Chief Minister's Scholarship Scheme for Civil Services Aspirants, Manipur

What is the Chief Minister's Scholarship Scheme for Civil Services Aspirants?

Chief Minister's Scholarship Scheme for Civil Services Aspirants is a Government of Manipur scheme, administered by the Directorate of University and Higher Education (DUHE) under the Department of Higher Education, that pays for civil services examination coaching for graduates of the state. Coaching is delivered by ALS Satellite Education Private Ltd., New Delhi, in collaboration with the department, and candidates are picked through a free, open, written selection test held at Imphal. The scheme is widely referred to in Manipur as the Super IAS 500 scholarship, after the 500 seats it offers in a full cycle.

The problem the scheme addresses is a familiar one. A serious UPSC attempt from Manipur has usually meant relocating to Delhi and paying a coaching fee that runs into lakhs, which puts the civil services out of reach for capable students from families of modest means. According to the departmental notification, the scheme instead brings the coaching to Imphal, funds it, and rations the seats strictly by merit in a common test.

Key facts

• Implementing department: Directorate of University and Higher Education, Government of Manipur.
• Coaching partner: ALS Satellite Education Private Ltd., New Delhi.
• Registration: online, and free of cost.
• Selection: a two-hour written test at Imphal, with negative marking.
• Seats: up to 500 across five scholarship slabs.
• Physical class venue: State Academy of Training, Takyelpat, Imphal.

How much scholarship do you get and at which rank?

The scholarship is not a cash transfer. It is a fee waiver on the coaching programme, and the size of the waiver depends entirely on your rank in the selection test. The notification for the 2022-23 cycle sets out the slabs:

Two points matter here. First, only the top 200 are funded by the state government at 100%, and only they get face-to-face classes with visiting faculty at the State Academy of Training in Takyelpat. Second, the remaining slabs are corporate-social-responsibility support from the coaching provider, so those candidates still pay the balance of the fee themselves.

The published IAS Scholarship Exam Result 2025-26, uploaded by DUHE on 24 December 2025, lists 400 successful candidates rather than 500: 200 at 100%, 50 at 75%, 50 at 60% and 100 at 50%. The number of seats and the slab pattern are therefore fixed afresh in each year's notification, and the current-year notification is the figure to rely on.

Who is eligible for the Manipur civil services scholarship?

You can apply if:

• You are a graduate. The degree must already be completed.
• You are a permanent resident of Manipur.
• You had attained the age of 20 years on or before the cut-off date in that year's notification. The 2022-23 notification fixed this at 1 August 2022.

You are not eligible and cannot apply if:

• You are still pursuing graduation. Final-year students are outside the scheme.
• You are a working professional.
• You have already availed the scholarship in an earlier cycle under any slab. The 2022-23 notification barred anyone who had taken the 2021-22 scholarship at any percentage, so the benefit is once in a lifetime.
• You are not a permanent resident of Manipur.

Reservation in selection follows the reservation norms of the Government of Manipur. The published result sheet records categories as General (Unreserved), OBC (Meitei) (Unreserved), OBC (Meitei) with a category rank, and Scheduled Tribe with a category rank, and some candidates carry a "Age Relaxation Claimed" remark against their name.

How to apply for the Manipur Chief Minister's civil services scholarship

1. Watch for the notification. The Directorate of University and Higher Education publishes a fresh notification each cycle on highereducationmanipur.gov.in and in the state's major newspapers.
2. Check the eligibility cut-off in that notification: graduation completed, permanent residence in Manipur, and the age-20 cut-off date fixed for the year.
3. Register online, free of cost, using the registration link or QR code printed in the notification. The 2022-23 cycle used a short registration link published by the department alongside a scannable QR code.
4. Submit before the last date. Registration for 2022-23 closed on 10 October 2022.
5. Download your admit card, which is issued in online mode only.
6. Appear for the selection test at the Imphal centre allotted to you. The paper runs for two hours and covers current affairs and NCERT books.
7. Check the result PDF on highereducationmanipur.gov.in, which lists your rank, marks and scholarship slab.
8. Report for coaching to 100% slab candidates at the State Academy of Training, Takyelpat, and other slabs on the online or VSAT platform.

There is no offline application route. Registration for this scheme has been online-only since it was restructured, though the department publicises it through All India Radio and local television channels so that candidates in the hill districts do not miss the window.

What is the selection test and where is it held?

The selection test is conducted by ALS Satellite Education Pvt. Ltd. in coordination with the Department of Higher Education. For the 2022 cycle the department wrote to five Imphal colleges to arrange classrooms and invigilators on 16 October 2022 from 11.00 AM to 1.00 PM, with candidates distributed as follows:

• Oriental College, Takyelpat to 250 candidates
• N.G. College, Lamphelpat to 400 candidates
• Manipur College, Singjamei — 300 candidates
• Maharaja Bodhachandra College, Palace Compound to 300 candidates
• Modern College, Porompat to 457 candidates

That is roughly 1,707 test seats arranged for the cycle, against 500 coaching places, which is useful context on how competitive the test is.

The published result sheet shows the marking scheme in detail. Each candidate's row carries the number of questions attempted, right answers, wrong answers, blanks, positive marks, negative marks and total marks. The topper in 2025-26 scored 146.1 with 78 right and 15 wrong out of 93 attempted, losing 9.9 marks to negative marking. Leaving a question blank costs nothing, so guessing wildly is a poor strategy in this paper.

How is the coaching delivered?

Candidates on the 100% slab attend physical, face-to-face classes at the State Academy of Training, Takyelpat, Imphal, taught by faculty brought in for the programme. Candidates on the 75%, 60%, 50% and 40% slabs study through ALS's satellite and online platform, where classes delivered in Delhi are telecast to the state centre with two-way audio so students can put questions to the teacher.

The Manipur government has also supported satellite study centres outside Imphal, so aspirants in the hill districts are not required to move to the capital for the online mode. Candidates should confirm the centre allotted to them in the result and joining notification rather than assuming a location.

Common reasons candidates lose the scholarship

• Applying while still in the final year of graduation. The notification requires a completed degree, and this is the single most common disqualification.
• Missing the registration deadline. The window is short, the 2022-23 cycle ran from the notification date of 28 September 2022 to 10 October 2022, about twelve days.
• Claiming reservation without a valid certificate, which pushes the candidate back to the unreserved list.
• Repeat application after already availing the scholarship, which is expressly barred.
• Being in salaried employment, since working professionals are excluded.
• Wrong mobile number at registration, which makes admit card delivery and result tracing difficult since the result sheet is indexed by mobile number.

Where do you get help?

• Directorate of University and Higher Education, Government of Manipur, Nityaipat Chuthek, near Raj Bhavan, Imphal 795001.
• Phone: +91 7085303429.
• Email: edakuhe@gmail.com or contact@highereducationmanipur.gov.in.
• Notifications and results: the Notification section of highereducationmanipur.gov.in.

Each year's notification also carries its own helpline numbers for the registration and test window, the 2022-23 notification listed two dedicated numbers alongside the QR registration code. Always take the contact details from the live notification for the cycle you are applying in, since the coaching partner's helpdesk numbers change between cycles.

How to check your application status

This scheme does not run on an applicant login or a tracking portal. There are only two milestones after you register, the admit card and the result, and both are published as documents rather than tracked through an account.

1. Confirm your registration went through. Since registration is free and online, there is no fee receipt to fall back on. If you do not get an SMS or email acknowledgement within a few days of registering, call the Directorate on +91 7085303429 or write to edakuhe@gmail.com with your name and the mobile number you registered with, since the department indexes candidates by that number.
2. Download the admit card when it is notified. The admit card is issued only in online mode, through the same notification page on highereducationmanipur.gov.in. There is no separate "admit card status" to check; once the department posts it, it is available for every registered candidate to download directly.
3. Watch the Notification section of highereducationmanipur.gov.in for the result PDF. The result is not emailed or texted individually. It is uploaded as a single ranked list, such as the IAS Scholarship Exam Result 2025-26 published on 24 December 2025, and you locate your own entry by name or the mobile number you registered with.
4. Read your row in the result sheet carefully. Each row carries your rank, category, questions attempted, right and wrong answers, marks lost to negative marking, total score, and the scholarship slab you have qualified for (100%, 75%, 60%, 50% or 40%), so a single PDF answers both "did I qualify" and "how much scholarship did I get."
5. If your name is missing from the result despite having appeared for the test, do not assume rejection from a portal message, since none is sent. Contact the Directorate directly at the Nityaipat Chuthek office in Imphal or by phone, quoting your registration mobile number and test centre, so they can trace your answer sheet.
6. After qualifying, confirm your joining status offline. The 100% slab is expected to report physically to the State Academy of Training, Takyelpat; other slabs join ALS's online or VSAT platform. There is no separate digital confirmation for this step, so candidates should treat inclusion in the result PDF as their confirmation to report, and call the Directorate helpline if a joining notice does not follow within a reasonable time.

Because the whole process runs cycle by cycle rather than as a standing scheme with individual case files, the safest way to track your own status at every stage is to keep the mobile number you registered with active and to check the Notification section of highereducationmanipur.gov.in regularly during the weeks after the test.