic Services and IAS Economics Optional. I have been working on this since last one year.

Not a difficult course, but it is very very huge

On completing the course, what I have realized is, that, the course in itself is not difficult, it is humongous. What this course has done for you, is that, it has organised everything in one place, so that student does not have to waste his time in researching for the topics and secondly, everything is recorded and taught, so that, student can write his notes side by side.

How quickly the course can be completed?

Many times, I get a query, how quickly, I can complete the course? My answer to that is, you can complete it in 1.5-2 months, if you sit all day before your computer. But ask yourself, is that feasible, in my opinion, No. It is not about completing the course, it is about assimilating it too, understanding it in comprehensible bits and pieces and later joining them all together, so that it all makes sense. My take is to start the course early, make notes and revise them. But yes, if you are in hurry, then by all means, complete it in one-two months, if that is what the situation demands.

Entire syllabus is recorded, new videos will be added and old ones updated

I have added series of videos for Indian Economics Services Course and IAS Economics Optional Course, but these are not the only ones, I will be regularly adding more and deleting and updating the old ones. My view is to keep updating the course, according to the latest trends. Every year, there will be two cycles of course updation of about three-four months each, in which new videos will be added and old ones updated. But you don’t have to worry about these cycles, you will get the complete course, whenever you purchase it.

Previous Years Questions

Also, I will be adding videos from previous years papers too. They will not be presented as a separate recording but will be added within a relevant topic. Doing these previous years questions, will help students to gain more clarity on the given topic. My advise to all students is, neither just rely on previous years nor ignore them completely. These previous years give you a broad understanding of the trends, which you have to keep in mind, in all probability.

Test Series for Indian Economic Services (IES) and IAS Economics Optional

This year, I am starting with Test Series too. Many students have asked about them earlier, but I refused it last year, because I was myself busy in recording the course. Now, since I have completely recorded this course, I am in a position, to offer a test series for both Indian Economic Servies (IES) and IAS Economics Optional.

There will be 12 tests, whose schedule will be updated. You can do them at your own pace and return it back for correction, I will grade them and return it back with comments. Of course, test series is very helpful in keeping you on track.

Indian Economics

I have based the course heavily on Uma Kapila’s : “Indian Economy since Independence 1947-2016” (1014 pages) and several articles from Economic and Political Weekly. This is the mother book on Indian Economics, everyone, who wants to gather knowledge about Indian Economics, must read this book. Her editorial sections in the book are a must read. I find this book, little difficult, for a newbie, but even then, this is the book, which I recommend. All parts of syllabus are not covered in  Uma Kapila, but it gives you a such a broad knowledge, that you can attempt almost any question. For those parts, which are not directly covered in this book, they should be done from EPW’s articles.

Also, I must say, no book is sufficient. You have to append this book with several articles. In the next cycle, I will take up several articles form Kaushik Basu’s edited Oxford Companion for Indian Economics. 

Should you rely ‘only’ on my Notes? 

If any one says, rely ‘only’ on my notes, run away from him at the fastest speed. UPSC does not owe anything to anyone, it makes questions on its own. These notes are helpful to complete the syllabus, but if you think, that the entire paper will come from these notes, you are mistaken. I will give you an example, I have taught you scenario A and B, but in the paper, they might ask, how A affects B? You have to have your own creativity, your own understanding to cut-across readings and write a beautiful answer. This comes from practice, nobody can help you cram this.

There will be many people in this industry, who will have a nerve to announce, that 100% paper from their notes, I don’t have that. I can only help you, what is humanly possible. I can cover the entire syllabus, teach you from the best possible books, tell you all references, help your doubts, correct your answer scripts and motivate you, when you feel de-motivated. That is all I can do.

Do you have to know Mathematics to do this course?

I wont say yes, but I would say, it will help. No good economics course can be taught without mathematics. I also have used it, although minimally, but wherever, it was definitely required, I have not hesitated from using it. And guys, it is not difficult, it is very simple Class XII Calculus, that too, you don’t have to do completely, but be willing to learn. Always in life, be willing to learn new things. You are going to be a future IES or an IAS officer, you have to learn new things everyday, this mathematics, is so small, compared to everyday challenges, you will have to face, that you can master it (mathematics) in no time. Dont worry, I will teach you some basic concepts, so that, you can understand any good economics book. It is simple, believe me. May be in the real paper, you may get a numerical to solve, dont forget UPSC 2013 and 2014 papers, when some simple numericals were asked. But the entire course is not mathematical !

Details about the course

You can see the demo for the course by clicking on some video links which are provided. Demo of all videos is not provided.

Indian Economic Services : Click here

IAS Economics Optional : Click Here

Test Series : Click Here

 With my best wishes, I wish all of you, best of luck in all your future endeavors. For any other query, please contact me.

Thanks

Nishant

Hello guys. Today I will be presenting past year questions which appeared in Indian Economic Services (IES) Exam from 2009-2016, together with their marks distribution. This will give you some broad idea, about the kind of questions asked, which topics you have to prepare, is there any trend in the type of questions and how important are numericals in this exam.

Let us start with the broadest view of Paper 1, in terms of what is the proportion of marks for various topics in Paper 1, Indian Economic Services (IES) Exam.

1. Apart from 2010 and 2014, in all other years, paper was not well distributed. It has always tilted more towards one of the topic, for instance, Consumer theory in 2011, 2012 and 2013; Theory of Value, with whooping 51% in 2015 and Statistics and Econometrics in 2016
2. Consumer Theory and Theory of Value are most important, as is evidenced from the fact, that in no year from 2010 to 2016, their combined weightage is less than 37%. In 2012, their combined weightage is about 70%.
3. Apart from 2012 and 2013, Part B i.e. Stats/Econometrics and Maths, carry a weight within the range of 27% to 47%
4. Theory of Distribution and Welfare Economics, have the least weight. This does not mean that these topics are not important, because, if examiner wants he can test you on many issues from these topics, but surprisingly, that is not the case. We never know, next year they may start asking lot of questions from these topics. For that matter, about 1/4th of the paper was from Welfare Economics in 2009, but after that there is a secular decline

Now, let us start analysing questions year wise from 2009 to 2016.

Year 2009

1. There was lot of Maths and Econometrics asked. I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that the syllabus was a bit different in 2009 from the present one (may be I am wrong) because questions like Kuhn Tucker, Shadow price, Total Factor productivity, Superlative index numbers, Quadratic forms, were never asked again.
2. Welfare Economics also have a sizeable portion in this year. They have asked existence of equilibrium. It has been given as a proof in Nicholson and Snyder. Its weightage has been pushed up because of Public goods questions infused in this topic in the syllabus
3. Leontieff input output model, Prisoner’s Dilemma, Lorenz Curve have been asked and will be asked many times in the future too (from 2009-2016). Guys, do remember, you cant depend too much only on regular questions only, I will tell you why, because, these regular questions are like ‘sitters’ , which every one has to do correct, your positioning will be secured if you do non traditional questions well. Having said that, you cant take a risk of getting these regular questions wrong, but dont be so satisfied with your preparation, if you can only get these regular questions correct. They are like, their doing will not give you much positives but their non-doing will give you a lot negatives. I hope you understand whatever that means 🙂

Year 2010

1. Numericals have started peeping into the paper from this year, about 22% of the paper was numericals. You cant ignore them
2. Apart from the above discussed repeated problems, you get some more in your bag, for example, Substitution and Income Effects, Elasticity of Substitution, Hicks-Kaldor Criterion, Scitovisky’s improvement and CLRM assumptions
3. They have been asking Linear Programming problem repeatedly. At least do at the level of Class 12th NCERT

Year 2011

1. Numericals have increased in their weightage from 22 % in 2010 to 34% in 2011.
2. Other repeated topic is Elasticity of demand (but they have been asking it, in addition to its various ancillary topics ), CES production function and Price Discrimination
3. Something from Theory of distribution have been asked and that too a very simple question

Year 2012

1. Many new topics were added in the question paper, such as asymmetric information, Moral Hazard Problem, Risk Aversion, EV and CV
2. They have asked a question on White Noise and Random walk, which is from Time Series Analysis. In 2016, they have asked a question from this topic too, Dickey Fuller Test
3. Linear Programming which has been asked always as a numerical, was asked as a theoretical question. Now this is a problem, as you must also know a theoretical background of several mathematical techniques.
4. Because of many new topics and less weightage to traditional ones, many students would have found this paper difficult. Don’t depend just on past year questions only, they should guide you into the mind of an examiner, but don’t be misguided that these are sufficient. Past year questions are NECESSARY but Not SUFFICIENT.

Year 2013

1. Again 34% of the paper was Numerical based
2. Most of the questions were asked from Consumer Theory and Theory of Value
3. They have asked a question on Entry Deterrence, a topic which is a part of Paper 3. I have seen this quite a few times across papers of Indian Economic Services Exam (IES), that they ask questions, sometimes which cut across papers
4.  Linear Programming Problem and Elasticity of demand numericals, show their presence in this year too

Year 2014

1. I love the person who has set 2014 Indian Economic Services Paper, as he asked 51% of Numerical based problems. If someone has no grasp over mathematical techniques in economics, 2014 paper was a nightmare for him. Good thing about numericals is, that they can fetch you very high marks and bad thing is, they can pull you really low, if you do them wrongly or don’t know how to solve them
2. The level of numericals asked in IES paper is not very high, you guys, if work little hard, can develop a knack of solving them easily. If you are a pass out from university, where they teach economics in a mathematical fashion, it should not be difficult for you
3. They have asked quite a bit of Econometrics, for instance, Autocorrelation, Heteroscedasticity and Co-integration in Time Series Analysis

Year 2015

1. More than half of the paper, 51% was asked only from Theory of Value. Questions from Markets have been sprinkled so generously throughout the paper, as if, someone who would have done just this topic thoroughly, would have pulled up lot of marks
2. I have been seeing this trend since last two-three years,  that they pick up one topic and throw many questions around that. This way examiner can really make someone nervous, since you don’t know for sure, which topic they will over-emphasize this year, so you have to prepare it all, with all the length and breadth of the syllabus covered.
3. The proportion of pure numericals fell to 37% in 2015, but apart from them, may other questions, which were asked, could not be solved without basic mathematical bent of mind

Year 2016

1. I found this paper tough, as there were very few traditional questions. Many first timers, were asked, such as Money illusion and demand curve, efficiency-equity, proof of different elasticities (discussed in Nicholson), second order conditions, Dickey Fuller test, Market equilibrium question, ANOVA, Distributional Inequality
2. If someone would have prepared through a traditional route, I am sure, he would have faced a lot of problem
3. Even numericals which were asked were little tricky
4. Prepare this paper thoroughly.  Don’t go by any trend. These would have been thoughts going on in the mind of paper setter while setting this paper. By his innovation in finding new questions, he has surely crushed may under his feet. I hope and I wish, that next year, you are not among them 🙂 . Hence, my advice is prepare everything or at least which looks like everything. Preparing some tit-bits here and there won’t help much

I hope this information would help you 🙂

All the best

Nishant

For demo videos of Paper 1, you can click here

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