I tagged all 485 Prelims Economy questions from 1995–2026. One topic alone accounts for nearly a quarter of the entire section.
Using mission upsc tracker I tagged every Prelims Economy question from the last 31 years. Economy is the subject aspirants over-prepare and under-score — because they spend equal time on all sub-topics when UPSC's weighting is anything but equal.
The 8 sub-topics that dominate:
| Sub-topic | Questions (1995–2026) | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Money & Banking | 112 | 23% |
| Government Budgeting | 39 | 8% |
| Agriculture Economy | 36 | 7% |
| Social Sector Initiatives (schemes) | 36 | 7% |
| National Income Accounting | 28 | 6% |
| Economic Planning | 28 | 6% |
| Economy (general/macro) | 23 | 5% |
| Poverty & Unemployment | 22 | 5% |
Together: 324 out of 485 questions = 67% of every Economy question UPSC has ever asked.
Add Taxation (22), Basic Economic Concepts (21), and Inflation (12) and you're at 78%. Everything else — services sector, FDI, BOP, monetary policy proper — is under 12 questions each across 31 years.
Money & Banking is the single most-tested topic in ALL of Prelims history:
112 questions across 31 years — the largest single sub-topic in any subject, in any year, ever asked. It has been asked in every single one of the last 10 papers. RBI, monetary policy tools, banking structure, NBFCs, financial inclusion, UPI, CBDC, priority sector lending — this is your single highest-EV topic in the entire exam.
If your prep can't reliably score 4/5 in a Money & Banking sectional test, that is the cheapest 8 marks you will ever earn.
What's rising in Economy (2015+ share):
| Topic | Total | % from 2015+ |
|---|---|---|
| Agriculture Geography | 15 | 60% |
| Money & Banking | 112 | 58% |
| Basic Economic Concepts | 21 | 57% |
| Social Sector Initiatives | 36 | 56% |
| Agriculture Economy | 36 | 50% |
What has effectively died:
| Topic | Total | % from 2015+ |
|---|---|---|
| National Income Accounting | 28 | 11% |
| Economic Planning (Five-Year Plans etc.) | 28 | 18% |
| Services Sector | 11 | 9% |
Three sharp takeaways:
- Stop drilling Five-Year Plans and National Income calculations. 3 questions in 11 years combined. This is where coaching still burns aspirant time.
- Government schemes matter — but only the currently active ones. 20 of 36 all-time scheme questions were asked in the last 11 years. Read what's live: PM-KISAN, PMAY, Jan Dhan, Ayushman Bharat, PLI, PM Surya Ghar. Skip the dead ones.
- The RBI's "Functions and Working" PDF is a bigger asset than any coaching module. It is free. It covers 60% of the Money & Banking questions. Every year aspirants pay ₹3,000 for economy classes when the primary source is a 100-page PDF from rbi.org.in.
One book, plus RBI's free PDFs, plus current schemes from PIB — that's 80% of Prelims Economy done. The remaining 20% is either luck or over-prep territory.
Full topic-frequency data for all subjects (1995–2026) is on the tracker — filter by subject or year.
Posted Aug 12, 2026, 2:13 PM UTC