Geography

Decoding the Syllabus

The exam notification says:

Indian and World Geography - Physical, Social and Economic Geography of India and the World.

Thus the syllabus has two components:

1. World Geography - Physical, Social and Economic
2. Indian Geography - Physical, Social and Economic

Your study schedule should ideally have the above divisions. This will allow you to create a checklist to go through so that you can set your targets accordingly

Now, you must learn to sub-categorize the syllabus. A good way is to follow the table of contents given in the NCERTs. The World Geography syllabus is given below:

World Geography

Physical Geography

Geomorphology

1. Earth in the Solar system
2. Latitude, Longitude and Time Zones
3. Structure of the Interior of the Earth
4. Continental Drift, Plate Tectonics – Plates, Pacific Rim of Fire, Volcanic and Earthquake belts of the World
5. Landforms - Mountains (Block and Fold), Plateaus, Plains
6. Major Drainage basins

Oceanography

1. Features of ocean bottom reliefs, Oceans, inland lakes and seas
2. Temperature and salinity of water bodies
3. Ocean currents of the Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean (Winter and Summer), Ocean bottom resources - Polymetallic nodules, Ferromanganese crusts
4. Tides and related affects
5. Coral reefs
6. Marine Pollution

Climatology

1. Structure of the atmosphere
2. Heat budget
3. Meridional circulation
4. Planetary and Local winds
5. Rainfall types
6. Fronts and temperate cyclones, Tropical cyclones
7. El Nino, La Nina, Walker circulation, Southern oscillation
8. Climatic regions of the world

Since Environment and biodiversity are separate topics in the syllabus parts of Environmental geography and Biogeography are best covered under those sub-headings. This will allow you to cover current affairs in detail as well.

Social geography

Under World geography, social geography is rarely covered. It is thus advised that you prepare current affairs related topics on:

1. Demographic changes
2. Population distribution and future trends
3. Migration - voluntary and forced (including refugee issues)
4. Annual publications of UN Population Fund
5. Review of SDG progress

Economic Geography

1. Food resource distribution (can be interlinked with climatic regions under Physical geography)
2. Non-energy mineral resource distribution
3. Energy resource distribution (coal, uranium, thorium, wind, solar, tidal and geothermal)
4. Location of major ports, trading centres, financial centres and other places of economic significance in current affairs

This covers the syllabus sub-categorisation for world geography. Similarly a breakup of the Indian geography syllabus can be done. A good way is to use the table of contents of the NCERTs which ideally divide the syllabus along logical lines. Here is how we divide the Indian geography syllabus:

1. Physiographic divisions of India
2. Drainage systems
3. Climate of India (including climatic regions), Vegetation
4. Soils
5. Disasters and Geophysical phenomenon like Earthquakes and Tsunamis
6. Population : distribution, demographics, major tribal groups (focus on current affairs)
7. Agricultural resources - food crops, non-food crops, cattle and other biological resources
8. Mineral resources of India (with mapping)
9. Energy resources of India (with maps)
10. Major Industries and industrial regions
11. Transport: Road, rail, air, water (major routes and projects)

Always have an atlas at hand while studying Geography. It is a map-based subject. To be able to understand it you must have a good knowledge of the map. In fact, in the civil services preliminary examination, there were several questions from maps, especially for India.