Financial Assistance for UPSC/APSC Mains Exam(FAUAME)

Overview

About FAUAME

This is not a preparation scholarship an aspirant applies for at the start. Assam's financial assistance for the UPSC/APSC mains exam opens only once a preliminary result has carried the candidate into the mains, the money is fixed by which commission ran that paper, and it is claimed a single time against a single qualification. The office that decides it is a three-member committee chaired by the department's minister.

The scheme is run today by the Directorate of Tribal Affairs (Plain), Assam. That directorate still tells its own story as the Directorate of Welfare of Plain Tribes & Backward Classes, created in 1976, and the older name is what an aspirant meets on the older paperwork: the form for 2019-20 carries it, the form for 2024-25 carries the new one, and both went out from the same Rukmini Nagar office in Guwahati.

The governing document is a short regulation the department titles around the services rather than the exams. It defines ACS as the Assam Civil Services conducted by the Assam Public Service Commission and IAS as the Indian Administrative Services conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, and states the objective plainly: financial grants to ST students preparing for the ACS or UPSC mains, as set out in the scheme guidelines. Nothing in it touches coaching before the prelims, and nothing in it follows the candidate to the interview board.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

The window follows the preliminary result, not the calendar, so it lands in a different month each year. The 2025-26 round opened on 25 September 2025 and closed on 31 October 2025, while the round for 2018-19 closed on 31 October 2018 and the round for 2019-20 closed on 31 August 2019. One cycle narrowed the offer instead of the calendar: the notice for 2023-24 invited only ST candidates qualified for the APSC mains.

Announcement is a print-first exercise. The directorate's memo of May 2023 asked the Director of Information and Public Relations to publish the advertisement in daily newspapers in both English and Assamese, including a paper widely circulated in the Barak Valley, alongside the notice on the directorate's own site.

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Two conditions carry the whole scheme: community and a live prelims result. The applicant must belong to the Scheduled Tribes (Plain) community of Assam, and must have cleared the UPSC or APSC preliminary examination of the cycle the notice names. The department's notice for 2025-26 pinned that to a specific paper rather than a general claim of having qualified, naming the UPSC preliminary held on 25 May 2025 and the APSC preliminary held on 8 June 2025 in its notice on the DIDS route.

A third condition sits in the definitions rather than the eligibility clause. The scheme guidelines define a student as someone holding a degree from a university incorporated by an Act of the central or a state legislature, or an equivalent qualification. Both commissions already test for that before the preliminary, so it bites on nobody who has a prelims result to show.

There is no income test. The same notice states there shall be no income limit for availing this benefit, which is the single sharpest difference between this scheme and the OBC and Scheduled Caste schemes the state runs for the same examination.

On community, one apparent mismatch is explained by the department's own history. The application form for 2021-22 was still headed for ST and OBC/MOBC students, from the period when plain tribes and backward classes sat inside one directorate.

The current notices drop that pairing and invite ST (Plain) applicants alone, while Assam's OBC and Scheduled Caste aspirants have separate schemes of their own under the Directorate of Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes. Residence is asked for twice over: the caste certificate has to be an Assam certificate, and the paper form for 2024-25 asked for an address proof document on top of it, a line the online upload list does not repeat.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The department publishes no exclusion list for this scheme, but its notice supplies one line that does the same work: applicants who have availed the benefit in previous years will not be eligible. Beyond that, a candidate who cleared the prelims in an earlier cycle than the one the notice names, and a candidate whose caste certificate is not an Assam ST (Plain) certificate, fall outside it. Preparation before the prelims is not covered at all.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

No continuation form exists, because nothing here runs across years. The guidelines describe a fixed grant paid to the beneficiaries the Selection Committee approves, not an annual scholarship revalidated each session, and the notice for 2025-26 bars anyone who has already taken it. An aspirant who clears the preliminary again in a later cycle is outside the scheme rather than first in line for a second sanction.

What you get

Award & benefits

The amount is set by exam, not by the applicant's marks, income or course. The guidelines fix two separate flat grants in a single sentence: a lower amount for a candidate who cleared the APSC preliminary, and Rs 40,000 for a candidate who cleared the UPSC preliminary. The APSC figure is legible only in the department's scanned original, so it is not reproduced here.

One older circular puts a different number in play. The department's notice for 2018-19 said the maximum amount awarded would be Rs 50,000. The two documents have never been reconciled in public: the guidelines set fixed amounts, that notice set a ceiling, and the notices published since carry no figure at all.

Whatever the figure, it is conditional. The department repeats in every cycle that the grant is not a matter of right and that assistance depends on the applicant satisfying the eligibility and on the financial allocation available for the purpose. Payment goes into the applicant's own bank account: the form asks for the account number, the bank name, the IFSC and a copy of the passbook front page.

• Financial Assistance is provided, subject to eligibility verification and fund availability.

What to prepare

Documents required

The proof that does the work is the proof that the prelims are behind you. The department accepts a recent result sheet or the mains admit card for that, and it wants the prelims admit card as well, so the roll number on the form can be matched to the paper the notice names. Date of birth is proved with the HSLC admit card, not a birth certificate.

The guidelines also list educational qualification documents, which the upload list above drops. A scanned degree or marksheet is worth having to hand even though nothing on the portal asks for it by name.

Step by step

How to apply

For its 2025-26 round the department moved the whole claim online and closed the counter, stating in the notice that applications will be entertained through the online portal only, at Assam's DIDS platform, dids.assam.gov.in. That is a change of route worth rechecking each cycle, because the earlier method was the opposite: download the prescribed format from the directorate's website and deliver it with the documents to the Directorate office at Rukmini Nagar, Dispur Last Gate, Satrinivash Path, Guwahati-6.

Tracking happens inside the same DIDS account that filed the claim. The portal signs a citizen in with a mobile number and a one-time password, or through e-Pramaan, and files every submission under a My Schemes tab whose Applied and Enrolled sections carry the status of each application. A claim that stalls goes to the portal's own grievance module rather than to the directorate's counter. Keep the registered mobile number live, because the sign-in password is sent there.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Every application received goes to the Director, who places the set before a Selection Committee; the committee scrutinises the applications and approves the list of beneficiaries. The guidelines name the committee: the minister of the department as chairman, the commissioner and secretary as vice-chairman, and the Director as member secretary. That is the sanctioning chain, and it is why an aspirant cannot chase a decision at the counter.

The committee also holds a wide discretion the department states openly, in the 2019-20 notice among others: it reserves the right to reject any application without assigning a reason if the application is not found satisfactory, and the directorate declines responsibility for false information supplied by the applicant. In practice the claims that fail are the avoidable ones, a prior benefit already taken, a prelims result from a cycle the notice does not cover, a caste certificate from the wrong wing, or no document that shows qualification for the mains.

Fine print

Terms & conditions

Three conditions ride on every sanction, and the department restates them in each cycle's notice. The grant is not a matter of right. It is extended subject to the eligibility being satisfied and to the financial allocation available for the purpose. And the Selection Committee may reject an application it does not find satisfactory without giving a reason, with no appeal route named in the notice.

Get help

Contact

The office is the Directorate of Tribal Affairs (Plain), Assam, at Rukmini Nagar, Dispur Last Gate, Satrinivash Path, Guwahati-6, and the notices for this scheme are signed by the Director, Tribal Affairs (Plain). The directorate publishes one email address for that post, directorate-tap@assam.gov.in, and no helpline attached to this scheme; a question about a claim already filed belongs in the grievance module inside the DIDS account rather than at the counter.

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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References

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