The Economic & Social Issues (ESI) is an important section of the RBI Grade B Phase II Examination. It tests a candidate’s knowledge about the Economic & Social concepts (static knowledge) and the various issues related to National & International Economic & Social issues (current affairs). It’s an objective paper carrying 100 marks and duration 90 minutes.
In the following article, we have provided the syllabus, resources & guideline to approach the Economic & Social issues section for your preparation:
What to study?
Following is the syllabus of Economics & Social Issues:
Syllabus of Economics [2021]
- 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
Syllabus of Social Issues [2021]
- 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
Order of Economics topics according to the weight-age given per topic in 2016 exam:
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
Order of Social Issues topics according to the weight-age per topic given in 2019 exam:
Social justice
Social sectors
Demographic trends
Multiculturalism
Social Movements
Urbanization & Migration
Human development
Indian political system
Gender issues
Note: The RBI Grade B Exam can be unpredictable. Therefore, it’s not a good idea to base your preparation on the Previous Year RBI Grade B question paper analysis alone. If a particular topic got more weight-age in the 2016 exam, there is no guarantee that the same topic is going to get similar weight-age in the 2017 exam.
Resources for preparation
After a thorough analysis of last year’s RBI Grade B question paper, we found that most of the questions asked in Economics & Social Issues section were from the following sources:
Economic Survey of India
The Budget Document
Conceptual based (Books)
Basic knowledge (NCERT)
Newspapers (Current events, factual in nature)
Press Information Bureau
Most of the questions were based on facts, figures, numbers, percentages, that are required to be remembered. Therefore, based on last year’s question paper we concluded that the following are three most important sources:
The Hindu Newspaper
The Economic Survey of India
The Union Budget
However, since the RBI Grade B Exam is unpredictable, you need to go beyond these above-mentioned sources. The above-mentioned sources contain the topics and brief description of those topics. To dig deeper into those topics and gain an in-depth understanding, you will need to exploit the other, below mentioned resources:
Books
Indian Economy by Uma Kapila
Indian Economy by Mishra & Puri
Growth & Development: Devraj Ray
Sociology: C.N. Shankar Rao
How to read balance sheet
How to read cash flow
How to analyze financial statements
IGNOU B.A. Economy Booklets.
Reports
Economic Survey of India
World Development Report
Union Budget
RBI’s Annual Report.
Newspapers
Economic Times
The Hindu
Business Standard
Magazines/Bulletins
Economic & Political weekly
Yojana
Pratiyogita Darpan
Southern Economist
Business India
RBI Bulletins
News channels
Listen to views of Economic experts
Others
Sample question papers by RBI. This will give you an idea of both the nature & the difficulty level of questions asked.
FAQ Section of the RBI website
Investopedia Website
