1. Common Abbreviations

An abbreviation is a short form of a word or a group of words. They are commonly used because they save time and space. Here are some common abbreviations:

AD — Anno Domini (in the year of Our Lord)

AIDS — Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

AIIMS — All India Institute of Medical Sciences

AIR — All India Radio

a.m. — ante meridiem (before noon)

AMU — Aligarh Muslim University

AP — Associated Press

ATM — Automated Teller Machine

B&W — Black and White

BA — Bachelor of Arts

BBC — British Broadcasting Corporation

BC — Before Christ

BEd. — Bachelor of Education

BP — Blood Pressure

BSc. — Bachelor of Science

BSF — Border Security Force

BSNL — Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited

CA — Chartered Accountant

CBI — Central Bureau of Investigation

CBSE — Central Board of Secondary Education

CBT — Children’s Book Trust

CFL — Compact Fluorescent Lamp

CIA — Central Intelligence Agency (USA)

CID — Criminal Investigation Department

CNN — Cable News Network

CTBT — Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

DIG — Deputy Inspector General

DNA — Deoxyribonucleic Acid

DOS — Disk Operating System

DTP — Desk-top Publishing

DVD — Digital Versatile Disc

E&OE — Errors and Omissions Exempted

ECG — Electrocardiogram

e.g. — exempli gratia (for example)

EMI — Equated Monthly Installments

etc. — et cetera (and other things)

FBI — Federal Bureau of Investigation

FIFA — Federation International de Football Association

(Federation of the International Football Association)

FIR — First Information Report

FM — Frequency Modulation

FYI — For Your Information

GMT — Greenwich Mean Time

Govt. — Government

GPO — General Post Office

HIV — Human Immunodeficiency Virus

HQ — Headquarters

IA — Indian Airlines

IAF — Indian Air Force

IAS — Indian Administrative Service

IBM — International Business Machines

ICU — Intensive Care Unit

i.e. — id est (that is)

IGNOU — Indira Gandhi National Open University

IIT — Indian Institute of Technology

INA — Indian National Army

INTERPOL — International Criminal Police Commission

IPS — Indian Police Service

IQ — Intelligence Quotient

ISBN — International Standard Book Number

ISD — International Subscriber Dialling

ISI — Indian Standards Institution/Inter-Services Intelligence (Pakistan)

IST — Indian Standard Time

ISRO — Indian Space Research Organization

ITI — Industrial Training Institute

ITO — Income Tax Officer/International Trade Organization

lbw — leg before wicket

LCD — Liquid-crystal Display

LIC — Life Insurance Corporation

LLB — Bachelor of Laws

LPG — Liquefied Petroleum Gas

Ltd. — Limited

LTTE — Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

MA — Master of Arts

MBA — Master of Business Administration

MBBS — Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery

MLA — Member of Legislative Assembly

MNC — Multinational Corporation

MO — Money Order

MP — Member of Parliament

Mr. — Mister

Mrs. — Missus/Missis

MSc. — Master of Science

MTNL — Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited

NASA — National Aeronautics and Space Administration (USA)

NATO — North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NB — nota bene (note well)

NBT — National Book Trust

NCC — National Cadet Corps

NCERT — National Council of Educational Research and Training

NDA — National Defence Academy

NFDC — National Film Development Corporation

NIIT — National Institute of Information Technology

NRI — Non-resident Indian

OK — Okay (all correct)

OPD — Outdoor Patients Department

OTP — One Time Password

PC — Personal Computer

PFA — Plesae Find Attached

Ph.D — Doctor of Philosophy

PIB — Press Information Bureau

PIN — Postal Index Number/Personal Identification Number

p.m. — post meridiem (after noon)

PM — Prime Minister

PNB — Punjab National Bank

PO — Post Office

PTI — Press Trust of India

PTO — Please Turn Over

Pvt. — Private

R&D — Research and Development

RBI — Reserve Bank of India

RSVP — repondez sil vous plait (please reply)

SAARC — South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation

SAIL — Steel Authority of India Limited

SBI — State Bank of India

SC — Supreme Court/Schedule Caste

Sign. — Signature

SIM — Subscriber Identification Module (Card)

SLV — Satellite Launch Vehicle

SMS — Short Message Service

SOS — Save Our Souls

STD — Subscriber Trunk Dialling

TTE — Train Ticket Examiner

UFO — Unidentified Flying Object

UNESCO — United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

UNI — United News of India

UNICEF — United Nations Children’s Fund

UNO — United Nations Organization

UPSC — Union Public Service Commission

via — by way of

VIP — Very Important Person

viz. — videlicet (namely)

VPP — Value Payable Post

vs. — versus (against)

WHO — World Health Organization

WWF — Worldwide Fund for Nature

www — worldwide web

Xmas — Christmas

YMCA — Young Men’s Christian Association

YWCA — Young Women’s Christian Association

2. Famous Books (India)

Name of the Book                 Author

A Suitable Boy                     Vikram Seth

Ain-i-Akbari                        Abul Fazal

Anand Math                        Bankim Chandra Chatterji

Arthashastra                       Kautilya

Babarnama                        Babar

Bhagavadgita                    Ved Vyas

Broken Wing                        Sarojini Naidu

Devdas                                  Sharat Chandra Chatterji

Dewan-e-Ghalib               Mirza Ghalib

Discovery of India             Jawaharlal Nehru

Gitanjali                                Rabindranath Tagore

Glimpses of World History        Jawaharlal Nehru

Godan                                   Premchand

Golden Gate                        Vikram Seth

Gora                                       Rabindranath Tagore

Guide                                     R.K. Narayan

Guru Granth Sahib            Guru Arjun Dev

India Divided                       Dr. Rajendra Prasad

India Wins Freedom         Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

Mahabharata                     Ved Vyas

Man-eaters of Kumaon  Jim Corbett

Meghdoot                            Kalidas

Midnight’s Children           Salman Rushdie

My Experiments with Truth       Mahatma Gandhi

My Truth                                Indira Gandhi

Panchatantra                     Vishnu Sharma

Ram Charit Manas            Tulsidas

Ramayana                          Valmiki

Rangbhoomi                       Premchand

Satanic Verses                   Salman Rushdie

Shakuntala                          Kalidas

Song of India                       Sarojini Naidu

Sunny Days                          Sunil Gavaskar

The God of Small Things       Arundhati Roy

3. Famous Books (World)

Name of the book                 Author

A Passage to India            E.M. Forster

A Tale of Two Cities           Charles Dickens

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes         Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Alice in Wonderland         Lewis Carroll

Animal Farm                       George Orwell

Arabian Nights                   Sir Richard Burton

Arms and the Man            George Bernard Shaw

Around the World in Eighty Days       Jules Verne

As You Like It                        William Shakespeare

Das Kapital                          Karl Marx

David Copperfield             Charles Dickens

Dr. Zhivago                           Boris Pasternak

Great Expectations           Charles Dickens

Gulliver’s Travels                Jonathan Swift

Hamlet                                  William Shakespeare

Harry Potter Series             J.K. Rowling

Iliad                                        Homer

Julius Caesar                      William Shakespeare

Jungle Book                         Rudyard Kipling

Jurassic Park                       Michael Crichton

Man and Superman         George Bernard Shaw

Odyssey                                Homer

Oliver Twist                          Charles Dickens

Origin of Species               Charles Darwin

Paradise Lost                       John Milton

Principia                                Sir Isaac Newton

Republic                               Plato

Robinson Crusoe               Daniel Defoe

Romeo and Juliet              William Shakespeare

Three Musketeers              Alexander Dumas

Through the Looking-Glass      Lewis Carroll

Treasure Island                  R.L. Stevenson

Uncle Tom’s Cabin            H.B. Stowe

War and Peace                  Count Leo Tolstoy