Civil Service Mains Optional GEOGRAPHY

GEOGRAPHY


PAPER - I

PRINCIPLES OF GEOGRAPHY
Physical Geography:

1.  Geomorphology:Factors controlling
landform development; endogenetic and
exogenetic forces; Origin and evolution of
the earth’s crust; Fundamentals of geo-magnetism; Physical conditions of the
earth’s interior; Geosynclines; Continental
drift; Isostasy; Plate tectonics; Recent views
on mountain building; Vulcanicity; Earth-quakes and Tsunamis; Concepts of geo-morphic cycles and Landscape develop-ment ; Denudation chronology; Channel
morphology; Erosion surfaces; Slope de-velopment ; Applied Geomorphology :
Geohydrology, economic geology and en-vironment.

2.  Climatology:Temperature and pressure
belts of the world; Heat budget of the earth;
Atmospheric circulation; atmospheric sta-bility and instability. Planetary and local
winds; Monsoons and jet streams; Air
masses and fronto genesis, Temperate and
tropical cyclones; Types and distribution
of precipitation; Weather and Climate;
Koppen’s, Thornthwaite’s and Trewartha’s
classification of world climates; Hydrologi-cal cycle; Global climatic change and role
and response of man in climatic changes,
Applied climatology and Urban climate.

3. Oceanography:Bottom topography of
the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans;
Temperature and salinity of the oceans;
Heat and salt budgets, Ocean deposits;
Waves, currents and tides; Marine re-sources: biotic, mineral and energy re-sources; Coral reefs, coral bleaching; sea-level changes; law of the sea and marine
pollution.

4. Biogeography:Genesis of soils; Clas-sification and distribution of soils; Soil pro-file; Soil erosion, Degradation and conser-vation; Factors influencing world distribu-tion of plants and animals; Problems of
deforestation and conservation measures;
Social forestry; agro-forestry; Wild life; Ma-jor gene pool centres.

5. Environmental Geography:Principle of
ecology; Human ecological adaptations;
Influence of man on ecology and environ-ment; Global and regional ecological
changes and imbalances; Ecosystem their
management and conservation; Environ-mental degradation, management and
conservation; Biodiversity and sustainable
development; Environmental policy; Envi-ronmental hazards and remedial mea-sures; Environmental education and leg-islation.

Human Geography:
1. Perspectives in Human Geography:
Areal differentiation; regional synthesis; Di-chotomy and dualism; Environmentalism;
Quantitative revolution and locational
analysis; radical, behavioural, human and
welfare approaches; Languages, religions
and secularisation; Cultural regions of the
world; Human development index.

2. Economic Geography:World economic
development: measurement and problems;
World resources and their distribution; En-ergy crisis; the limits to growth; World agri-culture: typology of agricultural regions; ag-ricultural inputs and productivity; Food and
nutrition problems; Food security; famine:
causes, effects and remedies; World indus-tries: locational patterns and problems; pat-terns of world trade.

3. Population and Settlement Geography:
Growth and distribution of world popula-tion; demographic attributes; Causes and
consequences of migration; concepts of
over-under-and optimum population;
Population theories, world population prob-lems and policies, Social well-being and
quality of life; Population as social capital.
Types and patterns of rural settlements;
Environmental issues in rural settlements;
Hierarchy of urban settlements; Urban
morphology: Concepts of primate city and
rank-size rule; Functional classification of
towns; Sphere of urban influence; Rural -urban fringe; Satellite towns; Problems and
remedies of urbanization; Sustainable de-velopment of cities.

4. Regional Planning:Concept of a region;
Types of regions and methods of
regionalisation; Growth centres and
growth poles; Regional imbalances; re-gional development strategies; environ-mental issues in regional planning; Plan-ning for sustainable development.

5. Models, Theories and Laws in Human
Geography:Systems analysis in Human
geography; Malthusian, Marxian and de-mographic transition models; Central
Place theories of Christaller and
Losch;Perroux and Boudeville; Von
Thunen’s model of agricultural location;
Weber’s model of industrial location;
Ostov’s model of stages of growth. Heart-land and Rimland theories; Laws of inter-national boundaries and frontiers.


PAPER – II

GEOGRAPHY OF INDIA

1. Physical Setting:Space relationship of
India with neighboring countries; Structure
and relief; Drainage system and water-sheds; Physiographic regions; Mechanism
of Indian monsoons and rainfall patterns,
Tropical cyclones and western distur-bances; Floods and droughts; Climatic re-gions; Natural vegetation; Soil types and
their distributions.

2. Resources:Land, surface and ground
water, energy, minerals, biotic and marine
resources; Forest and wild life resources
and their conservation; Energy crisis.

3. Agriculture:Infrastructure: irrigation,
seeds, fertilizers, power; Institutional fac-tors: land holdings, land tenure and land
reforms; Cropping pattern, agricultural pro-ductivity, agricultural intensity, crop com-bination, land capability; Agro and social-forestry; Green revolution and its socio-economic and ecological implications; Sig-nificance of dry farming; Livestock re-sources and white revolution; aqua - cul-ture; sericulture, apiculture and poultry; ag-ricultural regionalisation; agro-climatic
zones; agro- ecological regions.

4. Industry:Evolution of industries;
Locational factors of cotton, jute, textile, iron
and steel, aluminium, fertilizer, paper,
chemical and pharmaceutical, automobile,
cottage and agro-based industries; Indus-trial houses and complexes including pub-lic sector undertakings; Industrial regionali-sation; New industrial policies; Multination-als and liberalization; Special Economic
Zones; Tourism including eco -tourism.

5. Transport, Communication and Trade:
Road, railway, waterway, airway and pipe-line networks and their complementary
roles in regional development; Growing
importance of ports on national and for-eign trade; Trade balance; Trade Policy;
Export processing zones; Developments
in communication and information technol-ogy and their impacts on economy and
society; Indian space programme.

6. Cultural Setting:Historical Perspective
of Indian Society; Racial, linguistic and
ethnic diversities; religious minorities; ma-jor tribes, tribal areas and their problems;
cultural regions; Growth, distribution and
density of population; Demographic at-tributes: sex-ratio, age structure, literacy
rate, work-force, dependency ratio, longev-ity; migration (inter-regional, intra- regional
and international) and associated prob-lems; Population problems and policies;
Health indicators.

7. Settlements:Types, patterns and mor-phology of rural settlements; Urban devel-opments; Morphology of Indian cities; Func-tional classification of Indian cities;
Conurbations and metropolitan regions;
urban sprawl; Slums and associated prob-lems; town planning; Problems of urban-ization and remedies.

8. Regional Development and Planning:
Experience of regional planning in India;
Five Year Plans; Integrated rural develop-ment programmes; Panchayati Raj and
decentralised planning; Command area
development; Watershed management;
Planning for backward area, desert,
drought prone, hill, tribal area develop-ment; multi-level planning; Regional plan-ning and development of island territories.

9. Political Aspects:Geographical basis
of Indian federalism; State reorganisation;
Emergence of new states; Regional con-sciousness and inter state issues; interna-tional boundary of India and related issues;
Cross border terrorism; India’s role in world
affairs; Geopolitics of South Asia and In-dian Ocean realm.

10. Contemporary Issues:Ecological is-sues: Environmental hazards: landslides,