Preparation Strategy for Governance Part of GS Paper – 2 UPSC Mains
GS paper II comprises of Indian Constitution, Governance and Social justice and International Relations. As per the UPSC syllabus for GS paper 2 topics starting from Government policies to Role of civil services in a democracy is considered as the portion under Governance.
The important topics in Governance are development process and industry, important aspects of governance, role of civil services, welfare schemes for vulnerable sections etc. Here one should be thorough with the sub topics mentioned in the syllabus like role of NGOs, SHGs, citizen charters, pressure groups, e-governance etc. By analyzing last few years question paper trend, UPSC questions from these topics repeatedly. For example question based on SHGs recurred in 2014, 2015 and 2017. Same goes with the other topics as well.
Considering the dynamic nature of the syllabus the right approach to holistically cover this part would be to keep a regular track on newspapers and magazines like Yojana. It is advisable to make your own notes with standard definitions for the topics like Social audit, e-governance, SHGs etc along with the recent initiatives. Kindly keep in your mind that examples play a crucial role in this paper. Analysis of government schemes with respect to vulnerable and marginalized sections of the society is also important. One should have enough content to write a 250 word answer for each topic mentioned in the syllabus. To augment your preparation you can refer sources like PIB website, recommendations of 2nd ARC reports 1, 9, 10, 11 and 12, Economic Survey and selected chapters from India year book. As all UPSC aspirants may know understanding the syllabus, doing an honest analysis of previous year papers and answer writing practice is the key to success.