UGC-NET – Paper II: Commerce (Code: 08)
Exam Cycle: June 2026
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COURSE OVERVIEW
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Subject Name: Commerce
Subject Code: 08
Conducting Body: National Testing Agency (NTA)
Paper Type: Paper-II – Commerce
Total Marks: 200
Total Questions: 100 MCQs
Mode: Computer-Based Test (CBT)
Duration: 3 Hours (Paper I + II combined)
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COMPLETE LIST OF UNITS
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Unit I: Business Environment and International Business
Unit II: Accounting and Auditing
Unit III: Business Economics
Unit IV: Business Finance
Unit V: Business Statistics and Research Methods
Unit VI: Business Management and Human Resource Management
Unit VII: Banking and Financial Institutions
Unit VIII: Marketing Management
Unit IX: Legal Aspects of Business
Unit X: Income-tax and Corporate Tax Planning
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UNIT-WISE DETAILED SYLLABUS
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Unit I: Business Environment and International Business
Topic 1: Concepts and elements of business environment:
• Economic environment- Economic systems, Economic policies(Monetary and fiscal policies)
• Political environment-Role of government in business
• Legal environment- Consumer Protection Act, FEMA
• Socio-cultural factors and their influence on business
• Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Topic 2: Scope and importance of international business:
• Globalization and its drivers
• Modes of entry into international business
Topic 3: Theories of international trade:
• Government intervention in international trade
• Tariff and non-tariff barriers
• India’s foreign trade policy
Topic 4: Foreign direct investment (FDI) and Foreign portfolio investment (FPI):
• Types of FDI, Costs and benefits of FDI to home and host countries
• Trends in FDI
• India’s FDI policy
Topic 5: Balance of payments (BOP):
• Importance and components of BOP
Topic 6: Regional Economic Integration:
• Levels of Regional Economic Integration
• Trade creation and diversion effects
• Regional Trade Agreements: European Union (EU), ASEAN, SAARC, NAFTA
Topic 7: International Economic institutions:
• IMF, World Bank, UNCTAD
Topic 8: World Trade Organisation (WTO):
• Functions and objectives of WTO
• Agriculture Agreement
• GATS
• TRIPS
• TRIMS
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Unit II: Accounting and Auditing
Topic 1: Basic accounting principles:
• concepts and postulates
Topic 2: Partnership Accounts:
• Admission, Retirement, Death, Dissolution and Insolvency of partnership firms
Topic 3: Corporate Accounting:
• Issue, forfeiture and reissue of shares
• Liquidation of companies
• Acquisition, merger, amalgamation and reconstruction of companies
Topic 4: Holding company accounts
Topic 5: Cost and Management Accounting:
• Marginal costing and Break-even analysis
• Standard costing
• Budgetary control
• Process costing
• Activity Based Costing (ABC)
• Costing for decision-making
• Life cycle costing, Target costing, Kaizen costing and JIT
Topic 6: Financial Statements Analysis:
• Ratio analysis
• Funds flow Analysis
• Cash flow analysis
Topic 7: Human Resources Accounting; Inflation Accounting; Environmental Accounting
Topic 8: Indian Accounting Standards and IFRS
Topic 9: Auditing:
• Independent financial audit
• Vouching
• Verification ad valuation of assets and liabilities
• Audit of financial statements and audit report
• Cost audit
Topic 10: Recent Trends in Auditing:
• Management audit
• Energy audit
• Environment audit
• Systems audit
• Safety audit
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Unit III: Business Economics
Topic 1: Meaning and scope of business economics
Topic 2: Objectives of business firms
Topic 3: Demand analysis:
• Law of demand
• Elasticity of demand and its measurement
• Relationship between AR and MR
Topic 4: Consumer behavior:
• Utility analysis
• Indifference curve analysis
Topic 5: Law of Variable Proportions:
• Law of Returns to Scale
Topic 6: Theory of cost:
• Short-run and long-run cost curves
Topic 7: Price determination under different market forms:
• Perfect competition
• Monopolistic competition
• Oligopoly- Price leadership model
• Monopoly
• Price discrimination
Topic 8: Pricing strategies:
• Price skimming
• Price penetration
• Peak load pricing
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Unit IV: Business Finance
Topic 1: Scope and sources of finance:
• Lease financing
Topic 2: Cost of capital and time value of money
Topic 3: Capital structure
Topic 4: Capital budgeting decisions:
• Conventional and scientific techniques of capital budgeting analysis
Topic 5: Working capital management; Dividend decision:
• Theories and policies
Topic 6: Risk and return analysis:
• Asset securitization
Topic 7: International monetary system
Topic 8: Foreign exchange market:
• Exchange rate risk and hedging techniques
Topic 9: International financial markets and instruments:
• Euro currency
• GDRs
• ADRs
Topic 10: International arbitrage; Multinational capital budgeting
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Unit V: Business Statistics and Research Methods
Topic 1: Measures of central tendency
Topic 2: Measures of dispersion
Topic 3: Measures of skewness
Topic 4: Correlation and regression of two variables
Topic 5: Probability:
• Approaches to probability
• Bayes’ theorem
Topic 6: Probability distributions:
• Binomial, poisson and normal distributions
Topic 7: Research:
• Concept and types
• Research designs
Topic 8: Data:
• Collection and classification of data
Topic 9: Sampling and estimation:
• Concepts
• Methods of sampling – probability and non-probability methods
• Sampling distribution
• Central limit theorem
• Standard error
• Statistical estimation
Topic 10: Hypothesis testing:
• z-test
• t-test
• ANOVA
• Chi-square test
• Mann-Whitney test (U-test)
• Kruskal-Wallis test (H-test)
• Rank correlation test
Topic 11: Report writing
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Unit VI: Business Management and Human Resource Management
Topic 1: Principles and functions of management
Topic 2: Organization structure:
• Formal and informal organizations
• Span of control
Topic 3: Responsibility and authority:
• Delegation of authority and decentralization
Topic 4: Motivation and leadership:
• Concept and theories
Topic 5: Corporate governance and business ethics
Topic 6: Human resource management:
• Concept, role and functions of HRM
• Human resource planning
• Recruitment and selection
• Training and development
• Succession planning
Topic 7: Compensation management:
• Job evaluation
• Incentives and fringe benefits
Topic 8: Performance appraisal including 360 degree performance appraisal
Topic 9: Collective bargaining and workers’ participation in management
Topic 10: Personality:
• Perception
• Attitudes
• Emotions
• Group dynamics
• Power and politics
• Conflict and negotiation
• Stress management
Topic 11: Organizational Culture:
• Organizational development and organizational change
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Unit VII: Banking and Financial Institutions
Topic 1: Overview of Indian financial system
Topic 2: Types of banks:
• Commercial banks
• Regional Rural Banks (RRBs)
• Foreign banks
• Cooperative banks
Topic 3: Reserve Bank of India:
• Functions
• Role and monetary policy management
Topic 4: Banking sector reforms in India:
• Basel norms
• Risk management
• NPA management
Topic 5: Financial markets:
• Money market
• Capital market
• Government securities market
Topic 6: Financial Institutions:
• Development Finance Institutions (DFIs)
• Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs)
• Mutual Funds
• Pension Funds
Topic 7: Financial Regulators in India
Topic 8: Financial sector reforms including financial inclusion
Topic 9: Digitisation of banking and other financial services:
• Internet banking
• mobile banking
• Digital payments systems
Topic 10: Insurance:
• Types of insurance- Life and Non-life insurance
• Risk classification and management
• Factors limiting the insurability of risk
• Re-insurance
• Regulatory framework of insurance- IRDA and its role
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Unit VIII: Marketing Management
Topic 1: Marketing:
• Concept and approaches
• Marketing channels
• Marketing mix
• Strategic marketing planning
• Market segmentation, targeting and positioning
Topic 2: Product decisions:
• Concept
• Product line
• Product mix decisions
• Product life cycle
• New product development
Topic 3: Pricing decisions:
• Factors affecting price determination
• Pricing policies and strategies
Topic 4: Promotion decisions:
• Role of promotion in marketing
• Promotion methods – Advertising; Personal selling; Publicity
• Sales promotion tools and techniques
• Promotion mix
Topic 5: Distribution decisions:
• Channels of distribution
• Channel management
Topic 6: Consumer Behaviour:
• Consumer buying process
• factors influencing consumer buying decisions
Topic 7: Service marketing
Topic 8: Trends in marketing:
• Social marketing
• Online marketing
• Green marketing
• Direct marketing
• Rural marketing
• CRM
Topic 9: Logistics management
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Unit IX: Legal Aspects of Business
Topic 1: Indian Contract Act, 1872:
• Elements of a valid contract
• Capacity of parties
• Free consent
• Discharge of a contract
• Breach of contract and remedies against breach
• Quasi contracts
Topic 2: Special contracts:
• Contracts of indemnity and guarantee
• contracts of bailment and pledge
• Contracts of agency
Topic 3: Sale of Goods Act, 1930:
• Sale and agreement to sell
• Doctrine of Caveat Emptor
• Rights of unpaid seller and rights of buyer
Topic 4: Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881:
• Types of negotiable instruments
• Negotiation and assignment
• Dishonour and discharge of negotiable instruments
Topic 5: The Companies Act, 2013:
• Nature and kinds of companies
• Company formation
• Management, meetings and winding up of a joint stock company
Topic 6: Limited Liability Partnership:
• Structure and procedure of formation of LLP in India
Topic 7: The Competition Act, 2002:
• Objectives and main provisions
Topic 8: The Information Technology Act, 2000:
• Objectives and main provisions
• Cyber crimes and penalties
Topic 9: The RTI Act, 2005:
• Objectives and main provisions
Topic 10: Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) :
• Patents, trademarks and copyrights
• Emerging issues in intellectual property
Topic 11: Goods and Services Tax (GST):
• Objectives and main provisions
• Benefits of GST
• Implementation mechanism
• Working of dual GST
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Unit X: Income-tax and Corporate Tax Planning
Topic 1: Income-tax:
• Basic concepts
• Residential status and tax incidence
• Exempted incomes
• Agricultural income
• Computation of taxable income under various heads
• Deductions from Gross total income
• Assessment of Individuals
• Clubbing of incomes
Topic 2: International Taxation:
• Double taxation and its avoidance mechanism
• Transfer pricing
Topic 3: Corporate Tax Planning:
• Concepts and significance of corporate tax planning
• Tax avoidance versus tax evasion
• Techniques of corporate tax planning
• Tax considerations in specific business situations: Make or buy decisions; Own or lease an asset; Retain; Renewal or replacement of asset; Shut down or continue operations
Topic 4: Deduction and collection of tax at source; Advance payment of tax; E-filing of income-tax returns
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EXAMINATION STRUCTURE
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Paper-II: Subject Specific Examination
- Total Questions: 100
- Total Marks: 200
- Question Type: Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ)
- Negative Marking: No
- Duration: 3 Hours (Combined with Paper I)
- Mode: Computer Based Test (CBT)
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SYLLABUS SUMMARY
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Total Units: 10
Total Topics: 92
Subject: Commerce
Subject Code: 08
Exam Category: UGC-NET Paper-II
Source: Official NTA/UGC Syllabus
Status: “As per latest official syllabus”