Preparation guide for Economic & Social Issues – RBI Grade B Phase II 2017

One
of the most important sections of the RBI Grade B Phase II exam is the Economic & Social Issues (ESI)
section. The ESI tests candidate’s knowledge about Economic & Social
Concepts.

In
the following article, find the syllabus,
resources, and guideline
to approach the ESI section for your preparation:
What you should study?
Economics
Growth
and development
  • Measurement of growth: National income and per capita income
  • Poverty alleviation and employment generation in India
  • Sustainable Development and Environmental issues
Economic
reforms in India
  • Industrial and Labor policy
  • Monetary and Fiscal policy
  • Privatization
  • Role of Economic Planning
Globalization
  • Opening up of the Indian Economy
  • Balance of Payments
  • Export-import policy
  • International Economic Institutions
  • IMF and World Bank
  • WTO
  • Regional Economic Co-operation
Social Issues
Social
Structures in India
  • Multiculturalism
  • Demographic Trends
  • Urbanization and Migration
  • Gender Issues
  • Social Justice: Positive Discrimination in favor of the under
    privileged
  • Social Movements
  • Indian Political system
  • Human development
  • Social sectors in India: Health & Education
Economics: Order according to weightage given [2016]
  • Sustainable development and environmental issues
  • Monetary and fiscal policy
  • Growth and development
  • Regional Economic cooperation
  • Export and import policy
  • IMF and World Bank
  • Industrial and labor policy
  • HRD
  • Poverty alleviation
  • Role of economic planning
  • Opening up of Indian economy
  • WTO
  • Balance of payment
Social: Order according to weightage given [2016]
  • Social justice
  • Social sectors
  • Demographic trends
  • Multiculturalism
  • Social Movements
  • Urbanization & Migration
  • Human development
  • Indian political system
  • Gender issues
Note: Since the Exam can be unpredictable, it’s
not a good idea to base your preparation on the Previous Year RBI Grade B
question paper analysis alone. If a topic got more weight-age in the 2016,
doesn’t mean that the same topic is going to get similar weight-age in the 2017
exam.
Resources for preparation
After
analyzing last year’s RBI Grade B
question paper
, we found that most of the questions asked in
ESI were from:
  • Economic Survey of India
  • Press Information Bureau
  • Conceptual based (Books)
  • Basic knowledge (NCERT)
  • The Budget Document
  • Newspapers (Current events, factual in nature)
Most
questions were based on facts, figures, numbers, percentages.
Therefore, based on last year’s paper, following are three most important
sources:
  • The Hindu Newspaper
  • The Economic Survey of India
  • The Union Budget
But,
since RBI Grade B is unpredictable, you need to read beyond these sources. To
gain an in-depth understanding, you will need to exploit the other, below
mentioned resources:
Books
  • Indian Economy by Mishra & Puri
  • How to read balance sheet
  • Indian Economy by Uma Kapila
  • How to read cash flow
  • Sociology: C.N. Shankar Rao
  • Growth & Development: Devraj Ray
  • How to analyze financial statements
  • IGNOU B.A. Economy Booklets.
Newspapers
  • The Hindu
  • Economic Times
  • Business Standard
Reports
  • Economic Survey of India
  • RBI’s Annual Report
  • World Development Report
  • Union Budget
Magazines/Bulletins
  • Economic & Political weekly
  • Southern Economist
  • Business India
  • RBI Bulletins
  • Yojana
News channels
Listen to views of Economic experts
Others
  • Sample question papers by RBI (to get idea of both the nature
    & the difficulty level)
  • FAQ Section of the RBI website
  • Investopedia Website
Don’t be intimidated
by the above-mentioned sources. You don’t have to cram the entire books cover
to cover. You have to be selective in your preparation.
The best way to determine what
you need to prepare for, refer to preparation material prepared by the experts
from industry and exam toppers. This is where the RBI Grade B Mock Tests come
in handy. These are created by exam toppers and experts who have extensive knowledge about the exam,
its pattern and syllabus.
Mock tests:
  • Familiarize you with the difficulty level, the nature &
    pattern of the question paper
  • Help you determine what you need to prepare for the exam so you
    can do selective reading
  • Determine your speed & accuracy
  • Identify your strengths & weaknesses
Approach
ESI
Preparation can be divided into:
  • Static section: Conceptual understanding of ESI concepts
  • Dynamic section: Current affairs related to ESI
Static Preparation
If
you have studied Economics as a subject in the past, refer to your textbooks
and notes.
If
you’re new to Economics, refer to NCERT Economy textbooks of 10th,
11th and 12th grades and Day to Day Economics by Satish
Deodhar to brush up your basics.
Learn
concepts like National income, Development
and growth, NITI Aayog, Planning Commission, Role of Govt. of India, Taxation,
Inflation, Repo rate Budget, Bank Rates, Fiscal/Revenue Deficits, Banking &
Finance sector of India etc.
After
basics move on to the more difficult concepts, refer to books like Indian
Economy by Uma Kapila and read summaries of The Economic survey, Union budget and
refer to RBI website’s FAQ section.
Social:
Pick up topics from newspapers and exploit the internet for deeper
understanding or the topics. Also read summaries of caste census, latest census
and socio-economic census.
Dynamic Preparation
For
dynamic part of the preparation, refer to magazines Yojana and newspapers like
the Economic Times & The Hindu. Be thorough with the current affairs
(Economic and Social issues related) of the last 1 year. Pay close attention to
facts & figures as a lot of questions can be factual.
Learn
the various social sector schemes and welfare programs for social.
You can download & use the
above as a handy guide to prepare for your ESI of RBI Grade B Phase II Exam.
We wish you all the very best!

This post was last modified on November 27, 2017 8:52 am