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Indian polity and governance

Counts for 22 exams in this list (see the overlap map). Prepare it once.

What it covers

  • Constitution: making, Preamble, salient features, Schedules, citizenship
  • Fundamental Rights, Fundamental Duties, Directive Principles of State Policy
  • Union and state executive, legislature, judiciary; Union Territories; federalism and Centre–State relations
  • Local government (73rd/74th amendments, Panchayat Raj), elections, parties and pressure groups, constitutional and statutory bodies (Election Commission, CAG, CVC)
  • Governance: amendments, civil services, RTI, Lokpal and Lokayukta, e-governance, welfare schemes and current polity issues

Depth by exam family

Family What the exam rewards
UPSC CSE, IFoS Factual recall in Prelims; applied, governance-linked answers in Mains
UPSC CAPF, CDS, EPFO Objective, screening-level polity inside GK and current-events papers
State PSCs (TNPSC, UKPSC checked below) Prelims factual like UPSC; Mains descriptive polity plus the state's own polity

Official syllabi checked

Where it counts

Family Exams
UPSC UPSC CAPF (Assistant Commandant), UPSC Civil Services (CSE), UPSC Combined Defence Services (CDS), UPSC EPFO (EO/AO, APFC), UPSC Indian Forest Service (IFoS)
State PSC civil services APPSC Group 1, APSC Combined Competitive Examination (Assam), BPSC Combined Competitive Examination, CGPSC State Service Examination, GPSC Class 1–2 (Gujarat), HPSC HCS (Haryana Civil Services), JPSC Combined Civil Services, KPSC KAS (Karnataka Administrative Service), MPPSC State Service Examination, MPSC State Services (Rajyaseva), OPSC Odisha Civil Services, RPSC RAS/RTS, TGPSC (Telangana) Group 1, TNPSC Group 1, UKPSC Combined State Civil Services, UPPSC PCS (Combined State/Upper Subordinate Services), WBCS (West Bengal Civil Service)

Free resources

How to practise

Read the actual Articles for every topic; link each to a current event.