UPSC Civil Services Exam: How IAS Aspirants Can Read Budget And Economic Survey For Prelims And Mains

Much awaited Economic Survey and the Budget 2019 are out. Both the documents are crucial from the perspective of prelims and Mains of UPSC Civil Services Exam. Since both the documents are quite detailed and contain a lot of information, aspirants find it hard to cover.

Many aspirants prefer to read summaries given by different coaching institutes instead of the original document. While it is not a bad strategy, care should be taken of the fact that recent UPSC trend is to deliberately avoid all kinds of shortcuts and coaching materials.

Reading the budget and Economic Survey in itself will not only help the aspirants gain several important pointers for prelims, but also Mains answer writing. The students should try to read the different articles on the budget published by PIB. PIB Budget summary is also a good document to read. While reading the budget, students should prepare different headings for different ministries and put relevant information under the heading. Making notes in such an organised fashion will help students memorise the content easily.

It is also important to read the text of the Finance Minister’s budget speech. Not only the student will have an idea of the target of the Indian government for next five years, but also of the important issues facing the economy. Students may also be able to find good quotes that can be used in Mains answers.

Economic Survey is a detailed document flushed with information. Students should not try to read it quickly, rather incorporate in their timetable to read a portion daily. A good strategy is to first read the summary of a chapter, the one given at the beginning and the end of the chapter as well as summary given by any coaching class. This way, the student will have a bird’s eye view of the chapter, and will be able to fish out important information leaving out the irrelevant stuff.

Notes of the Economic Survey can be made in the form of Mains answer writing. This way, the student will be able to study the Survey carefully, as well as do answer-writing practice. The focus should be on key concepts, key issues, and keywords. Economic Survey is very crucial for GS 3 Mains paper. The information from the Survey can be used to enrich the quality of the answers.