How to Read the Newspaper for UPSC

UPSC does not name a newspaper, and we don't rank them. What the syllabus asks for, in the first line of the prelims syllabus, is "Current events of national and international importance", and in the mains and the interview, an understanding of the issues behind them. Read the news with that in mind.

This guide ties newspaper reading to the syllabus, adds the Government's own sources, and suggests a daily method. The syllabus and sources are official; the method is our advice.

What the syllabus asks you to follow

• Prelims. Current events come first in Paper I, and news stories touch the other lines too, from polity to environment.
• Mains. GS II covers government policies and their implementation, welfare schemes, India's relations with its neighbours and the world, and international institutions. GS III covers the economy, government budgeting, science and technology, environment and internal security. These are the pages of a newspaper, organised by syllabus.
• Interview. The notice says candidates are expected to take an intelligent interest in events around them, within and outside their own state and country, and in new ideas and discoveries.

The notice also says the mains tests your ability to analyse and take a view on conflicting socio-economic goals. That is why reading for the issue behind a story matters more than reading for the story.

What to read

• One newspaper, read every day. Choose any national daily you can read regularly. Read it in the language you will write the exam in; the notice lets you answer every paper except the language papers in English or any language of the Eighth Schedule.
• The Press Information Bureau (pib.gov.in). The Government's own releases: ministry announcements, Cabinet decisions, and the Research Unit's backgrounders, factsheets and explainers. Use it to check the facts behind a news report.
• The Government's documents. The Economic Survey and the Union Budget documents on indiabudget.gov.in for the economy, and the ministries' own websites for the detail of a scheme or policy.
• The Publications Division's journals. Yojana, a development monthly, and Kurukshetra, on rural development, are published by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

The full list is in the UPSC booklist.

A daily method

1. Scan the headlines and sort. For each story, ask which syllabus line it belongs to. If the answer is none, and it has no lasting significance, move on.
2. Read the stories that fit, for the issue. Find the background, the facts, the people and institutions involved, the arguments on each side, and what is proposed.
3. Separate facts from opinions. News reports carry facts; editorials and opinion pieces carry arguments. Use the second for perspectives in your answers, never as a source of facts.
4. Check the facts at the source. Before you note a scheme's name, a figure or a date, check it in the PIB release or the ministry's document.
5. Note by syllabus heading, not by date. Keep one set of notes organised by the syllabus. Add each item under its heading in a few lines, with the date and the source.
6. Revise weekly and monthly. Short weekly revision keeps the notes alive; a monthly pass joins related stories into one issue.

Making the notes work for each stage

• For the prelims: facts that can become a multiple-choice question, such as institutions, schemes, reports, places and terms.
• For the mains: issues, arguments and examples, with one or two facts to support each.
• For the interview: current issues in your home state and your field, and your own considered view on the major ones.

Keeping it in proportion

There is no official time to spend on the newspaper, and we don't set one. A useful check: if newspaper reading is crowding out your work on the static syllabus or your optional, you are reading too much of it, or reading it too slowly. Sorting by the syllabus first, as above, is the quickest way to cut it down.