Geography Of India

1. Physical Setting:

• Space relationship of India with neighboring countries;
• Structure and relief;
• Drainage system and watersheds;
• Physiographic regions;
• Mechanism of Indian monsoons and rainfall patterns,
• Tropical cyclones and western disturbances;
• Floods and droughts;
• Climatic regions;
• 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 factors: land holdings, land tenure and land reforms;
• Cropping pattern,
• agricultural productivity,
• agricultural intensity,
• crop combination,
• land capability;
• Agro and social-forestry;
• Green revolution and its socio- economic and ecological implications;
• Significance of dry farming;
• Livestock resources and white revolution;
• Aqua – culture;
• sericulture,
• apiculture and poultry;
• agricultural regionalisation; agro-climatic zones; agroecological 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;
• Industrial houses and complexes including public sector undertakings;
• Industrial regionalisation;
• New industrial policies;
• Multinationals and liberalization;
• Special Economic Zones;
• Tourism including eco – tourism.

5. Transport, Communication and Trade:

• Road, railway, waterway, airway and pipeline networks and their complementary roles in regional development;
• Growing importance of ports on national and foreign trade;
• Trade balance;
• Trade Policy;
• Export processing zones;
• Developments in communication and information technology 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;
• major tribes, tribal areas and their problems;
• cultural regions;
• Growth, distribution and density of population;
• Demographic attributes: sex-ratio, age structure, literacy rate, work-force, dependency ratio, longevity;
• migration (inter-regional, intra- regional and international) and associated problems;
• Population problems and policies;
• Health indicators.

7. Settlements:

• Types, patterns and morphology of rural settlements;
• Urban developments;
• Morphology of Indian cities;
• Functional classification of Indian cities;
• Conurbations and metropolitan regions;
• urban sprawl;
• Slums and associated problems;
• town planning;
• Problems of urbanization and remedies.

8. Regional Development and Planning:

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

9. Political Aspects:

• Geographical basis of Indian federalism;
• State reorganisation;
• Emergence of new states;
• Regional consciousness and inter state issues;
• international boundary of India and related issues;
• Cross border terrorism;
• India’s role in world affairs; Geopolitics of South Asia and Indian Ocean realm.

10. Contemporary Issues:

• Ecological issues:
  • Environmental hazards:
    • landslides,
    • earthquakes,
    • Tsunamis,
    • floods and droughts,
    • epidemics;
• Issues relating to environmental pollution;
• Changes in patterns of land use;
• Principles of environmental impact assessment and environmental management;
• Population explosion and food security;
• Environmental degradation;
  • Deforestation,
  • desertification and
  • soil erosion;
• Problems of agrarian and industrial unrest;
• Regional disparities in economic development;
• Concept of sustainable growth and development;
• Environmental awareness;
• Linkage of rivers;
• Globalisation and Indian economy.

NOTE: Candidates will be required to answer one compulsory map question pertinent to subjects covered by this paper.