Hi all, I am planning to buy some components to get started in electronics but should I start with logic gates and latches or is arduino a good starting point. Please tell me some ICs that I might need for my projects,
Arduino is good starting point. Ithink, the most popular is the UNO - good for beginners. You can combine it with logical ICs ( UNO is 5V logic level).
You can generate signals by the UNO to be used with various logic circuits.
Follow your interests I'd say, its much easier to be motivated making things that interest you
than going through someone else's list of projects - but read lots too, so you get a feel for what
is possible.
There are various areas in electronics, analog, digital, power, audio, RF, control systems, sensors
transducers - you should start off somewhere that's interesting enough and also easy enough
for a beginner.
Simple chips like logic gates for digital, opamps and comparators for analog, drivers for LEDs,
there's no shortage of options to explore.
For me, it all started, with a birthday gift. I had so much fun with my 50-in-1 Electronics Project Kit from Radio Shack, when I exhausted it's potential, I started experimenting with the newfangled TTL, the Z80 CPU, Red LEDs... There was no Internet, back then, so I hopped on my bike and rode to the local library [around 5 miles away]. The passion for Electronics, and Computer Science, drove me to find educational venues. I subscribed to Radio Electronics and Electronics Illustrated, and there, found various mail order channels for parts ['cuz, I quickly realized, Radio Shack was a poor venue]. Examples:
- Jameco
- All Electronics
- Mouser
- Digi-Key
Plus, I discovered Apex Electronics, in my very [extended] neighborhood [about as far away as the library]. Apex Electronics [recently closed - sob!], was locally famous as, both a source of some of the most crazy, and unusual electronics surplus, but also a common source for Hollywood props -- if you see Science-ee-Techno stuff in a Hollywood movie [especially an early movie], it probably came from Apex.
You, my friend, have it easy! The Internet is a window to a plethora of information, and resources. There are a number of excellent Electronics How-To sites, and a wealth of opportunities to get your hands on any number of electronics components and "evaluation boards". YouTube might be a good source, too -- but there's a lot of misinformation. I like EEVBLOG, Hosted by Dave Jones from Sydney Australia -- quite the character -- but, that's more on an Engineering level. See, it's hard for me to recommend anything, 'cuz, like I said, when I started, there was no Internet, so I haven't spent much time with sites like:
- Beginner Electronics - 1 - Introduction (updated) - YouTube -- Beginner Electronics by CodeNMore
- http://www.learningelectronics.net/
- Basic Electronics Tutorials -- No idea if it's any good, but seems to, at least, have a good Dictonary of electronics, and perhaps some interesting projects.
- https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/
- Electronics Tutorial and Circuits - Basic and Advanced Science Tutorials - Beginners and Intermediate Electronics - Hobby Projects
- Tutorials - SparkFun Electronics -- Yeah! SparkFun!! These guys are cool!!!
- http://www.adafruit.com/ -- Also totally cool, and FUN!
- https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/video-lectures/ -- More "Commercial"
- The Simple Guide To Learning Electronics For Beginners -- Also commercial
- http://www.robotroom.com/ -- just FUN!
- ElectroBOOM - YouTube -- ElectroBOOM! Not really an Electronics Tutorial venue...but, he'll show you what NOT to do!! Hilarious!!!
Then, of course, there's the Arduino, which will get you up on MPUs and such.
I, also, suggest a subscription to Nuts and Volts. There are recent back issues covering such things as basic electronics, and setting up your own Electronics workbench, including suggestions on what tools/test equipment you'll need.
I recommend not starting out with gates and latches. Pick up the OReily Make:Electronics book and also the parts that it requires. That's a great place to start understanding more about electronics.
ReverseEMF:
http://www.adafruit.com/ -- Also totally cool, and FUN!
But not as cool as her original tutorial site which I first saw some 7 years ago, before it got all modern.
Which is the best way to get started in electronics?
Just about the best way to learn just about anything is to take a class. 
2nd best is books, and/or maybe a experimenter's kit or starter kit.
Next of course the Internet. But the Internet is disorganized... i.e. There's enough information on the Internet to learn brain surgery but I don't know of any doctors who didn't graduate from medical school. There a few electronics engineers & professional programmers who don't have college degrees but they are few-and-far-between.
OK.. There are lots of Arduino/electronics hobbyists who've taught themselves (mostly from the Internet) and the Arduino a fun & reasonably-easy way to get started in electronics and one of the easiest ways to get started programming.
And the fact is.... School is S-L-O-W. You'd be in the 3rd year of college before you study microcontrollers. 
You didn't ask about programming, but I've found most books & online tutorials just jump-in and teach the programming language without teaching the big-picture concepts or programming strategies. (The 1st programming class I took wasn't very good either.)
Anshul333:
Hi all, I am planning to buy some components to get started in electronics but should I start with logic gates and latches or is arduino a good starting point. Please tell me some ICs that I might need for my projects,
The first thing is ..... back-ground or foundation. Eg. existing electronics experience, and existing coding experience ..... if any.
DVDdoug:
Just about the best way to learn just about anything is to take a class.
Speak for yourself. Not all learning styles are the same. The classroom is the worst place for me to learn anything! I need for the information to come at my pace -- not the instructor's pace. Sometimes I'm ahead of the class, sometimes I'm behind. When I'm ahead, it's wasting my time. When I'm behind, I'm not learning anything. Highly inefficient, for me, either way. And, I know I'm not the only one. I learn much better on my own. In fact, the best learning mode, for me, is having a project to do. That's when I have the greatest motivation to learn anything!
You can download NEETS manuals.
The one on tubes is an excellent way to transition to Transistors.
ReverseEMF:
Speak for yourself. Not all learning styles are the same. The classroom is the worst place for me to learn anything!
I do agree that not everyone will like or enjoy class-room classes. DVDdoug mentioned 'just about the best way'. The emphasis being on 'just about' .... so not meaning 'is the best way'.
Taking classes can certainly increase significantly accelerate learning --- or at least forces learning on various fronts quickly --- in general, as compared with many people taking their time to flick through particular books. A pretty good class teacher can help to answer questions that particular details in books might not adequately cover or explain properly, or not get across properly. This spans topics like mathematics, physics, etc ...... that might be involved. So classes will help to speed up the learning - in general (when we're talking about a whole bunch of people).
All this depends on how much experience the student already has in electronics --- their foundations (electronics and software and maths and physics etc) ..... and where they want to go with it...... eg. general hobby/amateur electronics, or professional electronics.
Obviously --- people are smart --- knowing things are not always mutually exclusive. So taking classes and simultaneously using non-class resources (online, books, tutorials etc) to learn in advance other skills can be beneficial. For example, if the course doesn't introduce micro-controllers until 3rd year ...... then it's always possible to do some basic arduino tutorials too. Best of both worlds.
So - there are various ways of getting started in electronics. It's not uncommon for people to get started without beginning with classes. Everybody has to start somewhere. Just learning about Ohms law V = I.R, and voltage conservation around a circuit loop, and general interesting voltage behaviour of LED (when conducting normally) and battery for powering the circuit, and using a multimeter .... and wiring up battery, LED, suitable resistor to see a LED light up ------- is always a nice start.
Having somebody to show how an arduino can interface with a temperature sensor or light intensity sensor, and seeing values show up on a display (computer screen) is nice as well. And - of course...the famous and great blinking LED on arduino mega or uno.
So --- maybe to answer the original opening post question of what's the 'best way' to get started in electronics is --- to just 'get started' in some way.