Assam State Guide: History, Government, Elections, Exams

Overview

Assam is the largest and most populous state of North East India, a land of river valleys, tea gardens and forested hills in the north-east corner of the country. It covers 78,438 sq km, about 2.4 per cent of India's area, and had 31,205,576 people in Census 2011, about 2.6 per cent of the national population. The capital is Dispur, which lies inside Guwahati, the state's largest city. Guwahati sits on the south bank of the Brahmaputra, the river that runs through the state and shapes its farming, floods, culture and politics.

Assam's name is linked to the Ahom kingdom, which ruled the Brahmaputra valley from 1228 to 1826. Earlier names include Pragjyotisha and Kamarupa. The British took the province after the Treaty of Yandabo in 1826, and built the tea industry that still defines the state's economy and image. At independence Assam was far bigger than it is now. Nagaland (1963), Meghalaya (1972) and Mizoram (a Union Territory in 1972, a state in 1987) were all carved out of its territory.

Assam is multi-ethnic: Assamese, Bengali and Bodo are the largest mother tongues, and tribal communities and descendants of tea-garden workers add to the mix. Citizenship and migration from Bangladesh have driven politics since the late 1970s, from the Assam Movement and the Accord of 1985 to the NRC and the Supreme Court's 2024 ruling on Section 6A.

The state is rich in wildlife. Kaziranga and Manas are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and Kaziranga holds more than half of the world's wild population of the one-horned rhinoceros (Wikipedia, as reported). As on October 2026, Assam has 35 districts, plus a newer layer of 49 "co-districts", explained in the administration section.

For exam preparation

• Assam's area is 78,438 sq km and its Census 2011 population is 31,205,576.
• The capital is Dispur, and Guwahati is the largest city.
• Assam has 35 districts as on October 2026, with five divisions as listed in the official pattern.
• Kaziranga and Manas are the two UNESCO World Heritage natural sites, both inscribed in 1985.
• Nagaland (1963), Meghalaya (1972) and Mizoram (1987 as a state) were carved out of Assam.

History

Assam's history runs from the legendary Pragjyotisha, through the Kamarupa kingdom and six centuries of Ahom rule, to British annexation in 1826. After 1947 it moved through partition, language politics, the break-up of the old province and a long movement over citizenship. The sections below follow that order.

Pragjyotisha and Kamarupa

The oldest name for the region is Pragjyotisha, used in the epics and Puranas. In that tradition its early rulers included Naraka and his son Bhagadatta, who appears in the Mahabharata. These accounts are legend, not recorded history, and exam books treat them as tradition. Pragjyotisha is linked in tradition to the Kamakhya temple on the Nilachal hill at Guwahati, one of the best-known shrines of the Shakta faith.

Documented history begins with the Kamarupa kingdom, dated from about 350 to about 1140 CE, which covered the Brahmaputra valley and at times parts of North Bengal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. Three dynasties ruled it in turn.

Dynasty	Approximate period	Notes
Varman	c. 350 to 650	Founded by Pushyavarman; peak under Bhaskaravarman
Mlechchha	c. 655 to 900	Capital Haruppeshvara, near Tezpur
Pala	c. 900 to 1100	Later capital Kamarupanagara, North Guwahati

Bhaskaravarman (7th century) is the best-known ruler; the Chinese monk Xuanzang visited his court. Copper-plate inscriptions are the main evidence for the dynasties.

After Kamarupa broke up in the 12th century, several kingdoms shared the region. The Kamata kingdom grew in the west, the Chutia kingdom in the east, and the Kachari and Koch powers in other parts. An inscription at Kanai-boroxiboa records the attack by the Turkish commander Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1206, which was repulsed. This is a common date in exam books.

The Ahom kingdom, 1228 to 1826

The Ahoms were a Tai people from Mong Mao (in present-day Yunnan, China). Their prince Sukaphaa entered the upper Brahmaputra valley and founded the kingdom in 1228. Over six centuries the Ahoms became Assamese in language and largely Hindu in religion, while keeping some Tai customs. The chronicles they kept, called Buranjis, are among the richest historical records in India.

The kingdom grew under Suhungmung (1497 to 1539), who defeated the Chutia kingdom in 1523. The king was called Swargadeo and was advised by senior ministers, including the Burhagohain and Borgohain. The Paik system, compulsory labour and military service by able-bodied men, ran the state's public works and army. Capitals included Charaideo, Garhgaon and Rangpur (Sivasagar). The kingdom peaked under Rudra Singha (1696 to 1714).

War with the Mughals. The Mughals tried several times to conquer the valley. Mir Jumla invaded in 1662 and 1663, and the Ahoms had to accept the harsh Treaty of Ghilajharighat in 1663. The Ahoms recovered under the commander Lachit Borphukan. In March 1671 he led the Ahom flotilla in the Battle of Saraighat on the Brahmaputra near Guwahati, against a Mughal force under Raja Ram Singh I. The narrow river and hills favoured the Ahoms, who had a stronger navy. The Mughal fleet was routed and its admiral killed. Lachit died in April 1672, and the Ahoms took back Guwahati for good in 1682. Lachit Borphukan is remembered as a hero, and his birth anniversary is observed as Lachit Divas on 24 November (commonly stated; date not re-verified).

Decline. The Moamoria rebellion (1769 to 1805), a rising of followers of a Vaishnava sect against the nobility, weakened the state. Burmese forces invaded from about 1817, and the British, already at war with Burma, entered the region.

British annexation, 1826 onwards

The First Anglo-Burmese War ended with the Treaty of Yandabo, signed on 24 February 1826 between the East India Company and the Burmese kingdom. Burma gave up its claims to Assam, Manipur, Arakan and Tenasserim, agreed not to interfere in Cachar and Jaintia, and paid an indemnity of one million pounds sterling in instalments. Assam thus passed to the British.

The British took the region in steps: Cachar in 1832, Jaintia in 1835, Upper Assam in 1838 and Sadiya in 1842 (Wikipedia summary). Assam was first part of the Bengal Presidency, and its status changed as follows.

Year	Change
1874	Separated from Bengal as a Chief Commissioner's Province, capital Shillong
1905	Joined to East Bengal as part of the Partition of Bengal
1912	Made a separate province again
1921	Became a Governor's province
1937	First elections under the Government of India Act, 1935

The province had two parts, the Assam Valley and the Surma (Barak) Valley, and included Sylhet and the hill areas now in other states.

Tea and the plantation economy

The Scottish trader Robert Bruce reported the wild tea plant in 1823, guided by local people including the Singpho chief Bessa Gam. The first commercial batch reached London in 1838 and sold in January 1839, and the Assam Company was formed in 1839. It struggled and was reorganised in 1847, but mechanisation made the industry profitable, and by 1888 British imports of Indian tea exceeded those from China.

Workers were brought, often under indenture, from areas now in Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, mainly in the 1860s to 1940s. Their descendants, the "tea tribes", are a large community today (see Demography).

Freedom movement, Partition and Gopinath Bordoloi

Gopinath Bordoloi (1890 to 1950), a lawyer jailed in the Non-Cooperation Movement, led the Congress in the province. He was Premier from 1938 to 1940 and again from 1946 until his death in 1950, and is counted as the first Chief Minister. He is credited with keeping Assam out of an eastern Muslim-majority group in the 1946 Cabinet Mission scheme (standard accounts; not re-checked).

The most serious territorial loss came with the Sylhet referendum on 6 July 1947. Sylhet, a Muslim-majority district of the Surma Valley, voted whether to join East Bengal (East Pakistan) or stay in Assam. About 56.56 per cent voted for East Bengal and 43.44 per cent to stay, per Wikipedia (239,619 against 184,041 votes). Sylhet went to Pakistan, but the Radcliffe award of 17 August 1947 gave its Karimganj subdivision (now Sribhumi district) to India. Bordoloi had spoken in favour of handing Sylhet over, to make Assam more cohesive. Refugees from East Pakistan, mostly Hindus, came into Assam after Partition.

Bordoloi also headed the Constituent Assembly sub-committee on the North-East Frontier tribal and excluded areas, whose work led to the Sixth Schedule. He received the Bharat Ratna in 1999 after his death.

After independence and the break-up of Assam

Assam in 1950 still included the Naga, Lushai, Garo, Khasi, Jaintia, Karbi and North Cachar hills. Hill leaders felt the plains-led government did not represent them, and the Assamese Official Language Act of 1960 sharpened this. Bengali speakers in the Barak Valley also protested, and the Silchar protest of 19 May 1961 is remembered each year (date commonly stated; not re-checked). The carve-outs were as follows.

New unit	Date	Notes
Nagaland	1 December 1963	Became a state after the Naga Hills district and Tuensang area were separated
Meghalaya	Autonomous state in 1970; full state on 21 January 1972	Khasi, Jaintia and Garo Hills; under the North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) Act, 1971
Mizoram	Union Territory on 21 January 1972; state on 20 February 1987	Was the Lushai Hills district; statehood followed the 1986 accord with the Mizo National Front

After Meghalaya's creation the capital moved from Shillong to Dispur (commonly stated, date not confirmed here). Parts of the Karbi and North Cachar hills stayed in Assam as autonomous districts.

The Assam Movement and the Assam Accord

From 1979 to 1985 the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad ran a six-year agitation against illegal immigration, mainly from Bangladesh, demanding that foreigners be "detected, deleted and deported". It involved strikes and blockades and heavy loss of life (over 855 deaths in one summary, reported). The Nellie massacre of 18 February 1983 killed well over a thousand people, mostly Bengali-origin Muslims (official figure reported as 1,800 or more; counts differ).

The Assam Accord was signed on 15 August 1985 in New Delhi between the Government of India and the movement leaders. It settled the cut-off dates as follows.

• Foreigners who came before 1 January 1966 would be treated as citizens.
• Those who came between 1 January 1966 and 24 March 1971 would be detected and have their names struck from the voter rolls for ten years, after which they would have full rights.
• Those who came on or after 25 March 1971 would be detected and expelled.

The Accord also promised border fencing and a revised electoral roll. The movement's leaders formed the Asom Gana Parishad, which won the December 1985 election. Some clauses are reported to be unfulfilled.

NRC and Section 6A

Section 6A was inserted in the Citizenship Act, 1955 to give legal form to the Accord: Indian-origin entrants from Bangladesh before 1 January 1966 are citizens, those from 1966 to 24 March 1971 must register, and later entrants are illegal.

The National Register of Citizens, first made in 1951, was updated in Assam under the direction of the Supreme Court, with 25 March 1971 as the eligibility cut-off. The final list published on 31 August 2019 included 3,11,21,004 people and excluded 19,06,657, as reported by the NRC authorities. Whether the final register has been formally notified by the Registrar General of India is not confirmed here, and exclusion appeals went to Foreigners Tribunals. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act of December 2019 caused large protests in the state.

On 17 October 2024 a five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court upheld the validity of Section 6A by a 4 to 1 majority. One judge dissented. The majority held that Section 6A is a reasonable political and legislative solution to the migration problem in Assam and that the cut-off of 25 March 1971 is valid (SC Observer and All India Radio reports).

For exam preparation

• Sukaphaa founded the Ahom kingdom in 1228; the Ahoms ruled until 1826.
• The Battle of Saraighat was fought in March 1671; Lachit Borphukan defeated a Mughal force under Raja Ram Singh I.
• The Treaty of Yandabo was signed on 24 February 1826 and passed Assam to the British.
• Assam was separated from Bengal in 1874 and became a separate province again in 1912.
• The Sylhet referendum was held on 6 July 1947; Gopinath Bordoloi was the first Chief Minister and a Bharat Ratna awardee (1999).
• The Assam Accord was signed on 15 August 1985, with 25 March 1971 as the cut-off for detection of foreigners.
• Nagaland became a state on 1 December 1963; Meghalaya on 21 January 1972; Mizoram on 20 February 1987.
• The Supreme Court upheld Section 6A by 4:1 on 17 October 2024.

Geography

Assam lies between about 24 degrees 8 minutes and 28 degrees 2 minutes north latitude and 89 degrees 42 minutes and 96 degrees east longitude. It has three natural parts: the Brahmaputra valley in the north, the Barak valley in the south, and a belt of hills (Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao) in the middle. A tropical monsoon climate, very heavy rain and the wide, shifting Brahmaputra decide most of what happens on the land.

Location and boundaries

To the north lie Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh, to the east Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, to the south Manipur, Mizoram and Meghalaya along with Tripura and Bangladesh, and to the west West Bengal and Bangladesh. The state therefore has international borders with Bhutan and Bangladesh. The area is 78,438 sq km (Assam government, Census 2011 profile).

Physiography

Brahmaputra valley. This is a long, flat alluvial plain, roughly 80 to 100 km wide and nearly 1,000 km long in the Wikipedia description. The river itself becomes as wide as 20 km in places. The plain is bordered on the north by the foothills of the Himalaya in Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan, and on the south by the Karbi Anglong plateau and the Meghalaya plateau. It is the heart of Assam: most of the population, the tea gardens, the oil fields and the main cities are here.

Barak valley. The southern valley is smaller, about 40 to 50 km across in one description, and is separated from the Brahmaputra valley by the hills. It is drained by the Barak river and includes the districts of Cachar, Hailakandi and Sribhumi (formerly Karimganj). Bengali is the main language here, spoken by about 80.8 per cent in the valley per Wikipedia, which is why the valley is also called the Surma-Barak valley in the Bengali tradition.

Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao hills. These ancient hills rise from about 300 to 400 m to nearly 2,000 m at the highest points. Karbi Anglong is a plateau of old rock set apart from the Himalayan ranges. Dima Hasao (the former North Cachar Hills) has deep gorges, the Barail range and the Jatinga bird phenomenon near Haflong, as is commonly reported.

Rivers

River	Position in Assam	Notes
Brahmaputra	Enters near Sadiya, flows west through the valley to Dhubri	Lohit and Dibang join near Sadiya; about 2,880 to 3,080 km overall (sources differ); about 700 km in Assam; enters Bangladesh as the Jamuna
Subansiri	North-bank tributary	Large tributary from Arunachal Pradesh; site of a big hydro project
Jia Bhareli (Kameng)	North-bank tributary	Joins in Sonitpur area
Dhansiri	North and south-bank rivers share the name	Two different Dhansiri rivers feed the Brahmaputra
Manas	North-bank tributary	Flows from Bhutan; gives its name to Manas National Park
Sankosh	North-bank, western Assam	Marks the western edge of the state
Burhi Dihing, Disang, Dikhow	South-bank tributaries	Drain the tea and oil belt of Upper Assam
Kopili	South-bank tributary	Flows from Meghalaya and the Karbi hills
Barak	Barak valley	Flows through Cachar, Hailakandi and Sribhumi into Bangladesh

The river-island Majuli, in the Brahmaputra between the main channel and the Kherkutia channel, is recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's largest river island. Erosion has cut it from about 1,255 sq km in the early 20th century to about 880 sq km (2024 estimate, reported). It became a district in 2016, the first island district in India. It has 23 active Neo-Vaishnavite satras (monasteries) out of the 65 founded after the visit of Srimanta Sankardev in the 16th century (Wikipedia).

Floods and erosion

Floods come almost every monsoon. The Brahmaputra and the Barak and their tributaries rise from rain in the catchment areas, and heavy silt makes the channels shift. A great earthquake of 1950 (magnitude about 8.6) and the earlier 1897 event (about 8.3) changed river courses and raised the river beds, according to commonly quoted figures. In the 2022 monsoon, floods hit 27 districts and more than 4 million people were reported affected at the peak (press reports; the totals varied through the season). Erosion is serious in Majuli, Barpeta, Biswanath, Dibrugarh, Nalbari, Sonitpur and several other districts. The share of the state's land at flood risk is not confirmed here, so no figure is given.

Climate

Assam has a humid sub-tropical to tropical monsoon climate. Humidity averages about 90 per cent in one source. Rainfall varies widely by place, from about 1,600 mm to over 3,500 mm a year, with a state average given as 2,900 mm in one source and about 166 cm (valley) and 183 cm (Barak) in another, so exact averages are not confirmed. Most rain falls from June to September under the south-west monsoon, with the peak around June and July. Summers are warm and sticky, with highs of 30 to 38 degrees Celsius. Winters are cool and foggy, with lows reaching 6 to 10 degrees Celsius in some places. Pre-monsoon thunderstorms in March to May, locally called Bordoichila, are common.

Soils, forests and minerals

The valleys have alluvial soils, which suit rice, jute and vegetables. The hill and foothill areas have red and laterite soils, which suit tea and plantation crops. Forests cover about 36.10 per cent of the area, or 28,313.55 sq km, in the India State of Forest Report 2023 (as quoted by a news summary; very dense forest about 4.07 per cent, moderately dense about 12.45 per cent, open forest about 19.58 per cent of the state). The same report is reported to show a fall of over 83 sq km from 2021 to 2023.

Assam's mineral wealth is mainly petroleum, natural gas, coal and limestone. One summary gives about 150 million tonnes of petroleum reserves, 370 million tonnes of coal and 462 million tonnes of limestone, but these are estimates of different years and are given only as indications. The oil fields are in Upper Assam (Digboi, Naharkatiya, Moran and others), and are covered in the economy section of this guide.

Wildlife and protected areas

Assam is part of the Eastern Himalaya and Indo-Burma biodiversity regions, with more than 820 bird species and about 190 mammal species in one summary. It is the main home of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros. Wikipedia's list of protected areas shows 8 national parks, 17 wildlife sanctuaries and 2 biosphere reserves (Manas and Dibru-Saikhowa).

Area	Key facts	District(s)
Kaziranga National Park	Reserve forest 1905; national park 11 February 1974; World Heritage Site 1985; tiger reserve 2006 or 2007 (sources differ); one-horned rhino, wild buffalo, swamp deer, elephants; area quoted as 1,090 sq km including additions, and 430 sq km in an older figure	Golaghat, Sonitpur, Biswanath, Nagaon
Manas National Park	Sanctuary 1928; biosphere reserve 1989; national park 1990; World Heritage Site 1985; on the danger list 1992 to 21 June 2011; area quoted as 850 sq km in one source, 391 sq km for the 1928 sanctuary; borders Bhutan's Royal Manas	Chirang, Baksa (BTR)
Dibru-Saikhowa National Park	Biosphere reserve 1997; national park 1999; about 350 sq km (biosphere reserve about 765 sq km); feral horses and white-winged wood duck	Dibrugarh, Tinsukia
Dehing Patkai National Park	Declared June 2021; about 234 sq km; rainforest of Upper Assam	Upper Assam districts
Raimona National Park	Declared June 2021; about 422 sq km	Western Assam
Sikna Jwhwlao National Park	Declared 15 August 2024; about 322 sq km	Western Assam
Nameri and Orang	National parks in the Sonitpur and Darrang areas (details not verified here)	Sonitpur, Darrang

Because sources differ on areas (older and newer boundaries), exam answers should rely on the years and the names, not the sq km figures. Other protected areas include Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary (a rhino sanctuary near Guwahati, commonly cited) and the Deepor Beel wetland, a Ramsar site near Guwahati (commonly cited; not re-checked).

For exam preparation

• Assam borders Bhutan and Bangladesh internationally.
• The Brahmaputra is joined by the Lohit and Dibang near Sadiya, and flows out of Assam near Dhubri.
• Majuli is the world's largest river island (Guinness) and became a district in 2016.
• Kaziranga was declared a national park on 11 February 1974 and a World Heritage Site in 1985.
• Manas is both a World Heritage Site and a biosphere reserve; Dibru-Saikhowa is a biosphere reserve.
• Forest cover is 36.10 per cent of the area in ISFR 2023, as quoted.
• Dehing Patkai and Raimona became national parks in June 2021.

Administration and districts

As on October 2026, Assam has 35 districts, grouped into five divisions. Since October 2024 there is also a second layer of 49 "co-districts" (sub-districts with their own headquarters and officials). The four districts of Hojai, Biswanath, Tamulpur and Bajali were merged temporarily in December 2022 and then recreated in August 2023, which brought the total back to 35. Three areas run under the Sixth Schedule have their own autonomous councils.

Divisions

The official pattern, as shown in a Wikipedia list, has five divisions. Each is headed by a Commissioner, an officer of the Indian Administrative Service, between the districts and the state secretariat. Each district has a Deputy Commissioner who is also the District Magistrate.

Division	Headquarters	Districts
Lower Assam	Guwahati	13
North Assam	Tezpur	4
Upper Assam	Jorhat	9
Central Assam	Nagaon	6
Barak Valley	Silchar	3

District table

Headquarters and divisions are from the Wikipedia list of districts, checked in October 2026. Where a headquarters name varies between sources, both are noted. Area and population figures are not given because several districts were redrawn after Census 2011.

District	Headquarters	Division	Note
Baksa	Mushalpur	Lower Assam	In the Bodoland Territorial Region
Bajali	Pathsala	Lower Assam	Recreated 2023 (carved from Barpeta)
Barpeta	Barpeta	Lower Assam	Home of the Barpeta Satra
Bongaigaon	Bongaigaon	Lower Assam	Refinery town
Chirang	Kajalgaon	Lower Assam	In the Bodoland Territorial Region
Dhubri	Dhubri	Lower Assam	Where the Brahmaputra leaves Assam
Goalpara	Goalpara	Lower Assam
Kamrup	Amingaon (as reported)	Lower Assam	Rural Kamrup, Guwahati's surroundings
Kamrup Metropolitan	Guwahati	Lower Assam	State's largest city, includes Dispur
Kokrajhar	Kokrajhar	Lower Assam	Headquarters of the Bodoland Territorial Council
Nalbari	Nalbari	Lower Assam
South Salmara-Mankachar	Hatsingimari	Lower Assam	Created 2016
Tamulpur	Tamulpur	Lower Assam	Recreated 2023, carved from Baksa
Biswanath	Biswanath Chariali	North Assam	Recreated 2023
Darrang	Mangaldai	North Assam
Sonitpur	Tezpur	North Assam	Seat of the North Assam division
Udalguri	Udalguri	North Assam	In the Bodoland Territorial Region
Charaideo	Sonari	Upper Assam	Site of the Ahom burial mounds (Moidams)
Dhemaji	Dhemaji	Upper Assam	Flood-prone
Dibrugarh	Dibrugarh	Upper Assam	Tea and oil centre
Golaghat	Golaghat	Upper Assam	Contains part of Kaziranga
Jorhat	Jorhat	Upper Assam	Seat of the Upper Assam division
Lakhimpur	North Lakhimpur	Upper Assam
Majuli	Garamur	Upper Assam	First island district in India, created 2016
Sivasagar	Sivasagar	Upper Assam	Old Ahom capital Rangpur
Tinsukia	Tinsukia	Upper Assam	Includes Digboi
Dima Hasao	Haflong	Central Assam	Sixth Schedule hill district
Hojai	Hojai (a list also gives Sankardev Nagar)	Central Assam	Recreated 2023
Karbi Anglong	Diphu	Central Assam	Sixth Schedule hill district
Morigaon	Morigaon	Central Assam
Nagaon	Nagaon	Central Assam	Largest population in 2011 among old districts
West Karbi Anglong	Hamren	Central Assam	Created 2016; Sixth Schedule
Cachar	Silchar	Barak Valley	Largest city of the Barak valley
Hailakandi	Hailakandi	Barak Valley
Sribhumi	Sribhumi (formerly Karimganj)	Barak Valley	Renamed on 19 November 2024

The Wikipedia list gives Nagaon the highest 2011 population (2,823,768) and Majuli the lowest (167,304) among districts, but these are on boundaries that changed later, so use them with care.

Formation of new districts

Several districts were created in the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s. Biswanath and Charaideo (2015), and West Karbi Anglong, South Salmara-Mankachar and Majuli (2016) are given in the Wikipedia list with those years. Bajali was notified on 11 October 2023, according to a news summary. Karimganj became Sribhumi in 2024. The delimitation exercise for assembly and parliamentary seats ran in 2022 and 2023, and Assam's boundaries were frozen during that work, which is why the four districts of Hojai, Biswanath, Tamulpur and Bajali were temporarily merged with their parents on 31 December 2022 and restored in August 2023.

Co-districts. On 4 and 5 October 2024 the state started 39 co-districts (called "Xama-Zilla" in Assamese) across 21 parent districts. Ten more began on 12 and 13 August 2025, bringing the total to 49. The ten are Boko-Chhaygaon and Palashbari (Kamrup), Borsola and Rangapara (Sonitpur), Mariani and Teok (Jorhat), Makum and Digboi (Tinsukia), Dholai (Cachar) and Dudhnoi (Goalpara). A co-district is a sub-district unit with its own headquarters, headed by a Co-District Commissioner, and with its own police and revenue staff. It is meant to bring offices closer to citizens. A co-district is not a full revenue district and does not change the count of 35. Whether any further change has been made after August 2025 is not confirmed here, so check the latest notification.

Local government

Rural areas have three tiers: gram panchayat (village), anchalik panchayat (block) and zilla parishad (district). One report for 2025-26 counted 2,192 eligible gram panchayats, 182 block panchayats and 27 zilla parishads in the grant lists, while an older count had 2,202 gram, 189 anchalik and 21 zilla parishads, so the numbers should be used with an as-on date. Sixth Schedule areas are covered by their autonomous councils rather than by the ordinary panchayat law.

Urban areas have a municipal corporation (Guwahati Municipal Corporation, as reported), municipal boards and town committees. The exact number of urban local bodies is not confirmed here.

Sixth Schedule areas

Assam is one of four states (with Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura) that have Sixth Schedule areas under Article 244(2) of the Constitution. The Schedule gives tribal-majority areas autonomous district councils with powers over land, forests, village administration and some courts and taxes. Wikipedia counts ten such councils across the four states. Assam has three.

Council	Districts	Notes
Bodoland Territorial Council (Bodoland Territorial Region)	Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa, Udalguri; one source also lists Tamulpur as a fifth	Formed under the 2003 accord; renamed Bodoland Territorial Region after the accord of 27 January 2020; 46 members (40 elected, 6 nominated, per Wikipedia); Bodo language is official
Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council	Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong	Hill district council
Dima Hasao (North Cachar Hills) Autonomous Council	Dima Hasao	Dimasa homeland; district formed 1970 per Wikipedia

The Bodoland Territorial Region area is about 9,612 sq km and had about 3.15 million people, with Bodos the largest tribal group at about 31.5 per cent (Wikipedia). Beyond the Sixth Schedule, Assam has created other autonomous councils by state law for groups such as the Mising, Rabha, Tiwa, Deori and others; this is common knowledge but the list is not confirmed here.

For exam preparation

• Assam has 35 districts as on October 2026 and five divisions.
• Karimganj was renamed Sribhumi on 19 November 2024.
• Hojai, Biswanath, Tamulpur and Bajali were merged on 31 December 2022 and restored in August 2023.
• The state has 49 co-districts, started in October 2024 (39) and August 2025 (10).
• Majuli, created in 2016, was the first island district of India.
• The three Sixth Schedule bodies are the Bodoland Territorial Council, the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council and the Dima Hasao Autonomous Council.

Demography

Assam is a mainly rural state with a very mixed population. Census 2011, still the latest published census, counted 31,205,576 people, the 15th most populous state in India. About 86 per cent lived in villages. Assamese, Bengali and Bodo are the three largest mother tongues, and Hindus and Muslims are the two large religious groups. All figures are Census 2011 unless otherwise stated.

Indicator	Census 2011 figure
Population	31,205,576
Males / females	15,939,443 / 15,266,133
Decadal growth, 2001 to 2011	17.07 per cent (India: 17.68)
Density	398 per sq km (340 in 2001)
Sex ratio	958 females per 1,000 males (935 in 2001)
Child sex ratio (0 to 6 years)	962
Rural / urban	86 per cent (26,807,034) / 14 per cent (4,398,542)
Literacy	72.19 per cent; male 77.85, female 66.27
Rural / urban literacy	69.34 per cent / 88.47 per cent
Villages / towns	26,395 / 214
Scheduled Tribes	3,884,371 (12.44 per cent)

These figures are from the Assam government's Census 2011 profile. Some web pages and Wikipedia show different numbers for the sex ratio (934), literacy (73.18) and urban share (12.9), which do not match the official profile and are not used here. The Scheduled Tribe figure is from Wikipedia. The Scheduled Caste share is not confirmed here.

Languages

Assamese is the official language of the state, Bengali is official in the three Barak valley districts, and Bodo is an associate official language in the Bodoland region (commonly stated; Wikipedia also lists Meitei in some areas). Mother-tongue shares for 2011 as reported by Wikipedia are below.

Language	Share of population (Census 2011, as reported)
Assamese	48.38 per cent
Bengali	28.91 per cent
Bodo	4.51 per cent
Hindi	3.21 per cent
All others	about 15 per cent

The share of Assamese speakers fell from about 60.89 per cent in 1971 to 48.38 per cent in 2011 (as reported). In the Brahmaputra valley Assamese speakers are about 55.7 per cent, and in the Barak valley Bengali speakers about 80.8 per cent. Nepali, Karbi, Mising, Santali, Odia and Sadri (the tea-garden lingua franca) are also spoken.

Religion

Religion	Share (Census 2011, as reported)
Hinduism	61.47 per cent (about 19.18 million)
Islam	34.22 per cent (about 10.68 million)
Christianity	3.74 per cent
Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism	each below 1 per cent

The 2011 Census was reported to show nine Muslim-majority districts on the boundaries of that time (news headline). Many Assamese Hindus follow the Neo-Vaishnavite tradition of Srimanta Sankardev.

Tribes and the tea-garden community

Assam has 3,884,371 Scheduled Tribe members (12.44 per cent). The five largest tribes are the Bodo (Boro) at about 35.06 per cent of ST population, Mising (17.52), Karbi (11.08), Rabha (7.63) and Kachari (6.52), as reported by Wikipedia. About 78 per cent of ST people live outside the autonomous districts. Bodo is the most widely spoken language among STs.

The tea-garden community or "tea tribes" are descendants of the labourers brought to the plantations from the 1860s to the 1940s (see History). They include Munda, Santhal, Oraon (Kurukh), Gond and Bhumij families who are Scheduled Tribes in their home states but, in Assam, are classified as Other Backward Classes. Estimates of their population vary widely; Wikipedia cites "around 7 million", mostly in or near the tea estates, which is not a census figure. Their literacy is reported at about 46 per cent against 72 per cent for the state. Their demand for Scheduled Tribe status has been long-running. A 2019 constitutional amendment bill passed the Lok Sabha but did not clear the Rajya Sabha (Wikipedia). Five other communities, the Tai Ahom, Koch-Rajbongshi, Chutia, Moran and Matak, are also seeking ST status, and existing tribes have objected to this.

Urbanisation and indicators

Guwahati is the main city; Silchar, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Nagaon and Tezpur follow. Assam had 214 towns in 2011. HDI and NFHS values were not verified here; use the latest releases.

For exam preparation

• Census 2011 population is 31,205,576; the sex ratio is 958 and literacy 72.19 per cent.
• The decadal growth rate was 17.07 per cent and the density 398 per sq km.
• The urban population is 14 per cent, with 214 towns.
• Assamese is spoken by 48.38 per cent, Bengali 28.91 per cent and Bodo 4.51 per cent (Census 2011).
• Scheduled Tribes form 12.44 per cent of the population; Bodo is the largest ST group.
• Hindus are 61.47 per cent and Muslims 34.22 per cent, per Census 2011 as reported.

How the state is governed

Assam has a parliamentary system under the Constitution of India: a Governor as constitutional head, a Chief Minister who leads an elected government, and a single-chamber Assembly of 126 members. This section describes structure, which stays the same from one government to the next. Names of sitting office-holders change, so this guide does not list them. For the current Governor, Chief Minister, ministers, Chief Secretary, DGP and Chief Justice, use the official state portal and our current affairs pages. Past office-holders whose tenures have ended are listed later in this part. The capital is Dispur, in Guwahati, where the Assembly also meets (Wikipedia).

The executive

Office	Role	How filled
Governor	Constitutional head; summons, prorogues and dissolves the Assembly, gives assent to bills, appoints the Chief Minister; has special responsibilities for the Sixth Schedule areas	Appointed by the President for five years, serving at the President's pleasure (Articles 153 to 156)
Chief Minister	Head of the government; leads the council of ministers	Leader of the party or alliance that commands a majority in the Assembly, appointed by the Governor (Article 164)
Council of ministers	Runs the departments; collectively responsible to the Assembly	Capped at 15 per cent of the House under Article 164(1A), which works out at 18 for 126 seats (our calculation: 18.9, rounded down), with a floor of 12
Chief Secretary	Head of the civil service and the secretariat	Senior IAS officer chosen by the government
Director General of Police	Head of the state police	IPS officer, selected under the Supreme Court's Prakash Singh guidelines
Advocate General	Chief legal adviser to the government	Appointed by the Governor under Article 165

Before 1950 the head of government of the Province of Assam was called the Premier. Wikipedia lists the Premiers from 1 April 1937, and shows a spell of Governor's rule from 25 December 1941 to 24 August 1942. The title Chief Minister came into use when the Constitution came into force on 26 January 1950.

Departments and bodies

The government works through departments headed by ministers and secretaries. The main constitutional and statutory bodies are:

• the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC, Articles 315 to 323), which recruits for state civil services;
• the Assam State Election Commission (Article 243K for panchayats), headed by a State Election Commissioner appointed by the Governor, which conducts panchayat and municipal elections;
• the State Finance Commission, the State Information Commission and the State Human Rights Commission; and
• the Lokayukta, covered in the next section.

The Chief Electoral Officer, a senior officer appointed with the approval of the Election Commission of India, runs Assembly and Parliament elections.

Sixth Schedule councils

Assam is one of the few states where an elected tier of tribal self-government sits between the state and the village. Under Article 244(2) and the Sixth Schedule, three autonomous district councils exist: the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) and the Dima Hasao Autonomous Council (DHAC). Each has its own elections, covered below. The BTC oversees five districts (Kokrajhar, Baksa, Udalguri, Chirang and Tamulpur), while KAAC covers Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong and DHAC covers the Dima Hasao district (Wikipedia). The Governor can make regulations for these areas, and the councils make laws on subjects the Schedule lists, such as land, forests and village administration.

For exam preparation

• The Governor is appointed by the President; the Chief Minister is appointed by the Governor.
• The council of ministers is capped at 15 per cent of the House under Article 164(1A), inserted by the 91st Amendment (2003).
• The Advocate General is covered by Article 165; the Governor's powers by Articles 153 to 167.
• APSC is a constitutional body under Articles 315 to 323; the State Election Commission comes under Article 243K.
• The capital is Dispur; the Assembly has 126 members and is unicameral.
• The Sixth Schedule (Article 244(2)) covers three councils in Assam: BTC, KAAC and DHAC.

Legislature, Parliament and judiciary

Assam has a single-chamber legislature, the Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly), of 126 members. There is no Legislative Council today. The state sends 7 members to the Rajya Sabha and 14 to the Lok Sabha. The 16th Assembly was elected in April 2026: polling was on 9 April 2026 and counting on 4 May 2026 (Wikipedia). The majority mark is 64.

Vidhan Sabha

The Assembly has a five-year term unless dissolved earlier. Wikipedia dates the Assembly to 27 March 1952, the date of the first general election; before that, a legislature with 108 members in its lower house had existed under the Government of India Act, 1935. Strength by period, from the election pages: 105 seats in 1952, 108 in 1957, 105 in 1962, 126 in 1967 and 114 in 1972 (after Meghalaya was carved out). The Assembly had 126 members again from 1978 and has had 126 ever since. Wikipedia's page on the 1952 Assembly notes that 31 seats were reserved for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes at that stage. After the 2023 delimitation, 9 seats are reserved for Scheduled Castes and 19 for Scheduled Tribes (details under Elections).

Strength changes through by-elections, resignations and defections, so we give the 2026 election result, not the live position.

Party	Seats won, 2026 election
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)	82
Asom Gana Parishad (AGP)	10
Bodoland People's Front (BPF)	10
Indian National Congress (INC)	19
Raijor Dal	2
All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF)	2
All India Trinamool Congress (AITC)	1
Total	126

BJP, AGP and BPF are the three parties of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) that won 102 seats between them. INC and Raijor Dal were part of the opposition front (reported as "Asom Sonmilito Morcha" in Wikipedia's page).

Speakers and officers

The Speaker presides over the House and is elected by members at the first sitting of a new Assembly. Wikipedia lists the first Speaker of the Assam Legislative Assembly after 1937 as Babu Basanta Kumar Das, and the first Speaker after 1952 elections as Kuladhar Chaliha. The incumbent Speaker and Deputy Speaker are not named here; past Speakers are listed later in this part.

Rajya Sabha

Assam elects 7 members, who serve six-year terms and are chosen by MLAs through the single transferable vote. The state has had 7 seats since 1956 (one more in 1952 to 1956, Wikipedia). Terms are staggered, with elections in two batches, in April and in June (reported). We have not listed members.

Lok Sabha

The state has 14 constituencies. After the 2023 delimitation, one is reserved for Scheduled Castes and two for Scheduled Tribes (Diphu and Kokrajhar; Wikipedia via Eastmojo). We did not confirm the name of the single SC seat. A new constituency called Kaziranga appears in the delimitation order (see Elections).

High Court

The Gauhati High Court sits at Guwahati and has jurisdiction over Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram, the largest number of states under one High Court (Wikipedia). It was established on 5 April 1948 as the High Court of Assam. It became the High Court of Assam and Nagaland when Nagaland was created in 1963 and took its present name in 1971, after the reorganisation of the region. The court ceased to have jurisdiction over Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura when those states got their own High Courts. It has three permanent benches: Kohima (Nagaland), inaugurated on 1 December 1972; Aizawl (Mizoram), on 5 July 1990; and Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), on 12 August 2000. Wikipedia gives the sanctioned strength as 30 judges (22 permanent and 8 additional), which the Centre can revise. Below the High Court are district and sessions courts in each district, family courts and special courts. Chief Justices with completed tenures are listed later in this part.

Lokayukta, Election Commission and other bodies

The Assam Lokayukta and Upa-Lokayuktas Act, 1985 received the President's assent on 12 December 1986 (Wikipedia), and the Lokayukta investigates complaints against ministers, legislators and public servants. The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 later required every state to have a Lokayukta. The State Election Commission, set up under Article 243K, conducts panchayat and urban local body polls. The State Election Commissioner can be removed only in the way a High Court judge can be.

For exam preparation

• The Assembly has 126 seats and a majority mark of 64; the state has 14 Lok Sabha and 7 Rajya Sabha seats.
• The Gauhati High Court was established on 5 April 1948 and serves Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Mizoram.
• Its permanent benches are Kohima (1972), Aizawl (1990) and Itanagar (2000).
• The Assembly meets at Dispur, Guwahati.
• After the 2023 delimitation, Assembly seats reserved for SC are 9 and for ST are 19; Lok Sabha seats reserved are 1 for SC and 2 for ST.
• The Assam Lokayukta law dates from 1985 (presidential assent 12 December 1986).

Elections

Assam has held Assembly elections from 1952 to 2021, and the 16th Assembly was elected in 2026. The Congress won every Assembly election from 1952 to 1972, lost power for the first time in 1978 when the Janata Party won, and returned in 1983. In December 1985, soon after the Assam Accord, candidates linked to the Assam Movement won an overwhelming number of seats and formed the government (the Asom Gana Parishad, AGP, being formed later). The Congress won again in 1991 and the AGP in 1996. The Congress won 2001, 2006 and 2011 under the same Chief Minister, who served 15 years. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which won 5 seats in 2011, won the largest number in 2016 and 2021 and again in 2026, when its alliance (NDA) won 102 of 126 seats. Turnout rose from 32.74 per cent in 1983 (during a boycott) to a reported 85.96 per cent in 2026, the highest in our table.

Vidhan Sabha elections, 1952 to 2026

Party names are those used at the time. Seat counts and shares are from Wikipedia's election pages. "Share" is the winning party's own vote share; "n/c" means not confirmed. Since the results are for the party that formed the government, the CM column gives the party only.

Year	Seats	Largest party (seats, vote share)	Runner-up (seats)	Government after the election	Turnout
1952	105	INC 76 (43.48%)	Independents 14	INC	49.42%
1957	108	INC 71 (52.35%)	Independents 25	INC	45.44%
1962	105	INC 79 (48.25%)	APHLC 11	INC	51.05%
1967	126	INC 73 (43.60%)	Independents 26	INC	61.83%
1972	114	INC 95 (53.20%)	Independents 10	INC	60.85%
1978	126	Janata 53 (27.55%)	INC(O) 26	Janata Party	n/c
1983	114 polled	INC 91 (52.53%)	INC(S) 4	INC	32.74%
1985	126	Independents 92 (38.9%)	INC 25	AGP, formed later	n/c
1991	126	INC 66 (29.35%)	AGP 19	INC	74.67%
1996	126	AGP 59 (29.70%)	INC 34 (30.56%)	AGP-led alliance	78.92%
2001	126	INC 71 (39.75%)	AGP 20	INC	75.1%
2006	126	INC 53 (31.08%)	AGP 24	INC with BPF support	75.77%
2011	126	INC 78 (39.39%)	AIUDF 18	INC	76.04%
2016	126	BJP 60 (NDA 86; 41.59%)	INC 26	BJP-led NDA	84.72%
2021	126	BJP 60 (33.21%)	INC 29 (29.67%)	BJP-led NDA	82.42%
2026	126	BJP 82 (37.81%)	INC 19 (29.84%)	BJP-led NDA	85.96% (reported)

Notes on the table:

• 1952 to 1972: Seat totals changed because the territory changed. Meghalaya was carved out as an autonomous state in 1970 and a full state in 1972, which accounts for the fall to 114 in 1972; we did not open pages on those reorganisations. The 1952 election used 81 single-member and 13 double-member constituencies (Wikipedia). In 1967 the table uses Wikipedia's figures; the same page gave a different majority figure, which we do not repeat.
• 1978: the Janata Party formed the first non-Congress government. The Congress had split; Wikipedia's table lists INC(O) 26 and INC(I) 8, and the labels of the factions are as Wikipedia gives them. We did not cross-check them.
• 1983: held in the middle of the Assam Movement, which called for a boycott, with 114 constituencies polled (Wikipedia). Turnout of 32.74 per cent is the lowest in the table.
• 1985: held on 24 December 1985, in two phases, after the Assam Accord, with 11.89 million electors. The 92 independents were candidates linked to the movement's leadership who later formed the AGP (Wikipedia). The remainder: INC(S) 4, Plains Tribals Council of Assam 3, CPI(M) 2.
• 1991: BJP made its Assembly debut with 10 seats. The figures sum to 116 of 126 because small parties are not itemised in our source.
• 1996: the sitting Chief Minister, a Congress leader, died on 22 April 1996, five days before the poll. The Congress had the larger vote share (30.56 per cent) but the AGP won more seats. Wikipedia's table sums to 122 seats and gives 122 constituencies; we did not reconcile this with the 126 total.
• 2001: the AGP lost power after a period when insurgent violence was a central issue (Wikipedia: 1,548 deaths in 1997 to 2001).
• 2006: the Congress won 53 seats and formed a government with the support of the Bodoland People's Front (BPF), whose 11 supporters won as independents. The AIUDF won 10 seats and independents 21 (Wikipedia).
• 2011: the Congress governed alone with 78. BJP won 5 and the BPF 12.
• 2016: polling on 4 and 11 April, results on 19 May. The BJP-led NDA won 86 seats (BJP 60, AGP 14, BPF 12), INC 26, AIUDF 13 and one independent. Turnout of 84.72 per cent was a record then. NDA vote share was 41.59 per cent, INC 30.96 per cent and AIUDF 13.05 per cent.

The 2021 election

Polling was held in three phases on 27 March, 1 April and 6 April 2021, and counting on 2 May 2021. Turnout was 82.42 per cent of 2,34,36,864 electors, 2.30 points lower than in 2016. The NDA won 75 seats: BJP 60 (33.21 per cent), AGP 9 (7.91 per cent) and UPPL 6 (3.39 per cent). The Congress-led Mahajot won 50, with INC 29 (29.67 per cent), AIUDF 16 (9.29 per cent) and BPF 4. The remaining seats were not itemised in our source; one went to a jailed activist who won as an independent. Wikipedia describes it as the first time a non-Congress alliance won consecutive terms in the state.

The 2026 election

Polling was held in a single phase on 9 April 2026 and counting on 4 May 2026. The number of registered electors was 2,49,58,139 and turnout was 85.96 per cent (Wikipedia; one news report on polling day gave 85.64 per cent, so treat the figure as reported). The highest district turnout reported was 95.61 per cent in South Salmara-Mankachar. The majority mark was 64 of 126.

Party or alliance	Seats	Vote share	Change vs 2021
NDA	102	48.02%	+27
of which BJP	82	37.81%	+22
of which AGP	10	6.48%	+1
of which BPF	10	3.73%	+6
Opposition front (Asom Sonmilito Morcha)	21	35.95%	-29
of which INC	19	29.84%	-20
of which Raijor Dal	2	2.68%	+2
AIUDF	2	5.46%	-14
AITC	1	0.89%	+1
Assam Jatiya Parishad	0	2.52%	no change
UPPL	0	2.29%	-6

All figures are from Wikipedia's election page. News reports agree on the headline seat totals (BJP 82, AGP 10, BPF 10, INC 19, Raijor Dal 2). We did not confirm the single-seat tally for the AITC from a second source. Wikipedia describes the result as the lowest tally of seats ever won by the INC in Assam. The UPPL, which won 6 in 2021 as an NDA ally, left the NDA before the poll over seat-sharing in the Bodoland Territorial Region and won none. The BPF, which had been in the opposition front in 2021, contested as part of the NDA in 2026. The Chief Minister's post is shown as "Incumbent" elsewhere on this page, and we do not name any member.

Lok Sabha results by party, 1999 to 2024

Year	Main results (seats)	Turnout	Polling dates
1999	INC 10 (38.42%), BJP 2 (29.84%), CPI(ML)(L) 1, independent 1	n/c	n/c
2004	INC 9 (35.07%), BJP 2 (22.94%), AGP 2 (19.95%), independent 1	n/c	20 and 26 April
2009	INC 7 (34.89%), BJP 4 (16.21%), AGP 1, AIUDF 1 (as AUDF, 16.10%), BPF 1	69.54%	April to May
2014	BJP 7 (36.51%), INC 3 (29.61%), AIUDF 3 (14.83%), independent 1	about 80%	7, 12 and 24 April
2019	BJP 9 (36.05%), INC 3 (35.44%), AIUDF 1 (7.80%), independent 1	81.60%	11, 18 and 23 April
2024	BJP 9 (37.93%), INC 3 (37.89%), AGP 1, UPPL 1	81.87%	19 and 26 April, 7 May

• 2019: BJP-led NDA won 9 seats; the AGP and BPF won none despite being allies.
• 2024: the NDA won 11 of 14 with 46.91 per cent of votes; the INDIA alliance won 3 with 39.98 per cent. Polling was in three phases and about 24.6 million electors were registered. The swing to the NDA was about 10.86 points compared with 2019 (Wikipedia). The 2024 seats were fought on the new boundaries, which came into force after the 2023 delimitation (our inference; the Wikipedia page does not say so in those words).
• 2009: AGP and BJP were in the NDA (5 seats); the UPA won 8 (INC 7, BPF 1).
• The 1999 figures come from a search summary of the Wikipedia and Indiavotes pages; the 1999 Wikipedia election page itself did not open, so treat them as reported.

By-elections

• 30 October 2021: five Assembly seats were polled (Mariani, Thowra, Bhabanipur, Gossaigaon and Tamulpur). The BJP won three and its ally UPPL two, so the NDA won all five (news reports).
• 13 November 2024: five seats (Behali, Dholai, Samaguri, Bongaigaon and Sidli) were polled after sitting MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha. The NDA won all five: BJP three, UPPL one and AGP one. Turnout was about 76 per cent (reported).
• The Mangaldoi by-election of 1979 is historically important because the electoral roll findings there triggered the Assam Movement (see Political history).

Local body elections

Panchayat, 2018. Polls were held in two phases on 5 and 9 December 2018, with counting from 12 December and results declared on 15 December. About 15.6 million voters took part and turnout was above 78 per cent. Across the three tiers (Zilla Parishad, Anchalik Panchayat and Gaon Panchayat) there were 26,784 positions. The BJP won 11,325 (42.28 per cent), the Congress 8,970 (33.49 per cent), the AGP 1,963, the AIUDF 1,319 and others 3,207 (Wikipedia).

Panchayat, May 2025. Polling was in two phases, on 2 and 7 May 2025, with counting on 11 May and results by 14 May; more than 1.8 crore voters were eligible and turnout was over 74 per cent, about 3.5 points below 2018 (Wikipedia). The polls covered 27 districts, outside the Sixth Schedule areas (reported). For the 397 Zilla Parishad seats, the NDA won 301 (BJP 274, AGP 27), the INC 72, the AIUDF 8, Raijor Dal 3 and independents 13. For the 2,188 Anchalik Panchayat seats, the NDA won 1,445 (BJP 1,261, AGP 184), the INC 481, the AIUDF 64, Raijor Dal 17 and independents 173, with a few more for smaller parties.

Autonomous councils. The three councils vote on their own cycle.

• BTC, 7 to 10 December 2020: 40 seats polled, turnout about 79 per cent. BPF 17, UPPL 12, BJP 9, INC 1 and Gana Suraksha Party 1. The elections had been due in April 2020 and were postponed because of COVID-19, with Governor's rule from 27 April 2020. The council has 46 members: 40 elected and 6 nominated by the Governor.
• BTC, 22 September 2025: turnout 78.42 per cent of about 26.6 lakh electors. BPF 28, UPPL 7, BJP 5 (Wikipedia). The BPF's gain of 11 seats ended the UPPL-BJP arrangement that had run the council since 2020.
• KAAC (26 members): the BJP won all 26 seats in the election Wikipedia places in June 2022 (we did not confirm the date from a second source). The next is due in 2027.
• DHAC (30 members: 28 elected, 2 nominated): the 8 January 2024 election gave the BJP 25 seats and independents 3 (Wikipedia). The next is due in January 2029.

Municipal elections are conducted by the State Election Commission; we did not open a source for the latest municipal results in Guwahati and other towns and do not give them.

Reservation, delimitation and electors

The Election Commission published its final delimitation order for Assam on 11 August 2023, using the 2001 Census. It kept the number of seats unchanged at 126 for the Assembly and 14 for the Lok Sabha. Assembly seats reserved for SC rose from 8 to 9 and for ST from 16 to 19. For the Lok Sabha, 1 seat is reserved for SC and 2 for ST (Diphu, newly named, and Kokrajhar). The order also created a new Lok Sabha constituency name, Kaziranga, a new Assembly constituency named Manas, and revised the names of 19 Assembly and 1 parliamentary constituency. More than 1,200 representations were considered, and 45 per cent of the suggestions and objections were addressed (EastMojo, Udayavani and Deccan Herald, via search). Villages and wards were kept intact as the lowest units. The next delimitation cannot take place until figures from the first census after 2026 are published.

Electors rose from about 2.34 crore in 2021 to 2.50 crore in 2026 (Wikipedia pages). We did not confirm the sex ratio of electors, EPIC coverage or the reservation of seats for women in panchayats.

Notable firsts and records

• The Janata Party in 1978 formed the first non-Congress government; the AGP's win in 1985 was the first by a regional party.
• The Congress's 95 of 114 seats in 1972 and its 91 in 1983 are among its best (Wikipedia).
• Turnout rose from 32.74 per cent in 1983 to 84.72 per cent in 2016 and a reported 85.96 per cent in 2026.
• In 2021 the NDA became, in Wikipedia's words, the first non-Congress alliance to win consecutive terms.
• The 2026 INC tally of 19 is described as its lowest ever in the state.
• In the 1952 election, 13 double-member constituencies were used.

For exam preparation

• The first Assembly election was held on 27 March 1952 with 105 seats; the Congress won 76.
• The Janata Party won 53 seats in 1978 and formed the first non-Congress government.
• The 1983 election saw turnout of only 32.74 per cent amid the Assam Movement.
• In December 1985 independents linked to the movement won 92 seats; the AGP formed the government.
• The Congress won in 1991 (66), 2001 (71), 2006 (53) and 2011 (78); the AGP won in 1996 (59).
• BJP-led NDA won 86 seats in 2016 (turnout 84.72 per cent), 75 in 2021 and 102 in 2026 (BJP 82).
• Delimitation order of 11 August 2023: SC seats 8 to 9, ST seats 16 to 19; total unchanged at 126.
• Lok Sabha: BJP won 7 (2014), 9 (2019) and 9 (2024) of 14.
• Panchayat polls: 5 and 9 December 2018 and 2 and 7 May 2025.
• BTC elections: December 2020 (BPF 17, UPPL 12) and 22 September 2025 (BPF 28).

Past Chief Ministers, Governors and office-holders

This section lists only people whose tenures have ended. The incumbent in each office is shown as "Incumbent" and not named; see current affairs. Dates are from Wikipedia's lists. Some tenures were interrupted by President's Rule or by acting appointments, which we mention only where our sources did.

Chief Ministers

Name	Party	Tenure	Notes
Gopinath Bordoloi	INC	26 January 1950 to 5 August 1950	Died in office; earlier Premier (1938 to 1939 and 1946 to 1950)
Bishnuram Medhi	INC	9 August 1950 to 28 December 1957	Won the 1952 and 1957 elections
Bimala Prasad Chaliha	INC	28 December 1957 to 11 November 1970	About 12 years 10 months
Mahendra Mohan Choudhry	INC	11 November 1970 to 31 January 1972
Sarat Chandra Sinha	INC	31 January 1972 to 12 March 1978	Won the 1972 election
Golap Borbora	Janata Party	12 March 1978 to 9 September 1979	First non-Congress Chief Minister
Jogendra Nath Hazarika	Janata Party	9 September 1979 to 12 December 1979	Ended with President's Rule
Anwara Taimur	INC	6 December 1980 to 30 June 1981	The first woman Chief Minister (our reading of the list)
Keshab Chandra Gogoi	INC	13 January 1982 to 19 March 1982	Ended with President's Rule
Hiteswar Saikia	INC	27 February 1983 to 24 December 1985; 30 June 1991 to 22 April 1996	Died in office in 1996
Prafulla Kumar Mahanta	AGP	24 December 1985 to 28 November 1990; 15 May 1996 to 18 May 2001	Led the Assam Movement as AASU president; two terms
Bhumidhar Barman	INC	22 April 1996 to 15 May 1996	Short caretaker spell after the death of the sitting Chief Minister
Tarun Gogoi	INC	18 May 2001 to 24 May 2016	Longest-serving (15 years)
Sarbananda Sonowal	BJP	24 May 2016 to 10 May 2021	First BJP Chief Minister
Incumbent	BJP-led NDA	Since 10 May 2021; re-formed after the 2026 election	Not named

Points to note:

• President's Rule (Article 356) and earlier Governor's rule: 25 December 1941 to 24 August 1942 (Governor's rule, province period); 12 December 1979 to 6 December 1980; 30 June 1981 to 13 January 1982; 19 March 1982 to 27 February 1983; and 28 November 1990 to 30 June 1991 (Wikipedia's list). That is four spells of President's Rule since 1950, all between 1979 and 1991.
• Muhammed Saadulah headed the province for most of 1937 to 1946 (Assam Valley Party), with Gopinath Bordoloi leading between 19 September 1938 and 17 November 1939 and again from 11 February 1946.
• The 2016 to 2021 term completed five years. The 2001 to 2016 period covered three consecutive Assembly terms (2001, 2006, 2011).
• We did not confirm a death date for any Chief Minister other than those noted as "died in office" in Wikipedia's list.

Governors since 1980 (earlier holders, 1947 to 1973, include Akbar Hydari, Sri Prakasa, Jairamdas Daulatram, Saiyid Fazl Ali, S. M. Shrinagesh, Vishnu Sahay and B. K. Nehru)

Name	Tenure (years, per Wikipedia)
Lallan Prasad Singh	1973 to 1981
Prakash Mehrotra	1981 to 1984
Tribeni Sahai Misra	1984 (acting, 18 days)
Bhishma Narain Singh	1984 to 1989
Hari Dev Joshi	1989 (72 days)
Anisetti Raghuvir	1989 to 1990 (acting)
Devi Das Thakur	1990 to 1991
Lokanath Misra	1991 to 1997
Srinivas Kumar Sinha	1997 to 2003
Ajai Singh	2003 to 2008
Shiv Charan Mathur	2008 to 2009 (died in office)
Janaki Ballabh Patnaik	2009 to 2014
Padmanabha Acharya	2014 to 2016 (additional charge)
Banwarilal Purohit	2016 to 2017
Jagdish Mukhi	2017 to 2023
Gulab Chand Kataria	2023 to 2024
Incumbent	Since July 2024

Short additional-charge spells (Arvind Dave in 2003 and K. Sankaranarayanan and Syed Sibtey Razi in 2009) are not shown in the table. Sir Muhammad Saleh Akbar Hydari held office from 4 May 1947 to 28 December 1948, and Jairamdas Daulatram from 27 May 1950 to 14 May 1956 (Wikipedia). We did not confirm exact dates for the post-1980 tenures; years are as Wikipedia shows them.

Speakers of the Assembly

Name	Tenure
Kuladhar Chaliha	5 March 1952 to 7 June 1957
Devakanta Barua	8 June 1957 to 15 September 1959
Mahendra Mohan Choudhury	9 December 1959 to 19 March 1967
Hareswar Goswami	20 March 1967 to 10 May 1968
Mahi Kanta Das	27 August 1968 to 21 March 1972
Ramesh Chandra Barooah	22 March 1972 to 20 March 1978
Jogendra Nath Hazarika	21 March 1978 to 4 September 1979
Sheikh Chand Mohammad	7 November 1979 to 7 January 1986
Pulakesh Barua	9 January 1986 to 27 July 1991
Jiba Kanta Gogoi	29 July 1991 to 9 December 1992
Debesh Chandra Chakravorty	21 December 1992 to 11 June 1996
Ganesh Kutum	12 June 1996 to 24 May 2001
Prithibi Majhi	30 May 2001 to 19 May 2006
Tanka Bahadur Rai	29 May 2006 to 19 May 2011
Pranab Kumar Gogoi	6 June 2011 to 19 May 2016
Hitendra Nath Goswami	30 January 2017 to 20 May 2021
Biswajit Daimary	21 May 2021 to 21 May 2026
Incumbent	Since 21 May 2026

The Assembly also had a short Speaker term from 1 June 2016 to 30 January 2017, held by the person who is now the Incumbent, so we do not name it. The first Speaker after the 1937 elections was Babu Basanta Kumar Das (Wikipedia).

Chief Justices of the Gauhati High Court

Wikipedia lists 43 Chief Justices from 1948 to the present. The list below starts from 1991.

Chief Justice	Tenure
Ullal Lakshminarayana Bhat	20 August 1991 to 12 December 1993
Rajkumar Manisana Singh	27 January 1994 to 1 February 1994
Viney Krishna Khanna	24 April 1994 to 14 February 1997
Muniyallappa Ramakrishna	18 June 1997 to 12 April 1998
Brijesh Kumar	12 February 1999 to 18 October 2000
Naresh Chandra Jain	19 October 2000 to 5 April 2001
Ravinder Singh Mongia	21 September 2001 to 9 June 2002
Prakash Prabhakar Naolekar	10 June 2002 to 26 August 2004
Binod Kumar Roy	21 May 2005 to 29 September 2005
Buchireddy Sudershan Reddy	5 December 2005 to 11 January 2007
Jasti Chelameswar	3 May 2007 to 16 March 2010
Ramesh Surajmal Garg	17 April 2010 to 18 June 2010
Madan Lokur	24 June 2010 to 14 November 2011
Adarsh Kumar Goel	20 December 2011 to 11 October 2013
Abhay Manohar Sapre	19 October 2013 to 12 August 2014
Ajit Singh	5 March 2016 to 5 September 2018
Ajjikuttira Somaiah Bopanna	29 October 2018 to 23 May 2019
Ajai Lamba	7 October 2019 to 20 September 2020
Sudhanshu Dhulia	10 January 2021 to 8 May 2022
Rashmin Manharbhai Chhaya	23 June 2022 to 11 January 2023
Sandeep Mehta	15 February 2023 to 8 November 2023
Vijay Bishnoi	5 February 2024 to 29 May 2025
Incumbent	Since 21 July 2025

Gaps between rows were filled by acting Chief Justices, who are not listed here. The Chief Justice just before this list was Anisetti Raghuvir (6 May 1988 to 21 March 1991). Wikipedia's Governors list also shows an Anisetti Raghuvir as acting Governor in 1989 to 1990; we did not check whether it is the same person or how the two offices overlapped.

For exam preparation

• Gopinath Bordoloi was the first Chief Minister of Assam after the Constitution came into force (26 January 1950) and died in office in August 1950.
• Tarun Gogoi served about 15 years (2001 to 2016), the longest tenure.
• Golap Borbora led the first non-Congress government (Janata Party, 1978).
• Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was Chief Minister in 1985 to 1990 and 1996 to 2001; the AGP formed the government after the 1985 Accord.
• President's Rule was imposed four times, between 1979 and 1991.
• Anwara Taimur (1980 to 1981) was the first woman Chief Minister, by our reading of the list.
• The first Speaker of the Assembly after 1952 was Kuladhar Chaliha; the Gauhati High Court's first-listed Chief Justices run from 1948.

Political history and movements

Assam's politics since the 1950s is shaped by three strands: the question of migration and identity that drove the Assam Movement of 1979 to 1985; the demands of the state's tribal and plains communities for autonomy, which led to the Bodoland and Sixth Schedule arrangements; and armed insurgency, which peaked in the 1990s. In 2016 a BJP-led alliance replaced the Congress, which had governed for 15 years.

Early politics and the Congress era

The Province of Assam elected its Assembly in 1937, and Wikipedia lists Muhammed Saadulah (Assam Valley Party) and Gopinath Bordoloi (Congress) alternating as Premier until 1946. The Congress governed after 1950 under a series of Chief Ministers until 1978, with a short break (see Elections). In the period from 1960 to 1972 the hill areas separated from Assam: the Mizo Union and the All Party Hill Leaders Conference (APHLC) won seats in the 1952 and 1962 Assemblies, and Meghalaya became a separate state in 1972 (Wikipedia election pages; we did not open pages on the reorganisation). The strength of the Assembly fell from 126 in 1967 to 114 in 1972, then rose back to 126 from 1978.

The Assam Movement (1979 to 1985)

The movement began in June 1979 when the All Assam Students Union (AASU) said that, in the Mangaldoi parliamentary by-election, about 47,000 entries on the electoral roll had been challenged and around 26,000 were found to be those of non-citizens (Wikipedia). The AASU and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP, formed in August 1979) demanded that foreigners be detected, removed from the rolls and deported. In 1980 the movement prevented polling in 12 of 14 Lok Sabha constituencies (Wikipedia). President's Rule ran in 1979 to 1980 and again in 1981 to 1983. The February 1983 Assembly election was held despite a boycott call (turnout 32.74 per cent), and the Nellie massacre during the election killed thousands, according to Wikipedia; the exact toll is disputed and we do not give one. Wikipedia counts about 855 to 860 deaths among agitators. The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 is described there as making it practically impossible to prove that a person was an illegal immigrant (the Supreme Court struck it down in 2005, from our knowledge, not re-opened here).

The Assam Accord, 1985

The Assam Accord was signed on 15 August 1985 in New Delhi in the presence of the Prime Minister. It was a settlement between the Government of India and the leaders of the movement (AASU and the AAGSP), with the Union Home Secretary and the Assam Chief Secretary signing for the governments (Wikipedia). Its main terms, in the Wikipedia summary:

• those who came into Assam before 1 January 1966 would be treated as citizens;
• those who came after 25 March 1971 would be detected and expelled (the 1966 to 1971 group was handled separately, with names removed from the rolls and restored later, as the detailed text provides; we did not re-open the clause);
• the border would be sealed and patrolled, and the electoral rolls revised on these dates; and
• there would be economic measures, such as an oil refinery, paper mill and educational institutions.

Wikipedia notes that several clauses remain unimplemented. After the Accord, the Assembly was elected in December 1985 and the leader of the AASU at the time of the Accord became Chief Minister.

Citizenship, the NRC and the 2019 final list

The National Register of Citizens (NRC) was first prepared in 1951. Its update began in 2013 under Supreme Court monitoring (Wikipedia). Eligibility depended on tracing descent to the 1951 NRC or to the electoral rolls up to 24 March 1971 (midnight of 24 to 25 March). The final list was published on 31 August 2019: about 3.11 crore people were included and about 19 lakh excluded, of roughly 3.3 crore applicants (Wikipedia). An audit in December 2022 reported irregularities and a rise in cost from Rs 288.18 crore to Rs 1,602.66 crore (as reported by Wikipedia), and the original petitioner called the document flawed. We did not confirm whether the list has been notified by the Registrar General of India, and we do not give a position on it. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was also met with large protests in Assam in December 2019 (our knowledge; not re-opened). Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, which gave effect to the Accord, was upheld by the Supreme Court in October 2024 (our knowledge; not re-opened).

Insurgency, ULFA and peace agreements

The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) was founded on 7 April 1979 at Rang Ghar, Sivasagar, to seek an independent Assam through armed struggle. The Government of India banned it in 1990 (Wikipedia). It carried out bombings, killings and extortion in the 1990s and 2000s, and the 2001 election page puts insurgent-related deaths at 1,548 from 1997 to 2001. In 2011 the group split. The pro-talks faction signed a peace agreement in December 2023, which Wikipedia says led to the surrender or disbanding of about 8,200 cadres; a development package of Rs 1.5 lakh crore was announced (reported). The anti-talks faction, ULFA (Independent), refused to join and is described as having about 250 cadres in camps in Myanmar (reported; contested figures).

Bodo accords and the BTC

Bodoland has been the subject of several agreements. The Bodoland Territorial Council was set up in 2003 under a peace agreement and held its first election in 2005 (Wikipedia). A new agreement was signed in January 2020 with the Bodo groups, under which the Bodoland Territorial Areas District was renamed the Bodoland Territorial Region and more villages were to be added (our knowledge; the Wikipedia page for the accord did not open, so we do not give figures or the full terms). The BTC held elections in December 2020 and September 2025 (see Elections), and Tamulpur has become the fifth district in the region. The 2026 Assembly election saw the UPPL leave the NDA and the BPF contest within it.

Recent political developments

The BJP, which had 5 seats in 2011, won the 2016 election as the head of an alliance with the AGP and BPF, ending the Congress's 15 years in office. It was re-elected in 2021 and again in 2026 (BJP 82, NDA 102). The Congress was reduced from 78 seats in 2011 to 19 in 2026. In May 2026 the Assembly lowered the eligibility threshold for the Leader of the Opposition from one-sixth to one-tenth of the House (16 May 2026, Wikipedia) so the Congress could retain the position. We record the outcomes and do not assess them.

For exam preparation

• The Assam Movement ran from 1979 to 1985 under the AASU and the AAGSP; it began after the Mangaldoi by-election finding.
• The Assam Accord was signed on 15 August 1985; the cut-off dates are 1 January 1966 and 25 March 1971.
• The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act was passed in 1983.
• The NRC update began in 2013 under Supreme Court monitoring; the final list was published on 31 August 2019 (about 3.11 crore included and about 19 lakh excluded).
• ULFA was founded on 7 April 1979 and banned in 1990; the pro-talks faction signed a peace agreement in December 2023.
• The BTC was created in 2003 and first elected in 2005; the 2020 agreement renamed the BTAD as the Bodoland Territorial Region.
• The BJP-led NDA first won in 2016; it won again in 2021 and 2026.

Budget and governance

Assam presented a full budget for 2026-27 on 10 July 2026, after the Assembly election. This is as on 4 October 2026; budget numbers change at revision, so check the latest. The figures below are from PRS Legislative Research (we did not open the budget speech or the Assembly's own papers). We do not name the Finance Minister.

Budget estimates, 2026-27

Item	Figure
Total expenditure (excluding debt repayment)	Rs 1,48,029 crore, 13% lower than the revised estimate for 2025-26
Total receipts (excluding borrowing)	Rs 1,21,843 crore, 1% higher than the 2025-26 revised estimate
Fiscal deficit	Rs 26,186 crore, 3% of GSDP
Revenue balance	Estimated at zero (neither surplus nor deficit)
Outstanding liabilities	24% of GSDP at the end of 2026-27
Own resources	Rs 42,449 crore (36% of revenue receipts)
Central transfers	Rs 76,113 crore (64% of revenue receipts)
of which share in central taxes	Rs 47,905 crore
of which grants-in-aid	Rs 28,208 crore

The fall in spending against the revised estimates of the previous year is as PRS reports it; we did not examine the reason, such as one-time items in the earlier year.

Headline allocations

PRS lists (Rs crore): education, sports, arts and culture 25,873; social welfare and nutrition 11,934 (including Rs 3,700 crore for the Orunodoi cash-transfer scheme); transport 11,504; and health and family welfare 8,998. Roughly two-thirds of revenue receipts come from the Centre, which means the state's finances depend heavily on Union tax devolution and grants.

Fiscal indicators and governance

• The budget aims at a fiscal deficit of 3 per cent of GSDP and a zero revenue balance; outstanding liabilities of 24 per cent of GSDP are projected for March 2027 (PRS). We did not confirm the state's current FRBM targets.
• The state's e-governance and administrative reforms are covered in Part C and on the state portal; we did not verify any reform claims for this part. We also did not confirm the number of districts or the number of departments, which change over time.

For exam preparation

• The 2026-27 full budget was presented on 10 July 2026 (as on October 2026).
• Fiscal deficit target: 3.0 per cent of GSDP (Rs 26,186 crore); revenue balance: zero.
• Central transfers are about 64 per cent of revenue receipts; the state's own resources are about 36 per cent (PRS).
• The Orunodoi scheme has Rs 3,700 crore in the social welfare allocation.
• Outstanding liabilities are projected at 24 per cent of GSDP at the end of 2026-27.

Economy

Assam is the largest economy in the Northeast and the region's main gateway to the rest of India. It is built on tea, crude oil and natural gas, rice farming and a growing services sector, but income per person is still well below the national average. The state is one of the few in India whose modern industrial map was shaped by a political settlement: the 1985 Assam Accord promised a refinery, a gas cracker, an IIT and a university, and several of them now anchor the economy. As on October 2026, the main figures below come from the PRS Legislative Research analysis of the 2026-27 budget; we did not open the Assam Economic Survey itself.

Size, growth and income

Indicator	Value	Source / note
GSDP, current prices, 2026-27 (budget projection)	About ₹8.71 lakh crore, up 17% on 2025-26	PRS analysis of the 2026-27 budget
GSDP growth, 2025-26, constant (2011-12) prices	About 10% (estimate)	PRS
Per capita GSDP, 2025-26	₹2,03,760, up 15% on 2024-25	PRS
Rank by GSDP	17th among states	Reported on a reference page; not checked elsewhere
Rank by per capita income	28th among states	Reported on a reference page; not checked elsewhere
Sector shares of output, 2021-22	Agriculture 25%, industry 30%, services 45%	Reported on a reference page; not checked against the Economic Survey

"Current prices" means the value in that year's rupees, so part of any rise is inflation. "Constant prices" removes inflation and is the figure used to compare real growth. Per capita GSDP is the state's output divided by its population; it is an average and does not show how evenly income is spread.

A reference page notes that Assam's per capita income was about 4% above the national average in 1950-51 and about 41% below it by 1998-99. This is a reported long-run trend, useful as context: the state lost ground for decades, and the present growth is partly catch-up. The same page reports real GSDP growth of about 7.2% a year between 2012 and 2025.

What drives the economy

• Tea. Assam grows roughly half of India's tea, and the industry employs a very large workforce on plantations. It is covered in the next section.
• Oil, gas and petrochemicals. Digboi, Duliajan, Numaligarh and Lepetkata make Assam India's oldest oil province and the centre of Northeast hydrocarbons.
• Agriculture. Rice is the main crop, but yields are below the national level. A reference page reports about 1,531 kg per hectare against 1,927 kg for India (year not stated), which we treat as indicative.
• Services and trade. Guwahati is the commercial hub for the whole region, with banking, trade, health care, education and a large government workforce. Tourism adds to this.
• Transit location. Assam links the Northeast to the rest of India through a narrow corridor in North Bengal, and its waterways and bridges carry much of the region's trade.

Public finances

The 2026-27 numbers below are from PRS's analysis of the budget documents tabled in February 2026 (a vote on account, that is, an interim budget before the state election). A full budget was reported on 10 July 2026 with a much larger outlay; the Budget and governance section covers it. Because the two sets of totals do not match, this section quotes only ratios, not the revenue totals.

Indicator	Value
Own tax revenue	About ₹36,000 crore, or 4.1% of GSDP
State GST (SGST)	About ₹18,674 crore, the largest tax source at 52% of own tax revenue
State excise	About ₹4,700 crore
Share of receipts from central transfers	64% (own resources 36%)
Fiscal deficit target	3% of GSDP
Outstanding liabilities	24% of GSDP

The high share of central transfers is typical of Northeastern states, which receive larger grants and have a smaller tax base. The fiscal deficit target of 3% of GSDP is the ceiling under the state's Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) law, which requires the government to keep borrowing within a set limit.

Poverty

NITI Aayog's National Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), based on NFHS-5 (2019-21), shows Assam's share of multidimensionally poor people falling from 32.65% in 2015-16 to 19.35% in 2019-21, a drop of 13.30 percentage points. A news report on the study says about 46.87 lakh people left multidimensional poverty in that period. The MPI measures health, education and living standards together, not income alone.

Semiconductors and new industry

The most visible new project is the Tata Semiconductor Assembly and Test plant at Jagiroad in Morigaon district. A November 2025 report gave the investment as ₹27,000 crore, planned capacity as 48 million chips a day, and direct jobs at about 15,000, with first-phase commissioning targeted for April 2026. As on October 2026, secondary reports say construction is nearly complete and production is expected within the financial year; we could not confirm that the plant has started commercial output. A report on the July 2026 budget also mentions a ₹1,164 crore, five-year allocation for a semiconductor ecosystem, which we treat as reported.

For exam preparation

• Assam's GSDP for 2026-27 is projected at about ₹8.71 lakh crore (PRS analysis).
• Per capita GSDP for 2025-26 is about ₹2.04 lakh.
• Assam's multidimensional poverty fell from 32.65% to 19.35% between NFHS-4 and NFHS-5 (NITI Aayog).
• The Assam Accord of 1985 is linked to the IIT Guwahati, Tezpur University and the gas cracker project.
• The Tata semiconductor plant is at Jagiroad, Morigaon.

Agriculture, forests, minerals, industry and energy

Assam's land use is a story of three things: tea on the upper Brahmaputra plain, rice and jute on the floodplain, and large forests and wildlife reserves along the hills and riverbanks. Underneath lies the oldest oil province in India. This section covers farming, forests, minerals, industry and power.

Tea

Tea is Assam's signature industry. Scottish adventurer Robert Bruce is reported to have found the native tea plant around 1823; his brother Charles later arranged its identification as a distinct variety (Camellia sinensis var. assamica), different from the Chinese plant. The variety gives the strong, malty, bright-liquoring tea that Assam is known for. A reference page also notes "Tea Garden Time", an hour ahead of Indian Standard Time, introduced in colonial times to use daylight better on plantations.

Production is concentrated in the upper Assam districts and the Brahmaputra valley. Reported Tea Board figures show Assam produced about 646.7 million kg in 2024, of which about 574.9 million kg was CTC and about 71.8 million kg orthodox tea. In September 2024 Assam produced about 90 million kg of a national 164.6 million kg, which is more than half, and Assam is commonly described as producing about half of India's tea. A reference page gives a higher figure of 60%; because the two sources differ, treat "about half" as the safe statement.

• CTC (crush, tear, curl) tea is processed into small, dense granules and is used mostly for tea bags and the domestic market.
• Orthodox tea is whole-leaf or broken-leaf tea, rolled the traditional way, and fetches higher prices. Assam orthodox second-flush tea is especially valued.
• GI status. The Tea Board registered "Assam Tea (Logo)" as Assam's first Geographical Indication in 2007. The "Assam (Orthodox) Logo" was filed as GI application no. 115 on 19 November 2007, with certificate no. 101 dated 2 December 2008, valid to 18 November 2027, according to the GI Registry entry.

Crops and farming

Rice dominates the cropped area, grown in three seasons (sali, ahu and bao). Other important crops are jute, oilseeds, pulses, vegetables, areca nut, banana and citrus. The state's GI-tagged farm products include Joha rice (aromatic), Boka chaul (a soft "mud rice" that can be eaten after soaking in water), Chokuwa rice, Tezpur litchi, Karbi Anglong ginger and Kaji nemu (Assam lemon). Floods and bank erosion by the Brahmaputra damage crops and farmland every year, which is a basic reason why productivity is low. Silk rearing is another tradition: Muga, Eri and Pat silk are produced, and Muga, which comes only from Assam, is covered under Culture.

Forests and wildlife

According to the India State of Forest Report 2023, as reported in the press, Assam's forest cover is about 28,313.55 sq km, or 36.10% of the state's area. By density that is about 4.07% very dense forest, 12.45% moderately dense and 19.58% open forest, each as a share of the state's area. The recorded forest area (land officially classed as forest) is about 26,836 sq km, or 34.21% of the area. The same reports say forest cover fell by about 83 sq km between the 2021 and 2023 assessments. A separate tree-cover total quoted in the same reports did not add up cleanly, so we leave it out.

Assam is one of the world's richest biodiversity regions. A reference page records about 820 bird species and 190 mammal species. It hosts the largest population of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros, with Kaziranga holding the majority. Other major reserves are Manas, Dibru-Saikhowa, Nameri, Orang and Pobitora.

Minerals and oil

• Crude oil and gas. Assam's crude production was reported at about 4.36 million tonnes in 2023-24 and utilised natural gas at about 3,187 million cubic metres (a state statistical compilation; treat as reported).
• Coal. Coal is found mainly in the Makum and Dilli-Jeypore coalfields of Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts. We could not confirm a reliable production figure, so none is given.
• Other minerals. Limestone and clay deposits are known in the hill districts (general knowledge, not rechecked here).

Digboi and the oil story

Oil was first noticed near Digboi in 1867, reportedly by workers building a railway line for the Assam Railways and Trading Company. The first well was started in September 1889 and completed in November 1890 at 662 feet. The Assam Oil Company formed in 1899 to take over the company's oil interests, and the Digboi refinery was commissioned on 11 December 1901, widely described as Asia's first refinery. Indian Oil has run it since 1981; its capacity is about 0.65 million tonnes a year. Digboi's own field output has fallen far below its Second World War peak of about 7,000 barrels a day.

Oil India Limited was founded on 18 February 1959 and has its field headquarters at Duliajan. It built a 1,157 km crude pipeline in 1962 and a 660 km pipeline from Numaligarh to Siliguri in 2007. The Government of India held about 56.66% of its shares in the reference source, and the company was reported as a Maharatna company in 2023. ONGC also operates oil and gas fields in Assam; we did not verify its Assam figures.

Numaligarh and Lepetkata

The Numaligarh Refinery, at Morangi in Golaghat district, began commercial production on 1 October 2000. A reference page gives its capacity as 3 million tonnes a year as of 2014, with an expansion to 9 million tonnes approved in January 2019; we did not confirm how far the expansion has progressed. The same page reports that it became a Navratna company in December 2025 and that it now sits under Oil India; we treat this ownership statement as reported and not confirmed, since the refinery was earlier a BPCL subsidiary.

The Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Limited (BCPL) at Lepetkata, Dibrugarh, was inaugurated on 6 February 2016 and is the Northeast's first petrochemical project. It grew from the Assam Gas Cracker Project, a commitment in the 1985 Assam Accord. GAIL holds 70%, with the Assam government, Numaligarh Refinery and Oil India holding 10% each. It reported 106% capacity use and ₹2,819 crore turnover in 2020-21.

Power and energy

A reported April 2026 compilation puts Assam's installed capacity at about 2,693 MW, the highest in the Northeast. Central Electricity Authority planning reports, as cited in the press, project peak demand of about 2,800 MW in 2024-25 rising to about 6,153 MW by 2032-33. The July 2026 budget was reported to include ₹77,353 crore of power-sector investment. We did not verify the split between thermal, hydro and solar stations.

For exam preparation

• Assam produces about half of India's tea; Assam Tea has been a GI since 2007.
• Digboi: oil noticed in 1867, first well drilled from 1889, refinery commissioned 1901, now run by Indian Oil.
• Oil India was founded in 1959 and is headquartered at Duliajan.
• Numaligarh Refinery is in Golaghat district; BCPL is at Lepetkata, Dibrugarh.
• Assam's forest cover is about 36% of its area (ISFR 2023, reported).

Transport and infrastructure

Assam's geography makes transport a daily test: the Brahmaputra is too wide to bridge easily, the state sits beyond a narrow corridor, and floods cut roads and rails each monsoon. The answer has been a mix of long bridges, a national waterway and a rail zone based in Guwahati.

Railways

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has its headquarters at Maligaon, Guwahati. It was formed on 15 January 1958 and, according to a reference page, has five divisions: Katihar, Alipurduar, Lumding, Rangiya and Tinsukia. It serves the Northeast and parts of North Bengal and Bihar. Guwahati is the main railway hub for the region.

Roads and bridges

Bridge	Facts
Bogibeel Bridge	Rail-cum-road bridge on the Brahmaputra between Dibrugarh and Dhemaji districts; 4.94 km; opened 25 December 2018; double broad-gauge rail track on the lower deck and a three-lane road above; cost reported at ₹5,960 crore; foundation stone laid in January 1997
Dhola-Sadiya Bridge (Bhupen Hazarika Setu)	Across the Lohit river, a Brahmaputra tributary; 9.15 km; inaugurated 26 May 2017; built to bear 60-tonne army tanks; named after the Assamese singer, composer and filmmaker
Saraighat Bridge, Guwahati	First road-rail bridge over the Brahmaputra in Assam, opened in the 1960s (date not verified here)

We did not verify the length of national highways or state roads. The July 2026 budget was reported to include Asom Mala 4.0, a plan for about 800 km of roads over five years at ₹10,000 crore, which we treat as reported.

Waterways

National Waterway 2 (NW-2) is the 891 km stretch of the Brahmaputra from the Bangladesh border near Dhubri to Sadiya, declared a national waterway on 1 September 1988. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) owns it, and the Central Inland Water Transport Corporation operates vessels. Pandu (Guwahati) is the fixed terminal; floating terminals include Dhubri, Jogighopa, Tezpur, Silghat, Dibrugarh, Jamuguri, Bogibeel, Saikhowa and Sadiya. IWAI is reported to have recorded a 53% increase in cargo on NW-2 in 2024-25, with tea, coal and fertiliser among the loads.

Airports

Guwahati's Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport (LGBI, IATA code GAU) is at Borjhar, about 26 to 28 km from the city centre, and opened in 1958. It has a 3,110 m runway. The Adani Group operates it under a 50-year lease (reported). A new terminal, built at about ₹4,000 crore with a design drawing on bamboo and local culture, was inaugurated on 20 December 2025; its capacity is reported at 13.1 million passengers a year. Traffic was about 7 million passengers in 2025, and cargo 32,990 tonnes in 2025-26 (reported). Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Silchar, Tezpur and Lilabari also have airports (general knowledge).

Planned capital shift

A July 2026 budget report mentions a ₹500 crore allocation for a "Dibrugarh Second State Capital Region". We could not verify its legal status or purpose beyond that mention.

For exam preparation

• NFR headquarters: Maligaon, Guwahati; formed 15 January 1958.
• Bogibeel Bridge (4.94 km, opened 25 December 2018) connects Dibrugarh and Dhemaji.
• Dhola-Sadiya (Bhupen Hazarika Setu) is 9.15 km long and opened on 26 May 2017.
• NW-2 runs 891 km from Dhubri to Sadiya on the Brahmaputra.
• Guwahati's airport is Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport.

Culture, tribes and heritage

Assamese culture is a blend. Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Aryan and Tai peoples settled the Brahmaputra valley over many centuries and built a common culture around rice, rivers, silk, bamboo and, from the 15th century, the devotional Vaishnava movement of Srimanta Sankardev. Three symbols stand for it: the tamul-paan (areca nut and betel leaf, offered as a mark of respect), the xorai (a bell-metal offering tray) and the gamosa (a white cotton cloth with red borders).

Languages and literature

At Census 2011, Assamese was the mother tongue of about 48.4% of the state, Bengali 28.9%, Bodo 4.51% and Hindi 3.21% (as reported on a reference page). Assamese speakers were about 60.89% in 1971, so the share has fallen over time. Religion at Census 2011: Hindus 61.5%, Muslims 34.2%, Christians 3.74%. Bodo is a scheduled language and is the main language of the Bodoland region; in April 2025 the state reportedly declared Karbi an administrative language in the Karbi Anglong districts.

Assamese literature has an old tradition of chronicles (buranjis) written under the Ahom kings, and then Sankardev and his disciple Madhavdev in the 15th and 16th centuries. One of the first Assamese periodicals, Orunodoi, began monthly publication from Sibsagar in 1846 (reported). Modern literature is led by Lakshminath Bezbaroa (general knowledge). Three Assamese writers have won the Jnanpith Award:

Year	Writer	Note
1979	Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya	For the novel Mrityunjay
2000	Mamoni Raisom Goswami	Lifetime contribution; also known as Indira Goswami
2020	Nilamani Phookan	Lifetime contribution; awarded for poetry

Srimanta Sankardev and Sattriya

Srimanta Sankardev (c. 1449 to 1568) founded Ekasarana Dharma, a Vaishnava movement based on singing and hearing the deeds of Krishna and open to all castes and communities. He wrote devotional songs (borgeets) in a literary language called Brajavali, composed one-act plays (Ankiya Nat), and is credited with the Vrindavani Vastra, a woven tapestry of Krishna's life. His disciple Madhavdev carried on the work. The movement created monastic centres called sattras and prayer halls called namghars, which remain the centre of village life. Majuli has many sattras.

The Sattriya dance grew out of these monasteries. The Sangeet Natak Akademi recognised it as one of India's eight classical dances in 2000. Its training units are called mati akhora, the main drum is the khol, and the music follows the borgeets. Monks once performed it alone; today men and women perform it on the stage, with both devotional and secular themes.

Bihu

Bihu is the cycle of three festivals tied to farming.

Festival	Season	What happens
Rongali (Bohag) Bihu	April, Assamese New Year	Seven days; cattle are washed and worshipped (Goru Bihu), elders are honoured (Manuh Bihu), and groups visit houses singing Husori
Kongali (Kati) Bihu	October to November	A lean season; earthen lamps are lit in the fields and at shrines to protect the standing crop
Bhogali (Magh) Bihu	January	The harvest feast; young people build a temporary hut and bonfire (meji) and feast together through the night

The Bihu dhol (drum), pepa (buffalo-horn pipe) and gogona (bamboo jaw harp) are the usual instruments, and a Bihu Dhol GI is listed in the state's GI products (reported). The Kopou orchid flowers around Rongali, and the foxtail orchid is the state flower.

Tribes and communities

Community	Notes
Bodo (Boro)	Tibeto-Burman group; about 31% of the Bodoland Territorial Region (reported); traditional faith Bathouism, now mixed with Hinduism and Christianity; New Year festival Bwisagu; dances such as Bagurumba; traditional dress includes the dokhona and the aronai cloth (GI)
Karbi	Population 421,156 (Census 2011); Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong, governed under the Sixth Schedule through the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council; funeral ritual Chomangkan; jhum farming
Mising	Tani-language group; Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Majuli; Ali-Aye-Ligang festival, held from the first Wednesday of February, and Po:rag (harvest); Mising Autonomous Council set up in 1995
Tiwa	Jonbeel Mela, a fair at which communities barter goods
Dimasa, Rabha, Deori	Other major scheduled tribes of the state (names only; not detailed here)

The "tea tribes" are not a single scheduled tribe: they are descendants of workers brought to the plantations in colonial times from central and eastern India. We do not give a population figure.

Folk music, dance and theatre

Assam's performing arts fall into three streams: the monastic tradition of the sattras, the folk arts of the plains and the dance and music of the tribal communities. The sattra stream produced Sattriya dance, the borgeets and Ankiya Nat, which is staged as Bhaona, a form of devotional theatre in which a sutradhar (narrator) introduces the story and actors play gods and demons in mask and costume. Bhaona is usually held in a sattra or village namghar.

The plains have Bihu songs (Bihu geet) and the Bihu dance, a lively group dance in which dancers in red-bordered white or golden-yellow silk dress move to the dhol; the Bihu dance is performed mainly at Rongali Bihu. Other plains traditions are Ojapali, a narrative performance by a lead singer (oja) and chorus (palis), and Deodhani, a trance-like ritual dance linked to Shakti worship (both general knowledge, not rechecked). The Bodo community's Bagurumba, often called the butterfly dance, is performed at Bwisagu. The Mising community's songs and dances are tied to Ali-Aye-Ligang and Po:rag. The Karbi people have their own funeral and harvest music. The tea-garden communities carry the Jhumur dance, which came with workers from central India (general knowledge). Bhupen Hazarika turned Assamese folk melody into modern music and cinema and helped carry it to a national audience.

Festivals

Festival	Who and when	Notes
Rongali, Kongali and Bhogali Bihu	All Assamese; April, October to November and January	Farming calendar; see above
Ambubachi Mela	Kamakhya Temple, Guwahati	Marks the goddess's annual menstruation and draws tantra practitioners
Bwisagu	Bodo New Year	Dance and offerings; Bagurumba
Ali-Aye-Ligang	Mising; from the first Wednesday of February	Sowing festival
Po:rag	Mising	Harvest festival
Jonbeel Mela	Tiwa	Annual fair where communities trade goods
Raas (Majuli)	Neo-Vaishnav sattras	Held in autumn at Majuli's sattras (general knowledge)

Ahom heritage, architecture and painting

The Ahom kingdom was founded in the early 13th century by Chao Lung Siu-Ka-Pha, a Tai prince who crossed the Patkai hills. Its rulers governed much of the Brahmaputra valley for about six centuries. The Charaideo moidams, the royal burial mounds in Charaideo, are the most important Ahom monument. Sivasagar's Rang Ghar, Talatal Ghar and Sivadol are Ahom-era buildings of brick and lime mortar. At Guwahati, the Kamakhya temple represents the Nilachal style, with a domed sanctum on a cruciform base that mixes local, Hindu and Islamic forms. Painting is tied to the sattras: Majuli manuscript painting, a GI product, preserves the illustrated manuscript tradition, and the Vrindavani Vastra ties Sankardev's name to textile art. Majuli mask making is also GI-listed.

Crafts, textiles and food

Assam has one of India's densest GI lists. Reported GI products include Muga silk of Assam (golden-yellow silk from the silkworm Antheraea assamensis, fed on som and soalu leaves), Gamosa of Assam, Majuli mask making, Majuli manuscript painting, Bodo Aronai, Judima (a rice wine of the Dimasa), Assam Jaapi (the conical bamboo hat) and the Bihu Dhol, along with Assam Tea and the farm products listed earlier. The registration years for most of these were not found. Sualkuchi near Guwahati is known for its silk weaving (general knowledge). The traditional woman's dress is the mekhela-chador, a two-piece silk wrap. Common dishes are khar (an alkaline preparation, often with raw papaya), tenga (a sour fish curry), pitha (rice cakes) and laru (rice-flour sweets made at Bihu); a traditional meal is eaten from a bell-metal set and may begin with khar and end with tamul-paan (general knowledge). Bell-metal ware from Sarthebari, cane and bamboo furniture, and handloom weaving are the main craft clusters (general knowledge). Muga is the best-known of the state's three silks: Muga, Eri and Pat. Eri is spun from a domesticated silkworm and Pat is a mulberry silk (general knowledge). Rice beer and tea are everyday drinks; the Dimasa Judima is the GI-listed rice wine.

For exam preparation

• Rongali, Kongali and Bhogali are Assam's three Bihus; Rongali marks the New Year.
• Sattriya was recognised as a classical dance in 2000.
• Sankardev founded Ekasarana Dharma and wrote the borgeets and Ankiya Nat.
• Assamese Jnanpith winners: Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya (1979), Mamoni Raisom Goswami (2000), Nilamani Phookan (2020).
• Muga silk and Gamosa carry GI tags.

Tourism and places of interest

Assam's tourism rests on three pillars: wildlife, religion and monuments of the Ahom age, and the river itself. Two national parks are UNESCO World Heritage natural sites, and one cluster of royal tombs is a cultural site.

Place	What to know
Kaziranga National Park	Golaghat, Sonitpur, Biswanath and Nagaon districts; reserve forest in 1905, national park in 1974, World Heritage Site in 1985, tiger reserve in 2006; about 1,090 sq km; 2,613 one-horned rhinos in the 2022 census (reported)
Manas National Park	Bodoland, on the Bhutan border; wildlife sanctuary 1928, World Heritage Site 1985, national park 1990; listed as endangered in 1992 and removed in 2011; in 2024, nine captive-bred pygmy hogs were released
Charaideo Moidams	Mound burials of the Ahom kings and queens; inscribed by UNESCO on 26 July 2024 as India's 43rd World Heritage Site and the first cultural site in the Northeast; about 90 moidams over about 600 years (reported)
Majuli	Large river island, about 880 sq km, recognised by Guinness World Records on 1 September 2016; Assam's island district; centre of the Vaishnava sattras; has lost about a third of its area to erosion (reported)
Kamakhya Temple, Guwahati	On Nilachal Hill; one of the oldest Shakta sites and a Tantric centre; present structure rebuilt in 1565 by the Koch king Nara Narayan; Ambubachi Mela; a corridor project of about ₹498 crore began in February 2024
Sivasagar	Ahom capital area with Rang Ghar, Talatal Ghar, Sivadol, Gola Ghar and Kareng Ghar
Hajo	Ancient pilgrimage town for Hindus and Buddhists; Hayagriva Madhava temple
Umananda and Guwahati	Umananda temple on a river island in the Brahmaputra
Dibru-Saikhowa, Nameri, Orang, Pobitora	National parks and sanctuaries; Pobitora is known for rhinos, Dibru-Saikhowa is a biodiversity hotspot
Haflong	The only hill station in Assam; headquarters of Dima Hasao
Digboi	The oil town, with a museum and a refinery heritage (general knowledge)

The three World Heritage sites

Kaziranga sits on the southern bank of the Brahmaputra, its tall elephant grass and wetlands holding the world's largest population of the Indian one-horned rhinoceros. It is run by the forest department's wildlife wing from Bokakhat. More than half of the world's wild rhinos live in Assam, and Pobitora near Guwahati and Orang add to the total. A press report in September 2026 quoted a global survey that put the greater one-horned rhino population at about 4,075 with about 3,260 in Assam, or about 80%. We treat the 80% as reported.

Manas protects forest and grassland where the Himalayan foothills meet the plain, on the Manas river that flows from Bhutan. A reference page counts about 55 mammal species, over 450 bird species and about 50 reptile species, and names the golden langur, the hispid hare, the wild water buffalo, the Assam roofed turtle and the pygmy hog among them. Manas suffered heavy poaching and violence in the 1990s, which is why it was on the danger list from 1992 until 2011. A 2024 release of nine hogs raised the reported pygmy hog population there to 63.

The Charaideo Moidams were chosen because they show an Ahom burial tradition in which kings and queens were buried in vaulted chambers beneath earth mounds, with ceremonial paths and water features. The first Ahom capital in the Patkai foothills was at Charaideo, and the name is reported to mean "a dazzling city above the mountain". It is the Northeast's first cultural World Heritage Site.

Beyond the headline sites

Majuli is a living cultural centre as well as a landscape. Its sattras keep Neo-Vaishnav music, dance, mask-making and manuscript painting alive, and the island's very loss to erosion is why conservation is a state priority. Sivasagar and its Ahom monuments make a heritage circuit, and Jorhat and Dibrugarh are good bases for tea country, though we did not verify specific tea-tourism offers. In Guwahati, Kamakhya and Umananda are the main pilgrimage sites. Hajo draws both Hindu and Buddhist visitors. Dibru-Saikhowa and Nameri offer river and forest landscapes in upper Assam. Haflong, in the Barail hills, is the state's only hill station.

Kaziranga's area, rhino count and the exact UNESCO year differ by source; the figures above come from a reference page and a press summary. The Kaziranga count of 2,401 on the reference page appears to be from an older census, so we use the 2022 figure. Ramsar listings for Assam were not verified.

For exam preparation

• Kaziranga and Manas were both inscribed as World Heritage Sites in 1985.
• Charaideo Moidams were inscribed in 2024 and are India's 43rd site.
• Majuli is the world's largest river island (Guinness, 2016).
• Kamakhya Temple stands on Nilachal Hill, Guwahati.
• Rang Ghar and Talatal Ghar are in Sivasagar.

Education, health, sports and personalities

Assam has a long record in higher education, much of it linked to the Assam Accord, and one of the Northeast's largest medical and technical institutions. Literacy has been rising but still sits close to the national average.

Literacy and schools

Assam's literacy rate rose from 63.3% in 2001 to 73.18% in 2011 (male 78.81%, female 67.27%), according to a reference page based on census data. Schools are mostly affiliated to SEBA (the Board of Secondary Education, Assam), with some under CBSE. Instruction is offered in Assamese, Bodo, Bengali, English and Hindi, and a school quality-monitoring programme called Gunotsav is run by the state (general knowledge).

Under state rules, education is reported as free and compulsory up to age 18, and the Directorate of Elementary Education oversees primary schools. Higher education is dominated by a handful of central and state universities in Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Tezpur, Silchar and Jorhat. In 2011 the gap between male and female literacy was about 11.5 percentage points, from the figures above.

Universities and institutes

Institution	Facts
IIT Guwahati	Established 1994 at Amingaon, North Guwahati; India's sixth IIT; an outcome of the Assam Accord; about 700 acres; about 8,500 students (reported)
Gauhati University	Founded 26 January 1948 at Jalukbari; reported as the oldest university in the Northeast
Dibrugarh University	Set up on 1 July 1965 at Rajabheta, Dibrugarh
Tezpur University	Established 1994 by an Act of Parliament; a central university at Napaam, Sonitpur; also an Assam Accord outcome
AIIMS Guwahati	At Changsari; foundation stone on 26 May 2017; set up on 12 January 2020; first MBBS batch on 12 January 2021; moved to its permanent campus in March 2022; 750-bed hospital; formally inaugurated on 14 April 2023 (reported)

Other well-known institutions are Cotton University, Assam Agricultural University (Jorhat), NIT Silchar and Gauhati Medical College, though we did not verify their founding years for this guide.

The Assam Accord of 1985 is the common thread: IIT Guwahati, Tezpur University and Assam University (Silchar) are all described as outcomes of its education commitments (Assam University from general knowledge).

Health

We did not open NFHS-5 tables for Assam, so no health indicator is quoted here. The July 2026 budget was reported to provide 33,240 new health posts, four new medical colleges and a ₹550 crore proton therapy facility; we treat these as reported.

AIIMS Guwahati is meant to serve the whole Northeast, which has few tertiary hospitals. Older government medical colleges at Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Silchar (general knowledge) handle much of the load (general knowledge, not rechecked). Health is a stated priority in the 2026 budget reports.

Sports

Assam's sporting culture is best known for athletics, boxing, football, archery and weightlifting, with strong support from the army and Assam Rifles in the hills (general knowledge). Guwahati hosted the National Games in 2007 and the South Asian Games in 2016 jointly with Shillong (both general knowledge, not rechecked).

Hima Das, born on 9 January 2000 near Dhing in Nagaon district, won the 400 m at the World U20 Championships in Tampere on 12 July 2018 in 51.46 seconds, reported as a first for an Indian on the track at that level. At the 2018 Asian Games she won silver in the 400 m (50.79 seconds, a national record), gold in the women's 4x400 m relay, and a mixed 4x400 m relay medal that was reported as upgraded from silver to gold after a Bahrain athlete's doping ban. She received the Arjuna Award in 2018. Boxer Lovlina Borgohain won a Tokyo 2020 Olympic bronze in the welterweight category, India's third medal at those Games and the first Indian Olympic boxing medal in nine years.

Awards and recognition

Bhupen Hazarika and Gopinath Bordoloi are both Bharat Ratna recipients (general knowledge; years not rechecked here). The Jnanpith table in the Culture section lists the state's three literature laureates. The Sangeet Natak Akademi's 2000 recognition of Sattriya made Assam one of the states with a classical dance form.

Notable people (historical and cultural)

Person	Why they matter
Srimanta Sankardev	Founder of Ekasarana Dharma; borgeets and Ankiya Nat
Madhavdev	Disciple of Sankardev; continued the movement
Lachit Borphukan	Ahom general at the Battle of Saraighat, 1671 (general knowledge)
Gopinath Bordoloi	Early statesman; the Guwahati airport carries his name
Bhupen Hazarika	Singer, composer and filmmaker; the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge is named for him
Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya, Mamoni Raisom Goswami, Nilamani Phookan	Jnanpith winners (above)
Hima Das, Lovlina Borgohain	Athletes (above)

For exam preparation

• IIT Guwahati and Tezpur University were both set up in 1994 after the Assam Accord.
• Gauhati University (1948) is the Northeast's oldest university.
• Dibrugarh University was set up in 1965.
• AIIMS Guwahati is at Changsari.
• Hima Das won the 2018 World U20 400 m title at Tampere; Lovlina Borgohain won Tokyo 2020 bronze.

Government schemes

Assam runs a set of direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes, mostly aimed at women, students and young people. As on October 2026, the descriptions below are from news reports on the 2026-27 budget and scheme pages; amounts change, so check the scheme page or the latest government notice before quoting a figure in an answer.

Scheme	What it does	Eligibility and notes
Orunodoi	Monthly cash assistance, paid by DBT, to women in low-income households; launched in 2020; Orunodoi 3.0 reported at ₹1,250 a month	Reported at roughly 37 to 40 lakh households or women; Aadhaar-linked; the July 2026 budget said payments would resume from August (reported)
Mukhya Mantri Nijut Moina	Monthly aid to girl students for 10 months: ₹1,000 in Class 11, ₹1,250 in the first year of graduation, ₹2,500 for postgraduate and B.Ed courses	Launched 8 August 2024; about 5.5 lakh girls (reported); no income limit; married girls and daughters of MPs, MLAs and ministers excluded (reported)
Mukhya Mantri Nijut Babu	Monthly aid of ₹1,000 to ₹2,000 for boys in higher education	About 47,428 boys (reported in the February 2026 budget)
Chief Minister's Jibon Prerana	₹2,500 a month to fresh graduates	About 48,319 beneficiaries (reported)
Pragyan Bharati	A scooter for students scoring 80% or more in the HS final examination	Eligibility reported for the 2025 batch; check the latest notice
Abhinandan	Interest subsidy of up to ₹50,000 on higher-education loans	Reported on one scheme list; terms vary by loan size
Mukhya Mantri Mahila Udyamita Abhiyaan ("Lakhpati Baideo")	₹10,000 seed capital to women through self-help groups	Reported at 30.63 lakh women, with 8.80 lakh "Lakhpati Baideos"
Swahid Kushal Konwar Sarbajanin Briddha Pension Achoni	Old-age pension, continued in the 2026-27 budget (reported)	Orunodoi Plus covers widow pension (reported)

Central schemes such as PM-KISAN, Ayushman Bharat and PM Awas Yojana also operate in Assam on the same terms as elsewhere; they are not state schemes, and we have not described their Assam-specific coverage.

For exam preparation

• Orunodoi is a DBT scheme for women from low-income households, launched in 2020.
• Nijut Moina was launched on 8 August 2024 for girl students.
• Pragyan Bharati gives a scooter to HS-final students scoring 80% or more.
• Lakhpati Baideo is linked to the Mukhya Mantri Mahila Udyamita Abhiyaan and self-help groups.

Government exams in Assam

Government recruitment in Assam runs through a small number of bodies. The Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) picks the state's officers through the Combined Competitive Examination (CCE). The State Level Recruitment Commission (SLRC) fills Grade III and Grade IV posts across departments through the Assam Direct Recruitment Examination (ADRE). The State Level Police Recruitment Board (SLPRB) recruits for Assam Police. Teacher eligibility is a state TET, and the Gauhati High Court recruits its own staff and judicial officers. Notification dates, vacancies, fees and age limits change with every advertisement, so treat the figures below as pointers and read the latest notice. Where a figure comes from a news or exam-prep site rather than an official document, we write "reported". For live openings see Assam government jobs, and for practice use our online test series.

Assam Public Service Commission (APSC)

According to Wikipedia, the APSC was established on 1 April 1937 and has its headquarters at Jawahar Nagar, Khanapara, Guwahati. We do not name the chairperson or members because they change; see current affairs. We could not open apsc.nic.in directly (its certificate failed to verify on 4 October 2026), so the figures below come from Drishti IAS, Careers360 and CareerPower pages, and are all "reported".

Combined Competitive Examination (CCE)

The CCE is the flagship exam for the Assam Civil Service (Junior Grade), the Assam Police Service (Junior Grade) and a set of allied posts. A reported 2026 notice (10 April 2026) listed Assam Civil Service (Junior Grade), Assam Police Service (Junior Grade), Inspector of Labour, Assistant Employment Officer, Sub Registrar, District Transport Officer, Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Assam Urban Administrative Service, Superintendent of Excise, Inspector of Excise and Research Assistant. The service list changes between advertisements, so check the current one.

The exam has three stages: Preliminary, Main and Interview.

Stage	Pattern (reported by Drishti IAS)
Prelims	Two objective papers of 2 hours each. Paper I, General Studies I: 100 questions, 200 marks, merit-based. Paper II, General Studies II: 80 questions, 200 marks, qualifying at 33%. Negative marking of one-fourth of the marks of a question.
Mains	Six descriptive papers of 3 hours each, 250 marks each, 1,500 marks in all: Essay, General Studies I to IV (the fourth is Ethics, Integrity and Aptitude) and a General Subject paper on Assam. No optional subject. Answers may be written in English or Assamese.
Interview	180 marks, so final merit is out of 1,680.

Two cautions. First, Drishti says only Paper I decides who goes to the Mains, and that roughly 30 to 35% of Paper I questions are on Assam; the second figure is its own estimate, not an official one. Second, other prep pages in our search describe an older Mains with General English, General Studies and two optional subjects totalling 1,400 marks and a 200-mark interview; the Drishti pattern was dated December 2025 and fits the newer six-paper scheme, but we did not read the commission's rules, so confirm in the notice.

Reported eligibility, from a CareerPower summary of the 2026 notice: a graduate degree, Indian citizenship, and an age of 21 to 38 years, with relaxation of 5 years for SC and ST, 3 years for OBC and MOBC and 10 years for persons with disability. The same page reports 78 posts (45 in the Assam Civil Service Junior Grade), applications from 13 April to 3 May 2026 and a prelims on 5 July 2026. Another search result gave different dates, and the page mixes 2025 and 2026 labels, so we do not rely on any date or count here. See the rules section below for residence and language conditions.

State Level Recruitment Commission (SLRC) and the ADRE

The ADRE is the big-volume exam in Assam. The search result on the legal framework describes it as arising from the Assam Direct Recruitment Commission for Analogous Posts in Class-III and Class-IV Act, 2021, with one State Level Recruitment Commission for Class III and a similar body for Class IV, working from the Assam Administrative Staff College, Jawaharnagar, Khanapara, Guwahati. We could not open the Act itself. Results and notices are published on assam.gov.in, sebaonline.org and the state's niyukti portal, which is why you will see SEBA (the Board of Secondary Education, Assam) named: it appears as a result and admit-card host and not as the recruiter. One exam-prep page says the Assam Administrative Staff College "administers" the exam; the better-supported position is that the SLRC conducts it.

What the posts are: Grade III covers junior assistants, accounts assistants, computer operators, drivers and similar non-gazetted posts; Grade IV covers peons, chowkidars, office attendants and similar posts.

Item	What we found
Grade III qualification	Three levels depending on the post: graduate, higher secondary (HSSLC) and HSLC (for drivers).
Grade IV qualification	Class 12, or HSLC with ITI, in the 2023 round (reported by Careers360).
Age (2022 official advertisement and 2023 reported)	18 to 40 years; relaxation of 5 years SC/ST, 3 years OBC/MOBC, 2 years ex-servicemen, 10 years persons with disability.
Medium	Assamese or English (reported for 2023); other prep sites list Bodo, Bengali and Hindi too, which we could not confirm.
Grade III pattern (reported)	150 questions, 3 hours, 0.25 negative marking; 175 marks at graduate level (includes 25 two-mark reading-comprehension questions), 150 marks at HSSLC level.
Grade IV pattern (reported)	135 questions, 135 marks, 2.5 hours, 0.25 negative marking.
Selection (2022 round, reported)	Written test, then computer, stenography or driving skill tests depending on the post; the merit list used combined written and skill marks.

The 2022 official advertisement was dated 25 March 2022 and asked for registration with an Employment Exchange in Assam. The Careers360 report on that round gives 11,510 posts in 47 departments, 921,634 applications, 828,860 candidates appearing and 11,324 provisional selections, announced in May 2023. A later round, ADRE 2.0, was advertised in late 2023 for about 12,600 Grade III and IV posts (applications reported from 10 to 29 November 2023 on one page and to 29 December on another, so we give no dates). Careers360 reports that the Grade III result came out on 10 October 2025. Whether the 2023 round included an interview is reported inconsistently: one article says written test, skill test and interview, while the 2022 result article describes only written plus skill marks. Read the advertisement.

State Level Police Recruitment Board (SLPRB)

The SLPRB (slprbassam.in) runs recruitment for Assam Police. We could not open its site because of a certificate error on 4 October 2026, so everything below is from news and prep pages and is "reported". Wikipedia dates the force's origins to the British period (1826) and puts its headquarters at Ulubari, Guwahati.

Posts fall in two branches, Unarmed Branch (UB) and Armed Branch (AB), and also include Assam Commando Battalion posts. Reported details from the December 2025 to January 2026 round:

• Constable: 1,715 posts reported (1,052 UB, 663 AB); Class 12 for UB and Class 10 for AB; age 18 to 25 on 1 January 2026, with relaxation of 3 to 10 years by category; no application fee; selection by physical tests, medical, a 50-mark written test and a 5-mark viva.
• Sub-Inspector: a graduate degree; 147 posts reported (including 45 SI (AB), 48 SI (UB) and 4 SI Communication); age 20 to 26 for SI (UB); written test, physical tests and viva or psychometric test; notification said to be 12 December 2025, applications 16 December 2025 to 16 January 2026.
• Physical standards (reported, older rounds): male minimum height 162.56 cm for General, OBC, MOBC and SC, and 160.02 cm for ST and Gorkha; female 154 cm general and 152 cm ST; chest 80 cm normal and 85 cm expanded for men.
• Residence and language (reported): permanent resident of Assam and Employment Exchange registration; "fluent in Assamese or any other state language".

Pages disagree on the order of the stages (physical first for constables, written first in some SI notices), so follow the advertisement.

Assam TET

Assam's Teacher Eligibility Test is run by the state school-education authorities (reported as the Department of School Education, with Samagra Shiksha Assam portals and an Empowered Committee, TET issuing the certificate). It has Paper I for Classes 1 to 5 (Lower Primary) and Paper II for Classes 6 to 8 (Upper Primary). Reported pattern: 150 multiple-choice questions of one mark, 2 hours 30 minutes, no negative marking; Paper I has five 30-mark sections (Child Development and Pedagogy, Language I, English, Mathematics and Science, Environmental Studies) and Paper II has three 30-mark sections plus a 60-mark Mathematics and Science or Social Science section. Eligibility is a Class 12 pass with 50% plus a D.El.Ed or B.El.Ed for Paper I, and graduation with D.El.Ed or B.Ed for Paper II, with a permanent-resident condition reported. The certificate is reported to be valid for life, following an NCTE notice. There are also separate tests for higher secondary posts and occasional special TETs; we did not confirm their patterns.

Gauhati High Court

The Gauhati High Court, according to Wikipedia, was promulgated on 1 March 1948, began work on 5 April 1948 as the High Court of Assam and took its present name in 1971. Its principal seat is Guwahati, with permanent benches at Kohima (1 December 1972), Aizawl (5 July 1990) and Itanagar (12 August 2000), and it covers Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. Sanctioned strength is reported as 30 judges (22 permanent and 8 additional). We do not name the Chief Justice.

The court recruits through its own recruitment page (ghconline.gov.in): when we opened it on 3 and 4 October 2026 it listed Judicial Assistant, Stenographer Grade III, Law Clerk, Private Secretary, Multi Tasking Staff and Chauffeur notices for various benches and units. Search results also show Stenographer Grade III for the district courts and online applications for Grade III of the Assam Judicial Service, 2025. The judicial service route has a preliminary written exam, but we did not open the rules, so we give no pattern or age limit.

For comparison, see recruitment in West Bengal and Bihar.

Domicile, reservation and recruitment rules

Assam does not simply ask for an Indian domicile. For its state services it adds a layer of residence conditions, and for reservation it uses a category list that includes plains and hills tribes separately. Residence rules have been tightened in recent years, and the details below are stated as they were reported.

Residence, PRC and language

• Permanent Resident Certificate (PRC). Careers360 reports that the Chief Minister announced on 28 November 2021 that a PRC would be mandatory for aspirants to the state civil services exam, as it already was for engineering and medical admissions. Check each advertisement for whether a PRC is asked for.
• Employment Exchange registration. The 2022 SLRC advertisement we opened asked for registration in an Assam Employment Exchange; the police constable advertisement was reported to ask the same.
• Language. The same announcement said candidates must be able to speak Assamese or an associate language of the state such as Bodo, Bengali or another tribal language, and Hindi. It also said the separate Assamese qualifying paper was being abolished and that the exam could be written in Assamese as well as English. We found no source stating a rule of "HSLC-level Assamese" for state jobs, so we do not state one. An older Assamese qualifying paper, if you see it in an old guide, is out of date.
• Citizenship and education. APSC CCE needs Indian citizenship and a degree; ADRE and police posts are tied to Class 8, Class 10, Class 12 or degree levels by post.

Reservation in state services

The Assam Administrative Staff College's handbook on reservation and rosters (an official document we read) gives the state's pattern for direct recruitment under the Assam Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reservation of Posts in Services) Act, 1978 and the 1983 Rules:

Category	Reservation
Scheduled Castes (SC)	7%
Scheduled Tribes (Plains), ST(P)	10%
Scheduled Tribes (Hills), ST(H)	5%
OBC including MOBC (More Other Backward Classes)	27% (raised from an initial 15%)
Women	30% horizontal, within each category and for the general category too (2005 Act)
EWS	10% in law, but kept in abeyance for direct recruitment in posts and services until further order

Points to note:

• SC, ST(P) and ST(H) together make 22%, and the handbook says the roster must never exceed that.
• Women's 30% is "horizontal": for example, the handbook shows 3 of ST(P)'s 10%, 1 of ST(H)'s 5%, 2 of SC's 7% and 8 of OBC/MOBC's 27% as reserved for women.
• The EWS quota in jobs: the Deccan Herald reported on the December 2022 decision to hold it in abeyance (EWS reservation continues for educational admissions). The handbook says EWS posts are filled by unreserved candidates at present. A Gauhati High Court judgment of 30 August 2024, reported by The Sentinel, concerned EWS certificates for a 2020 Junior Engineer recruitment; it does not change the policy.
• Tea Tribes and Adivasis: the Sentinel reported on 4 October 2023 that the government set aside 3% inside the 27% OBC/MOBC quota, leaving 24% for other OBC/MOBC, covering Grades I to IV and excluding some technical posts.
• Reserved vacancies for these Tea Tribe groups, if unfilled, reportedly go to other OBC/MOBC candidates rather than being carried forward.
• The OBC creamy-layer rule applies; read the handbook or the notice for the income limit. We do not give the limit here.
• We did not verify percentages for persons with disabilities, ex-servicemen or sportspersons.

Age limits and relaxation

Assam's entry age for most state posts is 18 to 40 in the SLRC advertisement we opened, but some services, such as the CCE (reported as 21 to 38) and police posts (reported as 18 to 25 for constables and 20 to 26 for SI), have their own limits. The relaxations in the SLRC advertisement of 25 March 2022 were 5 years for SC/ST, 3 years for OBC/MOBC, 2 years for ex-servicemen and 10 years for persons with disability. Age is counted from the Matriculation or HSLC certificate of a recognised board.

Selection stages and cycles

APSC: Prelims, Mains, Interview. SLRC: written test, skill test where needed, document checks (interview uncertain). SLPRB: physical standard and endurance tests, medical, written, viva. Teaching: TET, then posting through a separate recruitment. Vacancy cycles are not regular: the SLRC has run large rounds in 2022 and 2023, and we have no verified schedule for the next.

How to use this guide for exam preparation

This page supports the Assam-specific parts of state exams: the General Studies II paper on Assam in the APSC Mains, the Assam questions in the Prelims, and the Assam GK sections of ADRE and police papers. The rest (aptitude, English, reasoning) needs separate practice through our online test series.

Which sections are high-yield

• History: the Ahom period, the Treaty of Yandaboo, the formation of the state and later reorganisation.
• Geography and rivers: the Brahmaputra and Barak valleys, protected areas, Majuli.
• Administration, legislature and judiciary: assembly strength (126 seats), districts, the Gauhati High Court and its benches.
• Culture: Bihu, satras and Sankardev, folk dance and music.
• Exam rules: reservation shares and the PRC and language rules.

A four-week revision plan

Week	Focus
1	Read Overview, History and Geography. Make a one-page list of rivers, protected areas and key dates.
2	Read Administration, Legislature, Elections and Budget. Learn the numbers (seats, districts, formation dates). Attempt a timed mock with 25 Assam questions.
3	Read Economy, Culture, Tourism and Schemes. Build a table of festivals, folk forms and crops. Redo week 2 mistakes.
4	Revise only the Rapid-fire table and your notes, then take two full-length mocks. Practise the negative-marking rule (one-fourth or 0.25 in the exams above).

Common traps

• District count. Wikipedia gave 35 districts as on 4 October 2026, but the number has changed more than once; check the date of any source.
• Old APSC pattern. Many sites still show a Mains with two optionals and an Assamese qualifying paper. Both are out of date as per the reports above.
• EWS quota. It exists in law but is in abeyance for state jobs. Do not apply the 10% to Assam direct recruitment.
• Plains versus hills. ST(P) 10% and ST(H) 5% are separate; mixing them is a common error.
• Who runs which exam. SLRC for ADRE, APSC for CCE, SLPRB for police. SEBA hosts results but does not recruit.
• Resident versus citizen. Residence conditions apply on top of citizenship.

Rapid-fire facts

Facts are as on 4 October 2026, from the sources at the end. Items marked "reported" come from news or exam-prep sites.

Fact	Answer
State capital	Dispur
Largest city	Guwahati
Area	78,438 sq km (Wikipedia)
Census 2011 population	31,205,576
Sex ratio, Census 2011	934 females per 1,000 males
Became a state of the Union	26 January 1950 (Wikipedia)
Vidhan Sabha seats	126
Lok Sabha seats	14
Assembly formed	1937 (Wikipedia)
Districts	35 as on Wikipedia, 4 October 2026 (changes; verify)
State animal	Indian rhinoceros
State bird	White-winged duck
State flower	Foxtail orchid
State tree	Hollong
Major rivers	Brahmaputra and Barak
World Heritage national parks	Kaziranga and Manas
Kaziranga national park status	11 February 1974
Kaziranga UNESCO listing	1985
Kaziranga area	1,090 sq km
Kaziranga tiger reserve	2006
Kaziranga districts	Golaghat, Sonitpur, Biswanath, Nagaon
Other national parks	Dibru-Saikhowa, Nameri, Orang
Majuli	River island in the Brahmaputra
Majuli district status	First island district of India, 2016
Majuli area (current)	About 880 sq km
Satras on Majuli	65 reported by Wikipedia
First satra in Majuli	Belguri, by Sankardev
Bohag Bihu	April, spring, Assamese New Year
Magh Bihu	January, harvest, Bhogali
Kati Bihu	October to November, Kongali
Bihu dance	Bihu Naas
Bihu drum	Dhol
Bihu wind instrument	Pepa (buffalo horn)
Official languages	Assamese, Bodo; Bengali in the Barak Valley (Wikipedia)
APSC established	1 April 1937
APSC headquarters	Jawahar Nagar, Khanapara, Guwahati
APSC CCE stages	Prelims, Mains, Interview
CCE Prelims papers	Two, 200 marks each (reported)
CCE Prelims Paper I	100 questions, merit
CCE Prelims Paper II	80 questions, qualifying at 33%
CCE Prelims negative marking	One-fourth (reported)
CCE Mains papers	Six of 250 marks, total 1,500 (reported)
CCE Mains optional	None (reported)
CCE Mains Assam paper	General Subject paper on Assam (reported)
CCE interview	180 marks (reported)
CCE final merit total	1,680 (reported)
CCE age (reported)	21 to 38, with relaxation
CCE qualification	Graduation
Mains answer languages	English or Assamese (reported)
Assamese qualifying paper	Abolished, announced 28 November 2021 (reported)
PRC for civil services	Announced as mandatory, November 2021 (reported)
ADRE full name	Assam Direct Recruitment Examination
ADRE conducted by	State Level Recruitment Commission
ADRE Act	Assam Direct Recruitment Commission for Analogous Posts in Class-III and Class-IV Act, 2021
ADRE posts	Grade III and Grade IV
ADRE age	18 to 40, with relaxation
ADRE Grade III questions	150 (reported)
ADRE Grade III duration	3 hours (reported)
ADRE Grade IV questions	135 (reported)
ADRE negative marking	0.25 per wrong 1-mark answer (reported)
2022 round advertisement	25 March 2022
2022 round applications	921,634 (reported)
2022 round provisional selections	11,324 (reported)
2023 round size	About 12,600 posts (reported)
Police recruiter	SLPRB
Police branches	Unarmed Branch (UB) and Armed Branch (AB)
Police headquarters	Ulubari, Guwahati
Constable qualification	Class 12 (UB), Class 10 (AB) (reported)
Constable age	18 to 25 (reported)
SI qualification	Graduation (reported)
SC reservation	7%
ST (Plains) reservation	10%
ST (Hills) reservation	5%
SC plus ST total	22%
OBC/MOBC reservation	27%
Tea Tribes and Adivasis	3% within the 27% (reported, 4 October 2023)
Women reservation	30% horizontal (2005 Act)
EWS in state jobs	10% in law, in abeyance since December 2022
SC/ST Act	1978, in force 1 July 1979
Age relaxation SC/ST	5 years
Age relaxation OBC/MOBC	3 years
Age relaxation PwD	10 years
Age relaxation ex-servicemen	2 years
Gauhati High Court promulgated	1 March 1948
Gauhati High Court began	5 April 1948
Renamed Gauhati	1971
Principal seat	Guwahati
Kohima bench	1 December 1972
Aizawl bench	5 July 1990
Itanagar bench	12 August 2000
High Court states	Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh
High Court strength	30 sanctioned (reported)
Assam TET marks	150, no negative marking (reported)
TET certificate validity	Reported lifetime

Frequently asked questions

Who conducts the Assam civil service exam?

The Assam Public Service Commission, based at Khanapara, Guwahati. The exam is called the Combined Competitive Examination.

What is the APSC CCE exam pattern?

Prelims has two papers of 200 marks: Paper I (100 questions) decides who goes ahead, and Paper II (80 questions) is qualifying at 33%. The Mains reportedly has six papers of 250 marks, with no optional subject, and the interview carries 180 marks.

Is there an optional subject in the APSC Mains?

Not in the pattern Drishti IAS published in December 2025. Older guides show two optionals; check the latest notice.

Can I write the APSC exam in Assamese?

Yes. A November 2021 announcement, reported by Careers360, allowed both Prelims and Mains in Assamese or English.

Is the Assamese language paper compulsory?

The same announcement abolished the separate Assamese qualifying paper, as reported. Candidates are still expected to speak Assamese or an associate state language, plus Hindi.

Do I need HSLC-level Assamese?

We could not find a source for this rule, so we do not claim one. Read the language clause of the notice.

Do I need a PRC for state jobs in Assam?

For the civil services exam, a PRC was announced as mandatory in November 2021. Other recruitments set their own conditions; the notice lists the documents.

What is the age limit for APSC CCE?

Reportedly 21 to 38 years, with 5 years relaxation for SC and ST, 3 for OBC and MOBC and 10 for persons with disability.

What is ADRE?

The Assam Direct Recruitment Examination, run by the State Level Recruitment Commission for Grade III and Grade IV posts in state departments.

Who conducts ADRE, SEBA or the SLRC?

The SLRC. SEBA's website hosts results and admit cards, which is why it appears in news.

What is the ADRE age limit?

18 to 40, with 5 years relaxation for SC and ST, 3 for OBC and MOBC, 2 for ex-servicemen and 10 for persons with disability, according to the SLRC notice of 25 March 2022.

What is the ADRE exam pattern?

Reportedly 150 questions for Grade III (3 hours) and 135 for Grade IV (2.5 hours), with 0.25 negative marking.

Who recruits Assam Police constables and SIs?

The State Level Police Recruitment Board (SLPRB).

What is the reservation for SC and ST in Assam?

7% for SC, 10% for ST (Plains) and 5% for ST (Hills), under the 1978 Act.

What is the OBC reservation in Assam jobs?

27% for OBC including MOBC, raised from 15%. Reportedly 3% of it is set aside for Tea Tribes and Adivasis.

Is the EWS quota applicable in Assam government jobs?

The 10% exists in policy, but benefits in direct recruitment were kept in abeyance by an order of December 2022.

How many seats are there in the Assam Vidhan Sabha?

Where is the Gauhati High Court?

The principal seat is at Guwahati, with benches at Kohima, Aizawl and Itanagar.

What is the Assam TET pattern?

Paper I for Classes 1 to 5 and Paper II for Classes 6 to 8, each with 150 questions and no negative marking, as reported.

Sources and verification

Time-sensitive facts (budget, exam rules, district changes, the 2026 election result) were checked on 4 October 2026. Where sources disagreed or a figure came from a single secondary source, the text says so. Election figures are Wikipedia reproductions of Election Commission data, with the 2026-27 budget from PRS Legislative Research; cross-check Election Commission results before quoting a number in an answer. Census 2011 is the latest published census.

Facts verified on 4 October 2026. The only official documents we could read were the Assam Administrative Staff College handbook on reservation and the SLRC advertisement of 25 March 2022 (a PDF on assam.gov.in) and the Gauhati High Court recruitment page. The APSC and SLPRB websites failed with certificate errors, and the Assam.gov.in 2023 advertisement PDF was an unreadable image scan, so most exam figures are "reported" from secondary pages. Election and budget facts are not covered here; see the other parts of this guide.

• Assam Administrative Staff College handbook on reservation and roster maintenance (aasc.assam.gov.in, PDF).
• SLRC Class III advertisement, 25 March 2022 (assam.gov.in, PDF).
• Gauhati High Court recruitment page (ghconline.gov.in).
• Niyukti portal page (niyukti.assam.gov.in/slrc).
• Drishti IAS, APSC exam pattern page.
• Careers360: APSC CCE page; the Assamese-medium and PRC news item; the ADRE 2023 registration and 2025 result items; the 11,324 selections item; the Assam Police 2023 notification.
• CareerPower, APSC CCE notification page.
• Physics Wallah, Assam Police constable recruitment page.
• Adda247, ADRE syllabus page.
• The Sentinel Assam (tea tribes quota; Gauhati High Court EWS ruling).
• Wikipedia, as a cross-check only: Assam, Assam Public Service Commission, Assam Police, Gauhati High Court, Bihu, Kaziranga National Park and Majuli.
• Search-result summaries only, not full pages: ADRE legal framework and Act name, Assam TET conducting body and certificate validity, Assam Police SI 2025 details, Deccan Herald on the EWS decision, the Assam Judicial Service listing.