UPSC Commerce and Management Optional Syllabus 2025

The UPSC exam is held annually to recruit ideal candidates for central administrative and other civil services in the country.  

Given the magnitude and the competition for the exam, UPSC CSE is also considered one of toughest examinations with its high difficulty level.  

One of the reasons for its competent nature is the vastness of the syllabus provided for the examination.  

Therefore, it is advised for the candidates to carefully go through the syllabus before they begin their exam preparation.  

It is considered to be the first and foremost step towards clearing the UPSC exam as a thorough understanding of the syllabus would help in identification of the important topics and analyzing the nature of the examination.  

As far as the UPSC Mains optional subjects are concerned, scoring decent marks in the papers can drastically increase the chances of success in the final exam selection.  

Hence, having comprehensive knowledge of the syllabus for UPSC optional subjects is the initial step in the preparation procedure for the exam.  

In reference to that, I have discussed in detail all the information you would want to know about the UPSC Commerce & Accountancy and Management syllabus 2025. 

So, without further delay, let’s get started!  

UPSC Commerce & Accountancy Syllabus

UPSC Commerce & Accountancy optional subject consists of 2 papers, viz, Paper 1 and Paper 2. Both the papers are of 250 marks each, making the entire optional subject reach 500 marks. 

To ace this subject one needs to be mindful of all the aspects present in the syllabus. The UPSC Commerce syllabus is formulated to test conceptual clarity of the candidates about the topics mentioned in the syllabus as well as its practical application. 

In order to take you in that direction, let me sequentially deliver the UPSC Commerce and Accountancy syllabus.  

UPSC Commerce & Accountancy Syllabus Paper 1

I have listed the UPSC Commerce and Accountancy Syllabus Paper 1 below in a comprehensive manner. Get hold of the syllabus and initiate your mains preparation at the earliest. 

However, before presenting you with the syllabus let me highlight for you the major heads of the UPSC Commerce Syllabus. 

Accounting, Taxation & Auditing

• Financial Accounting
• Cost Accounting
• Taxation
• Auditing

Financial Management, Financial Institutions & Markets

• Financial Management
• Financial Markets and Institutions

These are the heads, now read the following to know the details of these sections.

1. Financing Accounting:

• Accounting as a financial information system; Impact of behavioural sciences.
• Accounting Standards e.g., Accounting for Depreciation, Inventories, Research and Development Costs, Long-term Construction Contracts, Revenue Recognition, Fixed Assets, Contingencies, Foreign Exchange Transactions, Investments and Government Grants, Cash Flow Statements, Earnings per Share.
• Accounting for Share Capital Transactions including Bonus Shares, Right Shares.
• Employees Stock Option and Buy-Back of Securities.
• Preparation and Presentation of Company Final Accounts.
• Amalgamations, Absorption and Reconstruction of Companies.

2. Cost Accounting:

• Nature and functions of cost accounting. Installation of Cost Accounting System. Cost Concepts related to Income Measurement, Profit Planning. Cost Control and Decision Making.
• Methods of Costing: Job Costing, Process Costing, Activity Based Costing.
• Volume-cost-Profit Relationship as a tool of Profit Planning.
• Incremental Analysis/Differential Costing as a Tool of Pricing Decisions, Product Decisions, Make or Buy Decisions, Shut-Down Decisions etc.
• Techniques of Cost Control and Cost Reduction: Budgeting as a Tool of Planning and Control. Standard Costing and Variance Analysis.
• Responsibility Accounting and Divisional Performance Measurement.

3. Taxation:

• Income Tax: Definitions. Basis of charge; Incomes which do not form part of total income.
• Simple problems of Computation of Income (of individuals only) under various heads, i.e., Salaries, Income from House Property, Profits and Gains from Business or Profession, Capital Gains, Income from other sources, Income of other Persons included in Assessee’s Total Income.
• Set-off and Cary forward of Loss.
• Deductions from Gross Total Income.
• Salient Features/Provisions Related to VAT and Services Tax.

4. Auditing:

• Company Audit: Audit related to Divisible Profits, Dividends, Special investigations, Tax audit.
• Audit of Banking, Insurance, Non-Profit Organization and Charitable Societies/Trusts/Organizations.

Financial Management, Financial Institutions and Markets

1. Financial Management

• Finance Function: Nature, Scope and Objectives of Financial Management Risk and Return Relationship.
• Tools of Financial Analysis: Ratio Analysis, Funds-Flow and Cash-Flow Statement.
• Capital Budgeting Decisions: Process, Procedures and Appraisal Methods. Risk and Uncertainty Anlysis and Methods.
• Cost of Capital: Concept, Computation of Specific Costs and Weighted Average Cost of Capital. CAPM as aTool of Determining Cost of Equity Capital.
• Financing Decisions: Theories of Capital Structure-Net Income (NI) Approach.
• Net Operating Income (NOI) Approach, MM Approach and Traditional Approach. Designing of Capital structure: Types of Leverages (Operating. Financial and Combined), EBIT-EPS Analysis, and other Factors.
• Dividend Decisions and Valuation of Firm Walter’s Model, MM Thesis, Gordan’s Model Lintner’s Model. Factors Affecting Dividend Policy.
• Working Capital Management: Planning of Working Capital. Determinants of Working Capital. Components of Working Capital Cash, Inventory and Receivables.
• Corporate Restructuring with focus on Mergers and Acquisitions (Financial aspect only).

2. Financial Markets and Institutions

• Indian Financial System: An Overview
• Money Markets: Participants, Structure and Instruments. Commercial Banks. Reforms in Banking Sector. Monetary and Credit Policy of RBI. RBI asa Regulator.
• Capital Market: Primary and Secondary Market. Financial Market Instruments and Innovative Debt Instruments; SEBI as a Regulator
• Financial Services: Mutual Funds, Venture Capital. Credit Rating Agencies, Insurance and IRDA.

Before you moving on to paper 2 syllabus, you can take a look at the list of important UPSC Commerce books that will effectively cover the topics under the Commerce syllabus.

UPSC Commerce & Accountancy Syllabus Paper 2

I have laid forth the syllabus of UPSC Commerce and Accountancy Paper 2 in detail. Check the syllabus carefully and make a note of all the contents.

Organisation Theory and Behaviour

• Organisation Theory
• Organisation Behaviour

Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations

• Human Resource Management
• Industrial Relations

While I’ve given the breakdown of the entire syllabus, it is time to provide you the details of it.

1. Organisation Theory:

• Nature and Concept of Organisation; Externmal Environment of Organisation Technological, Social, Political, Ecomomical and Legal; Organizational Goals Primary and Secondary Goals, Single and Multiple Goals; Management by Objectives.
• Evolution of Organisation theory: Classical Neo-classical and system approach.
• Modern Concepts of Organisation Theory: Organisational Design, Organisational Structure and Organisational Culture.
• Organisational Design-Basic Challenges; Differentiation and Intergration Process; Centralization and Decentralization Process; Standardizati on/Formalization and Mutual Adjustment. Coordinating Formal and Informal Organizations. Mechanistic and Organic Structures.
• Designing Organizational structures-Authority and Control; Line and Staff Functions, Specialization and Coordination.
• Types of Organization Structure Functional. Matrix Structure, Project Structure. Nature and Basis of Power, Sources of Power, Power Structure and Politics. Impact of Information Technology on Organizational Design and Structure.
• Managing Organizational Culture.

2. Organisation Behaviour:

• Meaning and Concept: Individual in organization: Personality, Theories, and Determinants; Pereception Meaning and Process.
• Motivation: Concepts, Theories and Applications. Leadership – Theories and Styles. Quality of Work Life (QWL): Meaning and its impact on Performance, Ways of its Enhancement.
• Quality Circles (QC) – Meaning and their Importance. Management of Conflicts in Organizations. Transactional Analysis Organizational Effectiveness, Management of Change.

Human Resources Management and Industrial
Relations

1. Human Resources Management (HRM):

• Meaning Nature and Scope of HRM, Human Resource Planning, Job Analysis, Job Description, Job Specification, Recruitment Process, Selection Process, Orientational and Placement, Training and Development Process, Performance Appraisal and 360° Feed Back, Salary and Wage Administration, Job Evaluation, Employee Welfare, Promotions, Transfers and Separations.

2. Industrial Relations (IR):

• Meaning. Nature, Importance and Scope of IR, Formation of Trade Union, Trade Union Legislation, Trade Union Movement in India.
• Recognition of Trade Unions, Problems of Trade Unions in India. Impact of Liberalization on Trade Union Movement.
• Nature of Industrial Disputes: Strikes and Lockouts, Causes of Disputes, Prevention and Settlement of Disputes.
• Worker’s Participation in Management: Philosophy, Rationale, Present Day Status and Future Prospects.
• Adjudication and Collective Bargaining.
• Industrial Relations in Public Enterprises Absenteeism and Labour Turnover in Indian Industries and their Causes and Remedies.
• ILO and its Functions.

To enhance clarity on the optional subjects, you can go through the in-depth UPSC exam analysis of commerce and management that we have provided. 

UPSC Management Syllabus

Like commerce & Accountancy the UPSC Management optional exam also includes syllabus of 2 papers, i.e., Paper 1 and Paper 2. Each paper is of 250 marks making the cumulative score of 500 marks. 

It is a fact that Management is one subject but when you dig deep you find out the levels attached to the UPSC Management syllabus, subsequently making it one of the intricate modules to cover. 

However, no syllabus is unlimited. So, to begin let’s find out the extent of the management syllabus for UPSC.  

UPSC Management Syllabus Paper 1

I have listed the UPSC Management Syllabus for Paper 1 below. Give a thorough read to the syllabus and inculcate all the sections.

• Managerial Function and Process
• Organisational Behaviour and design
• Human Resource Management
• Accounting for Managers
• Financial Management
• Marketing Management

The aforementioned subjects are the basis of the entire syllabus. Now let’s look at the broader picture with the detailed UPSC Management Syllabus.

• Concept and foundations of management,  
• Evolution of Management Thoughts;  
• Managerial Functions Planning. Organizing. Controlling; Decision-making 
• Role of Manager, Managerial skills; Entrepreneurship: Management of innovation;  
• Managing in a global environment, Flexible Systems Management; Social responsibility and managerial ethics;  
• Process and customer orientation; Managerial processes on direct and indirect value chain. 

2. Organisational Behaviour and Design:

• Conceptual model of organization behaviour 
•  The individual processes-personality, values and attitude, perception, motivation, learning and reinforcement, work stress and stress management;  
• The dynamics of Organization behaviour-power and politics, conflict and negotiation, leadership process and styles, communication; 
•  The Organizational Processes decision-making. job design; Classical, Neoclassical and Contingency approaches to organizational design: Organizational theory and design Organizational culture, managing cultural diversity, learning Organization;  
• Organizational change and development; Knowledge Based Enterprise-systems and processes; Networked and virtual organizations. 

3. Human Resource Management:

• HR challenges; HRM functions; The future challenges of HRM; 
•  Strategic Management of human resources; Human resource planning: Job analysis; Job evaluation, Recruitment and selection;  
• Training and development; Promotion and transfer; Performance management; Compensation management and benefits; 
•  Employee morale and productivity; Management of Organizational climate and Industrial relations;  
• Human resources accounting and audit; Human resource information system; International human resource management. 

4. Accounting for Managers:

• Financial accounting-concept, importance and scope, generally accepted accounting principles 
•  preparation of financial statements with special reference to analysis of a balance sheet and measurement of business income, inventory valuation and depreciation, financial statement analysis, fund flow analysis, the statement of cash flows; 
•  Management accounting concept, need, importance and scope; Cost accounting-records and processes, cost ledger and control accounts, reconciliation and integration between financial and cost accounts; 
•  Overhead cost and control, Job and process costing. Budget and budgetary control, Performance budgeting, Zero-base budgeting.  
• Relevant costing and costing for decision-making, standard costing and variance analysis, marginal costing and absorption costing. 

5. Financial Management:

• Goal of Finance Function. Concepts of value and return. Valuation of bonds and Shares;  
• Management of working capital: Estimation and Financing 
•  Management of cash, receivables, inventory and current liabilities; Cost of capital;  
• Capital budgeting: Financial and operating leverage: 
•  Design of capital structure: theories and practices; Shareholder value creation: dividend policy. corporate financial policy and strategy, management of corporate distress and restructuring strategy:  
• Capital and money markets: institutions and instruments; Leasing hire purchase and venture capital; Regulation of capital market: Risk and return: portfolio theory: CAPM: APT:  
• Financial derivatives: option, futures, swap: Recent reforms in financial sector. 

6. Marketing Management:

• Concept, evolution and scope; Marketing strategy formulation and components of marketing plan; Segmenting and targeting the market; 
•  Positioning and differentiating the market offering: Analyzing competition; Analyzing consumer markets: Industrial buyer behaviour;  
• Market research; Product strategy: Pricing strategies; Designing and managing Marketing channels;  
• Integrated marketing communications; Building customer satisfaction, Value and retention; Services and non-profit marketing; 
•  Ethics in marketing: Consumer protection; Internet marketing: Retail management; Customer relationship management; Concept of holistic marketing. 

One of the important steps in preparation would be to analyze previous year papers. Pay a visit to the UPSC Previous Years Papers to ensure effective preparation for the exam . 

UPSC Management Syllabus Paper 2

The Paper Syllabus for UPSC Management optional has been given below. Study the syllabus carefully to tick the biggest prerequisite of UPSC Mains Preparation.

The following are the heads of the syllabus:

• Quantitative techniques in decision-making
• Production and operations management
• Management Information system
• Government Business Interface
• Strategic Cost Management
• International Business

Now that you know the core of the syllabus it’s time to know the intricate details of the UPSC Management Paper 2 syllabus.

1. Quantitative Techniques in Decision-making:

• Descriptive statistics-tabular, graphical and numerical methods,  
• Introduction to probability, discrete and continuous probability distributions, inferential statistics-sampling distributions, central limit theorem, hypothesis testing for differences between means and proportions,  
• Inference about population variances, Chisquare and ANOVA, simple correlation and regression, time series and forecasting.  
• Decision theory, index numbers; Linear programming-problem formulation, simplex method and graphical solution, sensitivity analysis. 

2. Production and Operations Management:

• Fundamentals of operations management; Organizing for production; Aggregate production planning, capacity planning. 
•  Plant design: process planning. Plant size and scale of operations, Management of facilities; Line balancing: Equipment replacement and maintenance;  
• Production control; Supply, chain management-vendor evaluation and audit; Quality management; Statistical process control, Six Sigma; Flexibility and agility in manufacturing systems; World class manufacturing:  
• Project management concepts, R&D management, Management of service operations; Role and importance of materials management, value analysis, make or buy decision; Inventory control, MRP; Waste management. 

3. Management Information System:

• Conceptual foundations of information systems; Information theory; Information resource management:  
• Types of information Systems; Systems Development-Overview of Systems and Design; System Development management life-cycle, Designing online and distributed environments;  
• Implementation and control of project: Trends in information technology: Managing data resources-Organising data.  
• DSS and RDBMS; Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Expert systems, e-Business architecture, e-Governance; Information systems planning. 
•  Flexibility in information systems; User involvement; Evaluation of information systems. 

4. Government Business Interface:

• State participation in business, Interaction between
  Government, Business and different Chambers of Commerce and Industry in India; Government’s policy with regard to Small Scale Industries; Government clearances for establishing a new enterprise;  
• Public Distribution System; Government control over price and distribution: Consumer Protection Act (CPA) and The Role of Voluntary Organizations in protecting consumers rights;  
• New Industrial Policy of the Government: liberalization, deregulation and privatisation; Indian planning system; Government policy concerning development of Backward areas/regions;  
• The Responsibilities of the business as well as the Government to protect the environment; Corporate Governance: Cyber Laws. 

5. Strategic Cost Management:

• Business policy as a field of study: Nature and scope of strategic management, Strategic intent, vision, objectives and policies;  
• Process of strategic planning and implementation: Environmental analysis and internal analysis; SWOT analysis;  
• Tools and techniques for strategic analysis -Impact matrix: The experience curve, BCG matrix, GEC mode, Industry analysis, Concept of value chain; Strategic profile of a firm;  
• Framework for analysing competition; Competitive advantage of a firm; Generic competitive strategies; Growth strategies expansion, integration and diversification; Concept of core competence,  
• Strategic flexibility: Reinventing strategy: Strategy and structure: chief Executive and Board; turnaround management;  
• Management of strategic change Strategic alliances, Mergers and Acquisitions; Strategy and corporate evolution in the Indian context. 

6. International Business:

• International Business Environment Changing composition of trade in goods and services; India’s Foreign Trade: Policy and trends; 
•  Financing of International trade; Regional Economic Cooperation; FTAs; Internationalisation of service firms; International production; Operation Management in International companies; International Taxation: Global competitiveness and technological developments;  
• Global E-Business; Designing global organisational structure and control; Multicultural management; Global business strategy; Global marketing strategies; Export Management; Export-Import procedures; 
•  Joint Ventures; Foreign Investment: Foreign direct investment and foreign portfolio investment; Cross border Mergers and Acquisitions;  
• Foreign Exchange Risk Exposure Management; World Financial Markets and International Banking: External Debt Management; Country Risk Analysis. 

After going through the management optional upsc syllabus, you can check the UPSC mock test for Management to get acclimatized with the questions asked in the examination and master the optional subject of management.

Note: To solidify your preparation, I have provided you a personalized preparation strategy for commerce and management that will help you cover the important topics under these optional subjects in a shorter span of time and thus save you a plenty time for effective preparation.  

That’s all with the UPSC Commerce & Accountancy and Management syllabus.

Conclusion

We have finally arrived at the conclusion. Till now, we have discussed in detail all the insights related to UPSC syllabus for optional subjects of Commerce and Management.

I hope you find the detailed information helpful in expanding your knowledge of the exam. Now, it’s time for me bid you farewell and wish you all the luck for future endeavors! 

All the best!! 

Keep Learning!!