Kerala KAS

Paper I: General Studies-I (100 marks, 100 questions, 90 minutes)

• (A) History (India and Kerala): Ancient and Medieval India — salient features and major landmarks; art, culture, literature and architecture; major dynasties, administrative system, social/religious/economic conditions, prominent movements. Modern India (18th century to present) — significant events, personalities and issues; struggle for independence; social and religious reform movements (19th-20th century); India after independence, consolidation and reorganisation; Independent India and her neighbours. Kerala history (18th century onwards) — pre-independence socio-political movements; formation of Kerala State; political parties, movements, governments; landmark legislations and policies
• (B) History of the World (from mid 18th century): Industrial revolution; World wars; redrawing of national boundaries; colonialisation and decolonialisation; globalisation; communism, capitalism, socialism — their forms and effects in society
• (C) Cultural Heritage of Kerala: Art forms, literature, sculpture, architecture, salient features of society; Kerala tribal culture, pilgrimage, tourist places, folk culture, cinema, theatre; history and evolution of Malayalam language and literature
• (D) Indian Constitution, Public Administration, Political System, Governance, Social Justice and International Relations: Salient features of the Constitution; functions and responsibilities of Union and States; Parliament and State Legislatures; federal structure and devolution of power/finances; constitutional authorities; Panchayati Raj, public policy and governance; statutory, regulatory and quasi-judicial bodies; rights issues (human rights, women rights, SC/ST rights, child rights) and important Acts; India's foreign policy, international organisations and treaties; judiciary in India (structure, functions, emergency provisions, constitutional amendments, judicial review, PIL, land revenue laws); fundamental rights, fundamental duties and Directive Principles; principles of administrative law
• (E) Reasoning, Mental Ability and Simple Arithmetic: Logical reasoning and analytical ability; number series; coding-decoding; relations, shapes and subsections; Venn diagram; clock, calendar and age problems; simple arithmetic
• (F) Geography: General geography — solar system, motion of earth, concept of time, seasons, internal structure of earth, major landforms; atmosphere (structure, composition, climate factors, air masses, fronts, disturbances); oceans (physical, chemical, biological characteristics, hydrological disasters, marine and continental resources); physical, social and economic geography of World, India and Kerala; geophysical phenomena — earthquake, tsunami, volcanoes, cyclone, flood, landslides

Paper II: General Studies-II (Part I GS 50 marks + Part II language proficiency 50 marks, 90 minutes)

• (A) Economy and Planning: Indian economy on the eve of independence and in the post-reform period — new economic reforms, NITI Aayog, national income and per capita income, sectoral composition; development under different policy regimes including Five Year Plans. Agriculture sector, land reforms, cropping patterns, irrigation, agricultural finance and marketing, food security and PDS, green revolution, sustainable/organic agriculture. Industrial policy, public sector enterprises, industrialization patterns, small-scale sector, SEZs, foreign investment, competition policy, e-commerce, effects of liberalisation. Infrastructure — water supply and sanitation, energy and power, S&T, rural and urban infrastructure, ports, roads, airports, railways, telecom, dams, inland waterways, social impact assessment. Population trends, poverty and inequality, unemployment, development indicators (PQLI, HDI, HPI, GDI). Public finance — government budgeting, tax system, public expenditure, debt, deficit, subsidies, Centre-State financial relations, fiscal and monetary policy, banking and NBFI reforms, GST, stock exchange. India's foreign trade and balance of payments. Kerala economy — overview, population, agriculture, industry, service sector, infrastructure and resources, developmental projects/programmes/schemes, cooperative sector, traditional industries, IT sector, pravasi and foreign remittance. Kerala model development — land reforms, social security, devolution of power, decentralised planning, housing, tourism, women empowerment, social welfare schemes, disaster management; Kerala Planning Board; achievements in health and education
• (B) Science and Technology: Nature and scope of S&T, national policy on S&T and innovations, everyday science, human body, public health and community medicine, food and nutrition, health care; Indian S&T institutions and prominent Indian scientists. ICT — nature and scope, ICT in daily life and industry, ICT and governance, e-governance programmes and services, netiquettes, cyber security and national cyber crime policy, MIS, artificial intelligence, robotics. Space and defence — evolution of Indian space programme, ISRO activities and achievements, satellite programmes, DRDO vision/mission/activities. Energy — India's energy needs and deficit, energy resources, renewable and non-renewable resources, energy policy, energy security and nuclear policy. Environmental science — issues and concerns, legal aspects/policies/treaties, sustainable development, biodiversity, climate change, Western Ghats, forest and wildlife conservation law, environmental hazards, pollution, carbon emission, global warming, national action plans on climate change and disaster management, biotechnology, green technology, nanotechnology
• (C) Current Events: Important events from national and international current affairs
• (D) Language Proficiency — English: Tenses, synonyms, antonyms, phrasal verbs, error correction, adjectives, adverbs, reported speech, active/passive voice, auxiliary verbs, question tags, degrees of comparison, punctuation, idioms and phrases, simple/compound/complex sentences, connectives, prepositional verbs, prepositions, concord, pronouns (9 types), word order and sentence order
• (E) Language Proficiency — Malayalam / Kannada / Tamil (candidate's choice): Word/sentence purity, translation, one-word substitution, synonyms, antonyms, idioms and proverbs, gender, number, comprehension

General Studies Paper I (100 marks, 2 hours — Descriptive)

• History (India and Kerala), world history and cultural heritage of Kerala — descriptive treatment of the prelims Paper I sections

General Studies Paper II (100 marks, 2 hours — Descriptive)

• Indian Constitution, public administration, polity, governance, social justice, international relations; reasoning and mental ability — descriptive treatment of the prelims sections

General Studies Paper III (100 marks, 2 hours — Descriptive)

• Economy and planning, science and technology, environment, Kerala model development — descriptive treatment of the prelims Paper II sections