The Indian Economic Service (IES) is the administrative civil service under Grade A of the Central Civil Services of the executive branch of the Government of India.


A combined competitive examination for recruitment to Grade IV of the Services (Indian Economic Service and Indian Statistical Service) will be held by the Union Public Service Commission

Indian Economic Service (IES) Written Exam:

General English (100 marks, 3 hours)
General Studies (100 marks, 3 hours)
General Economics- I (200 marks, 3 hours)
General Economics- II (200 marks, 3 hours)
General Economics- III (200 marks, 3 hours)
Indian Economics (200 marks, 3 hours)


Syllabus of the IES written examination is as follow
General Economics-III

Public Finance: Theories of taxation- Optimal taxes and tax reforms, incidence of taxation; Theories of public expenditure- objectives and effects of public expenditure, public expenditure policy and social cost benefit analysis, criteria of public investment decisions social rate of discount, shadow prices of investment, unskilled labour and foreign exchange. Budgetary deficits. Theory of public debt management.

Environmental Economics: Environmentally sustainable development, Green GDP, UN Methodology of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting.

Environmental Values: Users and non-users values; option value. Valuation Methods-Stated and revealed preference methods. Design of Environmental Policy Instruments-Pollution taxes and pollution permits, collective action and informal regulation by local communities. Theories of exhaustible and renewable resources. International environmental agreements. Climatic change problems. Kyoto protocol, tradable permits and carbon taxes.

Industrial Economics: Market structure, conduct and performance of firms, product differentiation and market concentration, monopolistic price theory and oligopolistic interdependence and pricing, entry preventing pricing, micro level investment decisions and the behavior of firms, research and development and innovation, market structure and profitability, public policy and development of firms.

State, Market and Planning: Planning in a developing economy. Planning regulation and market. Indicative Planning. Decentralised Planning.

Indian Economics

History of Development and Planning: Alternative Development Strategies- goal of self reliance based on import substitution and protection, the post 1991 globalisation strategies based on stabilization and structural adjustment packages: fiscal reforms, financial sector reforms and trade reforms.

Federal Finance: Constitutional provisions relating to fiscal and financial powers of the states, Finance Commissions and their formulae for sharing taxes, Financial aspect of Sarkaria Commission Report, Financial aspects of 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendments.
Poverty, Unemployment and Human Development: Estimates of inequality and poverty measures for India, appraisal of Government measures, India's human development record in global perspective.
India's population policy and development.
Agriculture and Rural Development Strategies: Technologies and institutions, land relations and land reforms, rural credit, modern farm inputs and marketing - price policy and subsidies; commercialization and diversification. Rural development programmes including poverty alleviation programmes, development of economic and social infrastructure and New Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

India's experience with Urbanisation and Migration: Different types of migratory flows and their impact on the economies of their origin and destination, the process of growth of urban settlements; urban development strategies.

Industry: Strategy of Industrial development: Industrial Policy Reforms; Reservation Policy relating to small scale industries. Competition policy, Sources of industrial finances. Bank, share market, insurace companies, pension funds, non-banking sources and foreign direct investment, role of foreign capital for direct investment and portfolio, investment, Public Sector reform, privatization and disinvestments.

Labour: Employment, unemployment and under-employment, industrial relations and labour welfare - strategies for employment generation - Urban labour market and informal sector employment, Report of National Commission on Labour, Social issues relating to labour e.g. Child Labour, Bonded Labour, International Labour Standard and its impact.

Foreign Trade: Sailent features of India's foreign trade, composition, direction and organization of trade, recent changes in trade policy, balance of payments, tariff policy, exchange rate, India and WTO requirements.

Money and Banking: Financial sector reforms, Organisation of India's money market, changing roles of the Reserve Bank of India, commercial banks, development finance institutions, foreign banks and non-banking financial institutions, Indian capital market and SEBI, Development in Global Financial Market and its relationship with Indian Financial Sector.

Inflation: Definition, trends, estimates, consequences and remedies (control): Wholesale Price Index, Consumer Price Index: components and trends.
Budgeting and Fiscal Policy: Tax, expenditure, budgetary deficits, pension and fiscal reforms, Public debt management and reforms, Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, Black money and Parallel economy in India definition, estimates, genesis, consequences and remedies.