When people talk about the APSC to UPSC journey in Northeast India, one name consistently rises above the rest — SPM IAS Academy, Guwahati. What started as a structured coaching programme for Assam Public Service Commission aspirants has evolved, over successive examination cycles, into one of India’s most closely watched UPSC mentorship platforms.
This is not just a story of numbers. It is a story of what happens when a coaching institution stops treating APSC and UPSC as separate destinations and starts treating them as two milestones on the same road to civil services excellence.
| At a Glance: SPM IAS Academy’s APSC to UPSC Milestones86% APSC CCE 2024 selection rate — the highest in Assam coaching historyFive Rank 1 holders across different services in APSC CCE 2024 — from a single Foundation BatchAIR 10 in UPSC CSE 2025 — a Top 10 ranker from a Guwahati-based mentorship programme61 total UPSC CSE 2025 selections across the Interview Guidance ProgrammeConsecutive dominance across four APSC CCE cycles: 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 |
Why the APSC to UPSC Pathway Matters for Northeast India
For decades, civil services aspirants from Assam and the Northeast faced a structurally difficult choice: focus on the APSC CCE — which offered regional relevance and familiar administrative context — or invest years pursuing the UPSC CSE, which promised national stature but demanded access to resources predominantly concentrated in Delhi, Jaipur, and Allahabad.
Most coaching ecosystems in Assam treated these as competing tracks. Prepare for APSC or prepare for UPSC. Rarely both. Rarely together.
SPM IAS Academy’s foundational insight was different. The APSC CCE and UPSC CSE share significant syllabus architecture — General Studies, Essay, optional subjects, and the interview stage. Rather than bifurcating preparation, the academy built a curriculum that treats the APSC to UPSC progression as a continuum. Pass your APSC Prelims with the same rigor that will serve you in UPSC Prelims. Write your APSC Mains answer with the precision that UPSC evaluators reward. The habits are the same. The standards are portable.
This integrated philosophy is the core reason why SPM IAS Academy’s students don’t just clear APSC — they go on to clear UPSC as well.
APSC CCE: Four Consecutive Years of Dominance That Set the Stage
Before understanding SPM IAS Academy’s UPSC credentials, it is essential to understand what the academy built at the APSC level — because the two stories are inseparable.
Over four consecutive APSC Combined Competitive Examination cycles, SPM IAS Academy produced selection numbers that no other coaching institute in Assam has come close to replicating.
| Year / Exam | SPM Selections | Significance |
| APSC CCE 2021 | 177 out of 331 | Foundation dominance established in Assam |
| APSC CCE 2022 | 689 out of 913 posts | Highest single-institute selection count in Assam history |
| APSC CCE 2023 | 194 out of 235 posts | Sustained dominance across consecutive cycles |
| APSC CCE 2024 | 249 out of 288 posts (~86%) | Record-breaking; 5x Rank 1 across service categories |
Two numbers in this table demand attention. In 2022, SPM IAS Academy accounted for 689 out of 913 total posts — meaning the institute’s students claimed over 75% of all APSC selections statewide. By 2024, that concentration had sharpened: 249 out of 288 posts, an 86% selection rate.
To put this in context: if you cleared the APSC CCE 2024, there was roughly a 6-in-7 chance you were mentored by SPM IAS Academy. That is not market leadership. That is institutional dominance.
The Foundation Batch That Produced Five Rank 1 Holders
Numbers tell one story. Rank holders tell another — and in APSC CCE 2024, SPM IAS Academy’s Foundation Batch told a story that the Assam coaching ecosystem had never seen before.
| Candidate | Service Category | APSC CCE 2024 Rank |
| Nihar Ranjan Deka | ACS (Assam Civil Service) | Rank 1 |
| Bhaskar Jyoti Medhi | APS (Assam Police Service) | Rank 1 |
| Koushik Kashyap Saikia | DTO (District Transport Officer) | Rank 1 |
| Rosnina Parbin | BDO (Block Development Officer) | Rank 1 |
| Dhrubajyoti Das | AM / AIO / Supt. of Industries | Rank 1 |
Five different candidates. Five different service categories. Five Rank 1 positions. All from a single batch of a single institution based in Guwahati.
This kind of breadth — across ACS, APS, DTO, BDO, and AM/AIO/Superintendent of Industries — reflects a preparation methodology that is not narrow or subject-specific. It reflects a system that produces well-rounded, exam-ready officers across every service tier.
| Expert NoteSecuring Rank 1 in five different APSC service categories from a single institute batch is unprecedented in Assam’s examination history. APSC evaluates across General Studies, optional subjects, essay, and interview — each service category having distinct merit lists. Clean sweeps of this kind require both depth (GS and optional excellence) and breadth (interview and essay competence across the board). |
The APSC to UPSC Leap: How SPM IAS Academy Went National
By the time SPM IAS Academy’s APSC results were creating headlines in Guwahati, a quieter transformation was already underway. Students who had cleared APSC with the academy’s guidance were returning with a question: Can you help us with UPSC too?
The academy’s answer was not to simply add a UPSC module to an existing curriculum. It was to build a dedicated UPSC Civil Services mentorship programme that could compete with the best coaching institutions in the country — not by mimicking the Delhi model, but by doing something Delhi could not easily do: combining national examination standards with deep regional understanding.
The UPSC programme launched with the objective of preparing candidates from the APSC to UPSC transition point — aspirants who already had civil services discipline, study habits, and examination temperament from their APSC preparation, and needed the incremental uplift of UPSC-level GS depth, answer writing precision, and interview confidence.
UPSC CSE 2023: First Signal from the National Stage
In UPSC CSE 2023, Ricky Lahkar cleared the examination with All India Rank 230 — becoming one of the first publicly recognised UPSC selections from SPM IAS Academy’s mentorship programme. Lahkar’s rank was significant less as an endpoint and more as a proof of concept: an aspirant from Assam, mentored by a Guwahati-based institution, competing and winning at the national level.
UPSC CSE 2024: From Proof of Concept to Pipeline
The 2024 UPSC CSE cycle represented a scale-up. Approximately 16 candidates from SPM IAS Academy’s programmes cleared the examination, with selections distributed across IAS, IPS, IRS, and Central Services. This was the moment when the APSC to UPSC pipeline stopped being a promise and started being a pattern. Single-year selections were giving way to cohort-level outcomes — candidates mentored together, evaluated together, and clearing together.
UPSC CSE 2025: The Result That Rewrote the Narrative
If the 2023 result was a signal and 2024 was a pattern, then UPSC CSE 2025 is the inflection point — the moment that firmly placed SPM IAS Academy on India’s national civil services map.
| Examination Cycle | Total Selections | Notable Results |
| UPSC CSE 2023 | 1 confirmed | Ricky Lahkar — AIR 230 |
| UPSC CSE 2024 | ~16 selections | IAS / IPS / IRS / Central Services |
| UPSC CSE 2025 (Mains Mentorship) | 5 selections | Ujjwal Priyank AIR 10 | Rishul Verma AIR 269 | Rahul Parmar AIR 550 | Shruti Modi AIR 569 | Ayushi Sijeria AIR 914 |
| UPSC CSE 2025 (Interview Guidance) | 61 selections | Broadest cohort to date — multiple services |
Ujjwal Priyank’s AIR 10 is the number that stops conversations. A Top 10 UPSC ranker, mentored through a programme headquartered in Guwahati — a result that directly challenges the long-held assumption that top UPSC ranks can only come from institutes in Delhi or Rajasthan.
But the 61 selections from the Interview Guidance Programme may be the more structurally significant number. It signals that SPM IAS Academy is no longer producing individual breakthroughs — it is producing institutional throughput. Sixty-one candidates across multiple services, multiple states, and multiple preparation stages, all carrying the SPM IAS Academy imprint into the Indian civil services.
| Why AIR 10 from Guwahati Changes the ConversationFor years, the prevailing narrative in UPSC coaching was that Top 10 rankers came from a small number of coaching ecosystems clustered around Delhi. SPM IAS Academy’s 2025 result — Ujjwal Priyank at AIR 10 — disrupts that narrative. It demonstrates that mentorship quality, not geography, determines UPSC outcomes at the highest level. |
What Makes SPM IAS Academy’s APSC to UPSC Model Different
The APSC to UPSC journey that SPM IAS Academy has built is not an accident of talent or luck. It is the product of several deliberate programme design choices that distinguish the academy from conventional coaching institutes — both in Assam and nationally.
1. Syllabus Integration, Not Bifurcation
The APSC CCE and UPSC CSE share approximately 60–70% of their General Studies syllabus — Indian Polity, History, Geography, Economy, and Current Affairs. SPM IAS Academy’s curriculum treats this overlap as an asset rather than an inconvenience. APSC preparation is designed to build the GS foundation that UPSC requires, meaning students who pursue the APSC to UPSC path are not starting over — they are building upward.
2. The Foundation Batch Architecture
SPM IAS Academy’s Foundation Batch — the programme that produced five APSC CCE 2024 Rank 1 holders — is structured as a multi-year, progressive learning system. Daily answer writing practice, topic-wise mock tests, subject-specific revision modules, and simulated interview panels are embedded into a schedule designed around examination timelines. This is not coaching in the traditional sense. It is an ecosystem.
3. The UPSC Mains Mentorship Programme
For candidates who have cleared UPSC Prelims, the academy offers a dedicated UPSC Mains Mentorship Programme — a high-intensity, personalised mentorship track built around answer writing, optional subject depth, essay development, and interview preparation. The 2025 results — five candidates from this programme, including Ujjwal Priyank at AIR 10 — validate the programme’s effectiveness at the Mains-to-Interview stage of the UPSC pipeline.
4. Regional Intelligence, National Standards
One of the underappreciated dimensions of SPM IAS Academy’s model is its ability to hold two things simultaneously: deep regional fluency and national examination rigour. Students from Assam and the Northeast bring specific perspectives on administrative geography, tribal governance, ecological issues, and infrastructure challenges — perspectives that, when properly developed, give UPSC Mains answers a texture and authenticity that examiners notice. SPM IAS Academy actively cultivates this regional intelligence as a competitive asset rather than treating it as a disadvantage to be overcome.
5. Interview Guidance at Scale
The 61 selections from SPM IAS Academy’s Interview Guidance Programme in UPSC CSE 2025 indicate that the institute’s mentorship reach now extends through the full UPSC pipeline — from Prelims preparation through Mains through the Personality Test. Interview guidance at scale, producing 61 cleared candidates in a single cycle, is a logistical and pedagogical achievement that very few institutes in India can match.
Consolidated Results: SPM IAS Academy’s APSC to UPSC Record
| Year | Examination | Selections | Headline Result |
| 2022 | APSC CCE 2022 | 689 / 913 posts | Highest single-institute selections in Assam history |
| 2023 | APSC CCE 2023 | 194 / 235 posts | Sustained dominance; 3rd consecutive cycle |
| 2023 | UPSC CSE 2023 | Ricky Lahkar | AIR 230 — first national UPSC signal |
| 2024 | APSC CCE 2024 | 249 / 288 (~86%) | 5x Rank 1 across service categories |
| 2024 | UPSC CSE 2024 | ~16 selections | IAS / IPS / IRS / Central Services |
| 2025 | UPSC CSE 2025 (Mains) | 5 selections | Ujjwal Priyank AIR 10; Rishul Verma AIR 269 |
| 2025 | UPSC CSE 2025 (Interview) | 61 selections | Broadest cohort in institute history |
Conclusion: The APSC to UPSC Journey Is Not a Metaphor — It Is a Method
SPM IAS Academy’s journey from APSC to UPSC is the clearest proof in Northeast India that civil services excellence is teachable, transferable, and scalable — when the system is designed correctly.
Four consecutive APSC CCE cycles with the highest selections in Assam. An 86% selection rate that broke every precedent. Five Rank 1 holders from a single foundation batch. Ricky Lahkar’s AIR 230 in 2023. Sixteen UPSC selections in 2024. Ujjwal Priyank’s AIR 10 and 61 selections in 2025.
Each of these results is not a standalone achievement — it is a node in a connected system. The APSC to UPSC journey that SPM IAS Academy has engineered is a pipeline: from foundational learning in Guwahati to rank halls in New Delhi. And every year, it runs more efficiently.
For aspirants in Assam and Northeast India who are mapping their own APSC to UPSC path, the academy’s record does not merely inspire — it shows the way.
FAQs on SPM IAS Academy’s journey from APSC to UPSC
It means that high-quality civil services mentorship — capable of producing national rank holders — is no longer exclusively available in Delhi or Rajasthan. SPM IAS Academy’s APSC to UPSC track demonstrates that an aspirant from Guwahati, Jorhat, Silchar, or any part of the Northeast can prepare for and clear both examinations without relocating, through a programme that understands both the regional context and national examination demands.
SPM IAS Academy is a leading APSC & UPSC coaching institute based in Guwahati, Assam, dedicated to helping aspirants achieve success in civil services examinations. The academy provides expert mentorship, comprehensive study materials, current affairs guidance, test series, and personalized preparation strategies for APSC, UPSC, and other competitive exams. With a strong focus on quality education, discipline, and result-oriented learning, SPM IAS Academy has become a trusted name among civil service aspirants across Assam and Northeast India.
