Anundoram Borooah Award (Laptop and Cash Award), Assam

What is the Anundoram Borooah Award?

Anundoram Borooah Award is the Government of Assam's merit award for students who score above a notified threshold in the state board examination. The award is named after Anundoram Borooah, the first Assamese officer of the Indian Civil Service and a nineteenth-century Sanskrit scholar and lexicographer, and it is run by the School Education Department through the Directorate of Secondary Education.

For most of its existence the award was known to Assam families simply as the laptop award: students who crossed the merit line in the High School Leaving Certificate examination were given a free laptop, distributed at district and state-level events, often personally by the Chief Minister. That distribution is what made the award familiar across the state.

The award is now listed and processed as the Anundoram Borooah Cash Award Scheme (ARBAS) on Sewa Setu, the Government of Assam's citizen service portal at sewasetu.assam.gov.in, under the School Education department. Sewa Setu is the state's single-window platform for citizen services, offering online application, automated document verification, real-time notification and end-to-end status tracking, and it can also be used through Public Facilitation Centres (PFCs) and Citizen Service Centres (CSCs) across Assam.

That change of channel matters practically. It means the award is no longer something a school simply hands to a student on the strength of a results list. The student, or a guardian on the student's behalf, has to file an application on Sewa Setu within the window announced after the results and produce the documents the service page asks for.

Main features

• A merit award for high-scoring Assam board examination students.
• Historically distributed as a free laptop; now processed as the Anundoram Borooah Cash Award Scheme (ARBAS).
• Run by the School Education Department, Government of Assam.
• Applied for online on Sewa Setu, free of cost.
• One award per student per qualifying examination, de-duplicated on Aadhaar.
• The qualifying marks threshold and the award rate are notified separately for each examination year.

Who is eligible for the Anundoram Borooah Award?

You can apply if:

• You are a student of Assam who appeared in the state board examination covered by the current notice.
• You scored at or above the merit threshold notified for that examination year. Assam fixes this threshold afresh each cycle and has revised it upward more than once since the award began, so use the current notice and not a figure quoted for an older batch.
• You appeared in the examination year named in the notice. Each award cycle is tied to one specific examination.
• You can produce the original marksheet and admit card with a roll number that matches the board's records.
• You have a bank account in your own name, Aadhaar-seeded, capable of receiving a Direct Benefit Transfer, where the award is paid in cash form.

You cannot apply if:

• Your marks are below the notified threshold. There is no discretionary relaxation.
• You appeared in a different examination year from the one the current notice covers.
• You are not a student of Assam or cannot establish residence where it is asked for.
• You have already received the award for the same examination. A student cannot claim twice, and Aadhaar de-duplication catches repeat claims.
• Your marksheet, admit card and Aadhaar do not agree on your name, parentage or date of birth, and you have not corrected the records.
• You missed the application window on Sewa Setu. The service closes on the notified date and late applications are not entertained.

There is no income test published for this award. It is a merit award, not a means-tested welfare benefit, which distinguishes it from most Assam schemes where an income certificate is the first requirement. A family in comfortable circumstances whose child crosses the marks line is as eligible as any other.

What documents are required?

Scan each document as a clear, legible file within the size limit stated on the Sewa Setu service page. Sewa Setu performs automated document verification, and a blurred or wrongly cropped upload will fail that check rather than being read generously by a human.

How to apply for the Anundoram Borooah Award

1. Wait for the notice. After the board results are declared, the School Education Department notifies the award for that examination year, with the qualifying threshold, the award rate and the application window. The service then goes live on Sewa Setu as the Anundoram Borooah Cash Award Scheme (ARBAS).
2. Open a bank account in the student's own name if there is not one already, and get it seeded with the student's Aadhaar at the branch. Do this while waiting for the notice, because it takes days and it is the step that most often delays payment after sanction.
3. Register on Sewa Setu at sewasetu.assam.gov.in with a mobile number the student or guardian controls, and verify it with the OTP.
4. Search for the service; Anundoram Borooah Cash Award Scheme (ARBAS), listed under the School Education department, and open the service page. Read the eligibility and document list on that page before starting the form.
5. Fill the application form: student name exactly as on the marksheet, roll number and roll code, board, year of examination, marks obtained, district, Aadhaar number and bank details.
6. Upload the scanned documents and photograph in the prescribed formats.
7. Submit the application and download the acknowledgement carrying the application reference number. Save it; that number is what you quote in every follow-up.
8. Track the application on Sewa Setu until it shows as approved, and watch the bank account for the credit.

Students without a computer or a reliable connection can complete exactly the same process with assistance at a Public Facilitation Centre or a Citizen Service Centre. A small government-notified service charge may apply for assisted filing; the application itself is free.

How to check your application status

1. Log in to sewasetu.assam.gov.in with the mobile number you registered.
2. Open the application tracking option and enter your application reference number.
3. Read the stage shown; submitted, under verification, approved or rejected, and the remarks against it. Sewa Setu also sends real-time notifications to the registered mobile number as the stage changes.
4. Where the award is paid in cash, check the bank passbook or account statement for the Direct Benefit Transfer credit, which sometimes arrives before any written intimation.

Why Anundoram Borooah Award applications get rejected

• Marks below the notified threshold for that examination year.
• Wrong examination year — applying with a marksheet from a year the current notice does not cover.
• Name, parentage or date of birth mismatch between the marksheet, admit card and Aadhaar. This is the most common avoidable rejection; get the board record or the Aadhaar corrected before applying.
• Roll number or roll code entered incorrectly, so the application cannot be matched against the board database.
• Illegible or oversized uploads failing Sewa Setu's automated document verification.
• Bank account in a parent's name, or not Aadhaar-seeded, so the transfer cannot be completed.
• Application filed after the window closed.
• Duplicate application for the same examination.

If a rejection is factually wrong, for example, the marks were read incorrectly: reapply within the window if it is still open, and otherwise raise the matter in writing with your school or college head, who can certify the result and forward it to the Directorate of Secondary Education.

Where to get help

• Sewa Setu, sewasetu.assam.gov.in, for the application itself, tracking and portal grievances.
• Public Facilitation Centres and Citizen Service Centres across Assam, for assisted filing.
• Directorate of Secondary Education, Assam, madhyamik.assam.gov.in, the directorate under which the School Education department processes the award.
• Your school or college head, who can certify results and route a representation upward.

Anundoram Borooah Award rewards a result that is already on paper, so nothing about the marks can be changed once the board publishes them. What a family can control is everything else, an Aadhaar-seeded bank account in the student's own name, a marksheet and Aadhaar that agree on the spelling of the name, and an application filed on Sewa Setu inside the window rather than in the week after it closes. Confirm the qualifying threshold and the award rate for your own examination year from the current notice, because both have changed over the life of this award.