UPSC Optional Subjects List and Syllabus
Table of Contents
List of UPSC Optional Subjects
(i) Agriculture
(ii) Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science
(iii) Anthropology
(iv) Botany
(v) Chemistry
(vi) Civil Engineering
(vii) Commerce and Accountancy
(viii) Economics
(ix) Electrical Engineering
(x) Geography
(xi) Geology
(xii) History
(xiii) Law
(xiv) Management
(xv) Mathematics
(xvi) Mechanical Engineering
(xvii) Medical Science
(xviii) Philosophy
(xix) Physics
(xx) Political Science and International Relations
(xxi) Psychology
(xxii) Public Administration
(xxiii) Sociology
(xxiv) Statistics
(xxv) Zoology
(xxvi) Literature of any one of the following languages:
Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu and English.
Note :
(i) The question papers for the examination will be of conventional (essay) type.
(ii) Each paper will be of three hours duration.
(iii) Candidates will have the option to answer all the question papers, except the Qualifying Language Papers, Paper-A and Paper-B, in any one of the languages included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India or in English. Notwithstanding this, the Candidate will have the choice to write the Optional Papers in English also if candidates opt to write Paper I-V except the Qualifying Language Papers, Paper-A and
Paper-B, in any one of the language included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India.
(iv) Candidates exercising the option to answer Papers in any one of the languages included in the Eight Schedule to the Constitution of India mentioned above may, if they so desire, give English version within brackets of only the description of the technical terms, if any, in addition to the version in the language opted by them. Candidates should, however, note that if they misuse the above rule, a deduction will be made on this account from the total marks otherwise accruing to them and in extreme cases; their script(s) will not be valued for being in an unauthorized medium.
(v) Candidates should note that if any irrelevant matter/signages/marks etc. are found written in the answer script(s), which would not be related to any question/answer and/or would be having the potential to disclose the candidate‘s identity, the Commission will impose a penalty of deduction of marks from the total marks otherwise accruing to the candidate or will not evaluate the said script(s) on this account.
(vi) The question papers (other than the literature of language papers) will be set in Hindi and English only.
Syllabus of UPSC optional subjects
1. Agriculture Optional UPSC Syllabus
Paper I
Ecology and its relevance to man, natural resources, their sustainable management and conservation. Physical and social environment as factors of crop distribution and production. Agro ecology; cropping pattern as indicators of environments. Environmental pollution and associated hazards to crops, animals and humans. Climate change— International conventions and global initiatives. Green house effect and global warming. Advance tools for ecosystem analysis—Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Cropping patterns in different agro-climatic zones of the country. Impact of high-yielding and short-duration varieties on shifts in cropping patterns. Concepts of various cropping, and farming systems. Organic and Precision farming. Package of practices for production of important cereals, pulses, oil seeds, fibres, sugar, commercial and fodder crops.
Important features, and scope of various types of forestry plantations such as social forestry, agro-forestry, and natural forests : Propagation of forest plants. Forest products. Agro-forestry and value addition. Conservation of forest flora and fauna.
Weeds, their characteristics, dissemination and association with various crops; their multiplications; cultural, biological, and chemical control of weeds.
Soil—physical, chemical and biological properties. Processes and factors of soil formation. Soils of India. Mineral and organic constituents of soils and their role in maintaining soil productivity. Essential plant nutrients and other beneficial elements in soils and plants. Principles of soil fertility, soil testing and fertiliser recommendations, integrated nutrient management Biofertilizers. Losses of nitrogen in soil, nitrogen-use efficiency in submerged rice soils, nitrogen fixation in soils. Efficient phosphoruse and potassium use. Problem soils and their reclamation. Soil factors affecting green house gas emission.
Soil conservation, integrated watershed management. Soil erosion and its management. Dry land agriculture and its problems. Technology for stabilising agriculture production in rainfed areas.
Water-use efficiency in relation to crop production, criteria for scheduling irrigations, ways and means of reducing run-off losses of irrigation water. Rainwater harvesting. Drip and sprinkler irrigation. Drainage of waterlogged soils, quality of irrigation water, effect of industrial effluents on soil and water pollution. Irrigation projects in India.
Farm management, scope, importance and characteristics, farm planning. Optimum resource use and budgeting. Economics of different types of farming systems. Marketing management strategies for development, market intelligence. Price fluctuations and their cost; role of co-operatives in agricultural economy; types and systems of farming and factors affecting them. Agricultural price policy. Crop Insurance.
Agricultural extension, its importance and role, methods of evaluation of extension programmes, socioeconomic survey and status of big, small and marginal farmers and landless agricultural labourers; Training programmes for extension workers. Role of Krishi Vigyan Kendra‘s (KVK) in dissemination of Agricultural technologies. Non-Government Organisation (NGO) and self-help group approach for rural development.
Paper II
Cell structure, function and cell cycle. Synthesis, structure and function of genetic material. Laws of heredity. Chromosome structure, chromosomal aberrations, linkage and cross-over, and their significance in recombination breeding. Polyploidy, euploids and aneuploids. Mutation—and their role in crop improvement. Heritability, sterility and incompatibility, classification and their application in crop improvement. Cytoplasmic inheritance, sex-linked, sex-influenced and sex-limited characters.
History of plant breeding. Modes of reproduction, selfing and crossing techniques. Origin, evolution and domestication of crop plants, center of origin, law of homologous series, crop genetic resources—conservation and utilization. Application of principles of plant breeding, improvement of crop plants. Molecular markers and their application in plant improvement. Pure-line selection, pedigree, mass and recurrent selections, combining ability, its significance in plant breeding. Heterosis and its exploitation. Somatic hybridization. Breeding for disease and pest resistance. Role of interspecific and intergeneric hybridization. Role of genetic engineering and biotechnology in crop improvement Gernetically modified crop plants.
Seed production and processing technologies. Seed certification, Seed testing and storage. DNA finger printing and seed registration. Role of public and private sectors in seed production, and marketing. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues, WTO issues and its impact on Agriculture.
Principles of Plant Physiology with reference to plant nutrition, absorption, translocation and metabolism of nutrients. Soil-water-plant relationship.
Enzymes and plant pigments; photosynthesis—modern concepts and factors affecting the process, aerobic and anaerobic respiration; C3, C4 and CAM mechanisms. Carbohydrate, protein and fat metabolism. Growth and development; photoperiodism and vernalization. Plant growth substances and their role in crop production. Physiology of seed development and germination; dormancy. Stress physiology—draught, salt and water stress.
Major fruits, plantation crops, vegetables, spices and flower crops. Package practices of major horticultural crops. Protected cultivation and high tech horticulture. Post-harvest technology and value addition of fruits and vegetables. Landscaping and commercial floriculture. Medicinal and aromatic plants. Role of fruits and vegetables in human nutrition.
Diagnosis of pests and diseases of field crops, vegetables, orchard and plantation crops and their economic importance. Classification of pests and diseases and their management. Intergrated pest and diseases management. Storage pests and their management. Biological control of pests and diseases. Epidemiology and forecasting of major crop pests and diseases. Plant quarantine measures. Pesticides, their formulation and modes of action.
Food production and consumption trends in India. Food security and growing population—vision 2020. Reasons for grain surplus. National and International food policies. Production, procurement, distribution constraints.
Availability of foodgtrains, per capita expenditure on food. Trends in poverty, Public Distribution System and Below Poverty Line population, Targeted Public Distribution System (PDS), policy implementation in context to globalization. Processing constraints. Relation of food production to National Dietary Guidelines and food consumption pattern. Food based dietary approaches to eliminate hunger. Nutrient deficiency—Micro nutrient deficiency : Protein Energy Malnutrition or Protein Calorie Malnutrition (PEM or PCM), Micro nutrient deficiency and HRD in context of work capacity of women and children. Food grain productivity and food security.
2. Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science Optional Syllabus
Paper I
1. Animal Nutrition:
1.1 Partitioning of food energy within the animal. Direct and indirect calorimetry. Carbon—nitrogen balance and comparative slaughter methods. Systems for expressing energy value of foods in ruminants, pigs and poultry. Energy requirements for maintenance, growth, pregnancy, lactation, egg, wool, and meat production.
1.2 Latest advances in protein nutrition. Energy protein inter-relationships. Evaluation of protein quality. Use of NPN compounds in ruminant diets. Protein requirements for maintenance, growth, pregnancy, lactation, egg, wool and meat production.
1.3 Major and trace minerals—Their sources, physiological functions and deficiency symptoms. Toxic minerals. Mineral interactions. Role of fatsoluble and water—soluble vitamins in the body, their sources and deficiency symptoms.
1.4 Feed additives—methane inhibitors, probiotics, enzymes, antibiotics, hormones, oligosaccharides, antioxidants, emulsifiers, mould inhibitors, buffers etc. Use and abuse of growth promoters like harmones and antibiotics—latest concepts.
1.5 Conservation of fodders. Storage of feeds and feed ingredients. Recent advances in feed technology and feed processing. Anti-nutritional and toxic factors present in livestock feeds. Feed analysis and quality control. Digestibility trials—direct, indirect and indicator methods. Predicting feed intake in grazing animals.
1.6 Advances in ruminant nutrition. Nutrient requirements. Balanced rations. Feeding of calves, pregnant, work animals and breeding bulls. Strategies for feeding milch animals during different stages of lactation cycle. Effect of feeding on milk composition. Feeding of goats for meat and milk production. Feeding of sheep for meat and wool production.
1.7 Swine Nutrition. Nutrient requirements. Creep, starter, grower and finisher rations. Feeding of pigs for lean meat production. Low cost rations for swine.
1.8 Poultry nutrition. Special features of poultry nutrition. Nutrient requirements for meat and egg production. Formulation of rations for different classes of layers and broilers.
2. Animal Physiology:
2.1 Physiology of blood and its circulation, respiration; excretion. Endocrine glands in health and disease.
2.2 Blood constituents.—Properties and functions-blood cell formation—Haemoglobin synthesis and chemistryplasma proteins production, classification and properties, coagulation of blood; Haemorrhagic disorders— anti-coagulants—blood groups—Blood volume—Plasma expanders-Buffer systems in blood. Biochemical tests and their significance in disease diagnosis.
2.3 Circulation.—Physiology of heart, cardiac cycle, heart sounds, heart beat, electrocardiograms. Work and efficiency of heart—effect of ions on heart function-metabolism of cardiac muscle, nervous and chemical regulation of heart, effect of temperature and stress on heart, blood pressuer and hypertension, osmotic regulation, arterial pulse, vasomotor regulation of circulation, shock. Coronary and pulmonary circulation, Blood-Brain barrier Cerebrospinal fluid-circulation in birds.
2.4 Respiration.—Mechanism of respiration, Transport and exchange of gases-neural control of respiration- Chemo-receptors-hypoxia-respiration in birds.
2.5 Excretion.—Structure and function of kidney-formation of urine-methods of studying renal function-renal regulation of acid-base balance : physiological constituents of urine-renal failure-passive venous congestion-Urinary secretion in chicken-Sweat glands and their function. Bio-chemical test for urinary dysfunction.
2.6 Endocrine glands.—Functional disorders—their symptoms and diagnosis. Synthesis of hormones, mechanism and control of secretion—hormonal receptors-classification and function.
2.7 Growth and Animal Production.—Prenatal and postnatal growth, maturation, growth curves, measures of growth, factors affecting growth, conformation, body composition, meat quality.
2.8 Physiology of Milk Production, Reproduction and Digestion.—Current status of hormonal control of mammary development, milk secretion and milk ejection. Male and Female reproductive organs, their components and functions. Digestive organs and their functions.
2.9 Environmental Physiology.—Physiological relations and their regulation; mechanisms of adaptation, environmental factors and regulatory mechanisms involved in animal behaviour, climatology—various parameters and their importance. Animal ecology. Physiology of behaviour. Effect of stress on health and production.
3. Animal Reproduction:
Semen quality.—Preservation and Artificial Insemination—Components of semen, composition of spermatozoa, chemical and physical properties of ejaculated semen, factors affecting semen in vivo and in vitro. Factors affecting semen production and quality, preservation, composition of diluents, sperm concentration, transport of diluted semen. Deep freezing techniques in cows, sheep, goats, swine and poultry. Detection of oestrus and time of insemination for better conception. Anoestrus and repeat breeding.
4. Livestock Production and Management:
4.1 Commercial Dairy Farming.—Comparison of dairy farming in India with advanced countries. Dairying under mixed farming and as specialized farming, economic dairy farming. Starting of a dairy farm, Capital and land requirement, organization of the dairy farm. Opportunities in dairy farming, factors determining the efficiency of dairy animal. Heard recording, budgeting cost of milk production, pricing policy; Personnel Management. Developing Practical and Economic rations for dairy cattle; supply of greens throughout the year, feed and fodder requirements of Dairy Farm. Feeding regimes for young stock and bulls, heifers and breeding animals; new trends in feeding young and adult stock; Feeding records.
4.2 Commercial meat, egg and wool production.—Development of practical and economic rations for sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits and poultry. Supply of greens, fodder, feeding regimes for young and mature stock. New trends in enhancing production and management. Capital and land requirements and socio-economic concept.
4.3 Feeding and management of animals under drought, flood and other natural calamities.
5. Genetics and Animal Breeding:
5.1 History of animal genetics. Mitosis and Meiosis : Mendelian inheritance; deviations to Mendelian genetics; Expression of genes; Linkage and crossing over; Sex determination, sex influenced and sex limited characters; Blood groups and polymorphism; Chromosome aberrations; Cytoplasmic inheritance, Gene and its structure; DNA as a genetic material; Genetic code and protein synthesis; Recombinant DNA technology. Mutations, types of mutations, methods for detecting mutations and mutation rate, Transgenesis.
5.2 Population Genetics applied to Animal Breeding—Quantitative Vs. Qualitative traits; Hardy Weinberg Law; Population Vs. Individual; Gene and genotypic frequency; Forces changing gene frequency; Random drift and small populations; Theory of path coefficient; Inbreeding, methods of estimating inbreeding coefficient, systems of inbreeding; Effective population size; Breeding value, estimation of breeding value, dominance and epistatic deviation; Partitioning of variation; Genotype X environment correlation and genotype X environment interaction; role of multiple measurements; Resemblance between relatives.
5.3 Breeding Systems.—Breeds of livestsock and Poultry. Heritability, repeatability and genetic and phenotypic correlations, their methods of estimation and precision of estimates; Aids to selection and their relative merits; Individual, pedigree, family and within family selection; Pregnency testing; Methods of selection; Construction of selection indices and their uses; Comparative evaluation of genetic gains through various selection methods; Indirect selection and correlated response; Inbreeding, out breeding, upgrading, crossbreeding and synthesis of breeds; Crossing of inbred lines for commercial production; Selection for general and specific combining ability; Breeding for threshold characters. Sire index.
6. Extension:
Basic philosophy, objectives, concept and principles of extension. Different Methods adopted to educate farmers under rural conditions. Generation of technology, its transfer and feedback. Problems and constraints in transfer of technology. Animal husbandry programmes for rural development.
Paper II
1. Anatomy, Pharmacology and Hygiene:
1.1 Histology and Histological Techniques : Paraffin embedding technique of tissue processing and H.E. staining—Freezing microtomy—Microscopy Bright field microscope and electron microscope. Cytologystructure of cell organells and inclusions; cell division-cell types—Tissues and their classification-embryonic and adult tissues—Comparative histology of organs—Vascular, Nervous, digestive, respiratory, musculoskeletal and urogenital systems—Endocrine glands—Integuments—sense organs.
1.2 Embryology.—Embryology of vertebrates with special reference to aves and domestic mammals gametogenesis-fertilization-germ layers-foetal membranes and placentation-types of placenta in domestic mammals-Teratology-twins and twinning-organogenesis-germ layer derivatives-endodermal, mesodermal and ectodermal derivatives.
1.3 Bovine Anatomy.—Regional Anatomy : Paranasal sinuses of OX— surface anatomy of salivary glands. Regional anatomy of infraorbital, maxillary, mandi-buloalveolar, mental and cornnal nerve block. Regional anatomy of paravertebral nerves, pudental nerve, median, ulnar and radial nervestibial, fibular and digital nerves—Cranial nerves-structures involved in epidural anaesthesia-superficial lymph nodes-surface anatomy of visceral organs of thoracic, abdominal and pelvic cavities-comparative-features of locomotor apparatus and their application in the biomechanics of mammalian body.
1.4 Anatomy of Fowl.—Musculo-skeletal system-functional anatomy in relation to respiration and flying, digestion and egg production.
1.5 Pharmacology and therapeutics drugs.—Cellular level of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics. Drugs acting on fluids and electrolyte balance. Drugs acting on Autonomic nervous system. Modern concepts of anaesthesia and dissociative anaesthetics. Autocoids. Antimicrobials and principles of chemotherapy in microbial infections. Use of hormones in therapeutics—chemotherapy of parasitic infections. Drug and economic concerns in the Edible tissues of animals—chemotherapy of Neoplastic diseases. Toxicity due to―insecticides, plants, metals, non-metals, zootoxins and mycotoxinsǁ.
1.6 Veterinary Hygiene with reference to water, air and habitation.—Assessment of pollution of water, air and soil—Importance of climate in animal health—effect of environment on animal function and performance relationship between industrialisation and animal agriculture—animal housing requirements for specific categories of domestic animals viz. pregnant cows and sows, milking cows, broiler birds—stress, strain and productivity in relation to animal habitation.
2. Animal Diseases:
2.1 Etiology, epidemiology pathogenesis, symptoms, post-moretem lesions, diagnosis, and control of infectious diseases of cattle, sheep and goat, horses, pigs and poultry.
2.2 Etiology, epidemiology, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment of production diseases of cattle, horse, pig and poultry.
2.3 Deficiency diseases of domestic animals and birds.
2.4 Diagnosis and treatment of non-specific conditions like impaction, Bloat, Diarrhoea, Indigestion, dehydration, stroke, poisioning.
2.5 Diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders.
2.6 Principles and methods of immunisation of animals against specific diseases—hard immunity—disease free zones—‗zero‘ disease concept—chemoprophylaxis.
2.7 Anaesthesia.—local, regional and general-prenesthetic medication. Symptoms and surgical interference in fractures and dislocation. Hernia, choking abomassal displacement—Caesarian operations. Rumenotomy—Castrations.
2.8 Disease investigation techniques.—Materials for laboratory investigation—Establishment. Animal Health Centres—Disease free zone.
3. Veterinary Public Health:
3.1 Zoonoses.—Classification, definition, role of animals and birds in prevalence and transmission of zoonotic diseases—occupational zoonotic diseases.
3.2 Epidemiology.—Principle, definition of epidemiological terms, application of epidemiological measures in the study of diseases and disease control. Epidemiological features of air, water and food borne infections. OIE regulation, WTO, sanitary and phytosanitary measures.
3.3 Veterinary Jurisprudence.—Rules and Regulations for improvement of animal quality and prevention of animal diseases—State and Central Rules for prevention of animal and animal product borne diseases—S.P. C.A.—Veterolegal cases—Certificates—Materials and Methods of collection of samples for veterolegal investigation.
4. Milk and Milk Products Technology :
4.1 Market Milk.—Quality, testing and grading of raw milk. Processing, packaging, storing, distribution, marketing defects and their control. Preparation of the following milks : Pasteurized, standardized, toned, double toned, sterilized, homogenized, reconstituted, recombined and flavoured milks. Preparation of cultured milks, cultures and their management, yoghurt, Dahi, Lassi and Srikhand. Preparation of flavoured and sterilized milks. Legal standards. Sanitation requirement for clean and safe milk and for the milk plant equipment.
4.2 Milk Products Technology.—Selection of raw materials, processing, storing, distributing and marketing milk products such as Cream, Butter, Ghee, Khoa, Channa, Cheese, condensed, evaporated, dried milk and baby food, lce cream and Kulfi; by-products, whey products, butter milk, lactose and casein. Testing, grading, judging milk products—BIS and Agmark specifications, legal standards, quality control nutritive properties. Packaging processing and operational control. Costing of dairy products.
5. Meat Hygiene and Technology:
5.1 Meat Hygiene
5.1.1 Ante mortem care and management of food animals, stunning, slaughter and dressing operations; abattoir requirements and designs; Meat inspection procedures and judgement of carcass meat cuts—grading of carcass meat cuts—duties and functions of Veterinarians in wholesome meat production.
5.1.2 Hygienic methods of handling production of meat.—Spoilage of meat and control measures—Postslaughter physicochemical changes in meat and factors that influence them—Quality improvement methods—Adulteration of meat and detection—Regulatory provisions in Meat trade and Industry.
5.2 Meat Technology
5.2.1 Physical and chemical characteristics of meat.—Meat emulsions—Methods of preservation of meat— Curing, canning, irradiation, packaging of meat and meat products, processing and formulations.
5.3 By-products.—Slaughter house by-products and their utilisation—Edible and inedible by products—Social and economic implications of proper utilisation of slaughter house by-products—Organ products for food and pharmaceuticals.
5.4 Poultry Products Technology.—Chemical composition and nutritive value of poultry meat, pre- slaughter care and management. Slaughtering techniques, inspection, preservation of poultry meat and products. Legal and BIS standards. Structure composition and nutritive value of eggs Microbial spoilage. Preservation and maintenance. Marketing of poultry meat, eggs and products.
5.5 Rabbit/Fur Animal farming.—Rabbit meat production. Disposal and utilization of fur and wool and recycling of waste by products. Grading of wool.