UPSC Prelims 2019 Question Topics – 100 Areas from which UPSC Framed Questions This Year

Are there any favourite areas for the UPSC? What were the UPSC Prelims 2019 question topics?

UPSC Civil Services Examination (popularly known as IAS exam) is widely considered as the toughest exam in India.

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) is entrusted with the job of preparing questions for the Civil Services Exam (CSE).

From which areas did UPSC frame questions for this year IAS exam?

What does UPSC try to find out in the ‘right candidate’ – for the jobs like IAS, IPS, or IFS?

Are there clues left by UPSC for aspirants preparing for UPSC 2020?

Here are the question areas from which UPSC asked the 100 questions in Prelims 2019.

UPSC Prelims 2019 Question Topics – 100 Areas

1. Jagirdar and Zamindar – Mughal Rule  – Medieval India.
2. Land reforms in independent India – India Since Independence.
3. Global Competitiveness Report – Current Affairs/General Awareness.
4. Charter Act of 1813 – Modern India.
5. Swadeshi Movement – Freedom Struggle – Modern India.
6. Movement/Organization Leader – Freedom Struggle – Modern India.
7. Harappan site – Ancient India.
8. Ashoka Sculpture inscriptions – Ancient India.
9. Mahayana Buddhism – Ancient India/Culture.
10. Gupta period forced labour (Vishti) – Ancient India.
11. Kalyaana Mandapas – Medieval India/Culture.
12. Delhi Sultanate – Medieval India.
13. Saints and Contemperories – Medieval India/Culture.
14. Mahatma Gandhi and British Colonial Rule – Freedom Struggle – Modern India.
15. Person: Position – Freedom Struggle – Modern India.
16. Mian Tansen – Medieval India/Culture.
17. Mughal Emperors Portrait – Medieval India/Culture.
18. National Park in the temperate alpine zone – Geography.
19. Atal Innovation Mission – Current Affairs/Schemes.
20.  21st June – Summer Solstice – Geography.
21. ‘New World’ vs ‘Old World’ Plants – History.
22. Animals Found in India – Biodiversity.
23. Famous place River – Geography.
24. Poverty lines – Geography.
25. Cirrus cloud thinning technique and the injection of sulphate aerosol into the stratosphere – Global Warming – Climate Change.
26. Pyrolysis and plasma gasification – Waste to Energy – Science and Technology/General Awareness.
27. Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve – Geography/Environment.
28. Species/Herbivores/Viviparous – Biodiversity.
29. Wildlife Naturally found – Biodiversity.
30. Microbeads – Environment/General Awareness.
31. Importance of Himalayan nettle (Girardinia diversifolia) – Biodiversity/General Awareness.
32. Satellite images/remote sensing data – Science and Technology.
33. Percentage of forest cover to the total area of State – Geography.
34. Deposits of ‘methane hydrate’ – Climate change/General Awareness.
35. Burning of crop/biomass residue – Environment.
36. Sea Bordering country – Maps – Geography
37. The largest exporter of rice in the world – Geography
38. Glacier River – Geography
39. Methyl parathion, phorate and triazophos – Current Affairs/General Awareness
40. Ramsar Convention – Wetlands – Environment
41. Gases released into the environment – Environment
42. Places known as Aliyar, Isa pur and Kangsabati – Geography
43. Hydrogen-enriched CNG (H-CNG) – Current Affairs/General Awareness
44. Dewdrops – cloudy night – Geography
45. Constitutional Amendments/Judgments – Indian Polity
46. Impeachment of a Judge of the Supreme Court of India – Indian Polity
47. Ninth Schedule – Indian Polity
48. CoaI sector – Economy/General Awareness
49. Office of Profit – Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959 – Indian Polity
50. Tribal land – Schedule of the Constitution of India – Indian Indian Polity.
51. Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India – Indian Indian Polity/General Awareness.
52. Constitutional powers under Article 142 – Indian Indian Polity
53. Legislative Assembly of a State in India – Indian Indian Polity
54. United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) -Current Affairs/General Awareness
55. Minor Forest Produce – Indian Forest Act, 1927 and Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest
    Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 – Environment/Current Affairs
56. Article of the Constitution of India – Right to marry – Indian Indian Polity
57. Indian Patents Act – Patenting process in India – Science and Technology/Current Affairs
58. The Environment Protection Act, 1986 – Environment.
59. Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016 – Current Affairs/General Awareness
60. Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Central (Amendment) Rules, 2018 – Current Affairs/General Awareness
61. Services Area Approach – Indian Economy
62. Minor minerals in India – Indian Economy
63. India’s external debt – Indian Economy
64. Assets of a commercial bank in India – Indian Economy
65. The risk of a currency crisis – Indian Economy/Current Affairs
66. Governor – Sarkaria Commission – Indian Indian Polity
67. Foreign portfolio  investors – Participatory Note – Indian Economy/Current Affairs
68. Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 – Environment/General Awareness
69. Review of independent regulators – Indian Indian Polity
70. India’s Five-Year Plans – Indian Economy
71. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) – Current Affairs
72. Inter-Creditor Agreement signed by Indian banks – Indian Economy
73. Chairmen of public sector banks – Bank Boards Bureau – Indian Economy
74. Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) – Indian Economy
75. Differences between LTE (Long-Term Evolution) and VoLTE (Voice over Long-Term Evolution) – Science and Technology/General Awareness
76. Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 – Current Affairs
77. World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business Index” – Current Affairs/General Awareness
78. ‘Extended producer responsibility’ – E-Waste (Management and Handling) Rules, 2011 – Current Affairs
79. The economic cost of food grains to the Food Corporation of India – Indian Economy
80. Social capital – Indian Polity/General Awareness
81. Constitution of India – Amendment – High court – Indian Polity
82. Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) – Economics.
83. Cultivation of Kharif crop in India – Geography
84. The highest imports in terms of value – Economics/Geography
85. Definition of liberty – Indian Polity/General Awareness
86. The slide of the Indian rupee – Economics/Current Affairs
87. Storage of Payment System Data or data diktat – Current Affairs
88. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – Current Affairs
89. Action Plan for Prioritization and Implementation of Cooperation Areas in the Nuclear Field – Current Affairs
90. Money Multiplier Economics
91. Digital technologies for entertainment – Augmented Reality vs Virtual Reality – Science and Technology
92. Denisovan – Science and Technology
93. Recent developments in science – chromosome/DNA – Science and Technology
94. Digital signature – Science and Technology
95. Wearable technology – Science and Technology
96. ‘RNA interference (RNAi)’ technology – Science and Technology
97. The Merger of giant ‘blackholes’ – gravitational waves – Science and Technology
98. Multi-drug resistance in microbial pathogens – Science and Technology
99. Cas9 protein – Science and Technology
100. Hepatitis B vs HIV – Science and Technology

These are just question areas; not actual questions!

The above mentioned are the question topics or areas. If you need to go through the actual questions, refer the link – UPSC Civil Services Preliminary Exam 2019 Question Paper.

22 Marks worth questions were from the topic ‘Important Acts’

11 Questions (worth 22 marks) were directly connected with Acts enacted by the Indian Parliament. There is no surprise in this because UPSC expects future Civil Servants to be knowledgeable about the important Acts/Bills/Rules etc.

However, we are not sure if aspirants or coaching institutes noticed this.

Unconventional Questions

The 2019 UPSC Prelims General Studies Paper 1 Question Paper was unconventional. Many found most of the questions in this paper difficult to answer. The same was the case with 2018 paper – even though there were differences in question areas and priorities.

If you ask us our opinion about UPSC CSE Prelims 2019, we would say – we loved this paper.

Of course, some questions can be improved or avoided. However, there are a lot of questions which are of interest to a well-educated youth.

And, many of the questions areas were already covered in ClearIAS Prelims Test Series, benefitting enrolled users of ClearIAS Prelims 2019 Program.

Are the above question areas totally unfamiliar to you?

If you are a casual visitor on this website, or if you are totally new to UPSC Test Preparation, probably 90% of the questions asked by UPSC in Civil Services Exam (Prelims) 2019 may look alien to you.

That’s Okay!

Everyone cannot know everything. Particularly, if you are not a UPSC aspirant.

However, if you are a UPSC aspirant, you are supposed to know more.

What does UPSC expect from aspirants? Know everything under the Sun?

NO!

That’s not the expectation of UPSC.

The expectation and requirements of UPSC are different.

ClearIAS clearly know what UPSC expect from a candidate. However, as this post is already lengthy, we are not adding insights about UPSC requirements here. We will be creating a new post with more analysis of the UPSC Prelims paper in the coming days.

Re-think: Is your preparation in the right direction?

Despite spending lakhs of rupees at coaching institutes, if you are unable to clear Prelims time and again, it’s time to re-think.

Is it your fault or the fault of the method adopted by your institution?

Are the methods of teaching adopted by most coaching institutes (and some popular websites) still relevant for UPSC?

Are the teachers adapting themselves to the new trends set by UPSC?

Do they have a clear understanding of the new (and constantly changing) priorities of the UPSC?

See how ClearIAS adapted and delivered!

We don’t want to comment on others at this point, we just want our performance to do the talk.

Here are a few comments of our happy users after UPSC Prelims 2019.

100+ Marks worth UPSC Prelims 2019 questions could have been easily answered from ClearIAS Resources!

Download as PDF – ClearIAS 2019 Questions vs UPSC 2019 Questions

More than 100+ marks worth questions could have been easily answered (enough to clear the cut-off score in UPSC Prelims 2019), had any aspirants seriously prepared just from the below (three) sources.

• ClearIAS Prelims Test Series (40 exams = 4000 questions)
• ClearIAS Current Affairs Capsules (Monthly MCQs = 1000 questions)
• ClearIAS Most Probable Questions (Daily MCQs =500 questions)

Learning/practising these questions wouldn’t have taken much time of yours.

In the UPSC exam hall, you are supposed to attempt 100 questions in 2 hours.

In that sense, to cover 1000 questions, all you need is 20 hours.

To cover 5000 questions, you just need 100 hours (less than a week; a week is 7*24 hours = 168 hours).

Just allotting 8 hours per day for UPSC prep, you can finish all the above sources in less than 2 weeks!

Yes, you need to revise the sources again to remember. We always advise that as well. Still, UPSC Test Prep is not as hard as you imagine – if you have ClearIAS along your side!

Conclusion

My intention of creating this long post is not to mention that the entire UPSC Test Preparation can be done is less than 2 weeks time. I was just pointing our that practising 5000+ questions will not take much time of yours.

You need to practise more and more questions to be well versed with multiple question areas. You should integrate your learning with test-taking. That’s the best and most-effective strategy to score high marks.

As clear from the above 100 question areas, IAS preparation now requires extensive knowledge, wide reading, good practise, and a positive frame of mind.

Only if your preparation is based on the right resources, you can now succeed in the UPSC exams.

Knowledge is important; however equally important is your analytical thinking.

Master ClearIAS Intelligent Elimination Techniques and develop your analytical thinking.

Practise quality mock exams.

Seek the right advice.

Gain insights from mentors who keenly observe the changing priorities and pattern of UPSC.

Yes, in the UPSC Test Prep, one brand you can trust is ClearIAS. Clear IAS!