CAG-ICSSR Research Article Competition 2026 for UG, PG and Doctoral Students [State/UT and National Levels; Prizes up to Rs 1,25,000]

The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India, the Supreme Audit Institution of India, and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), Ministry of Education, have entered into a collaboration to conduct the CAG-ICSSR Research Article Competition across 28 states and 3 union territories. The competition was launched on 12 May 2026, the 58th Foundation Day of the ICSSR, by Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Education.

The competition builds on the decadal publication of State Finances for the financial years 2013-14 to 2022-23 prepared by the Office of the CAG, which places fiscal data for all 28 states and 3 UTs on revenues, expenditure, public debt and liabilities, deficit indicators and guarantees in the public domain. The stated objective is to foster research skills among students in the field of public finance and fiscal governance, and to build public understanding of audit products, fiscal governance and accountability. It runs at two separate levels, State/UT and National, and a participant may enter both by registering separately for each.

Entries must address one of the four notified themes:

• Fiscal Federalism and Governance
• Social Sector Spending
• Skilling, Employment and Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)
• Empowering Urban and Rural Local Bodies

CAG has published theme-wise links to the relevant Union Government audit reports as reference material for participants, and the state-wise audit report links are shared with registered participants at their registered email address. Some reports fall under more than one theme and are listed under each.

The applicant must be a bona fide student of an undergraduate, postgraduate or doctoral programme, and must be a full-time bona fide student at the time of submission of the research article. The affiliating institution must be one of the following:

• An institution of national importance; or
• An institution recognised under Section 2(f) and/or declared eligible for Central Assistance under Section 12(B) of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956; or
• A college, university or institution ranked under the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) of the Ministry of Education, Government of India.

Law students at eligible institutions qualify, and the themes on fiscal federalism, governance and urban and rural local bodies sit squarely within constitutional and administrative law scholarship.

• Only individual entries are allowed. Co-authored entries are not permitted.
• Only one entry per participant is permitted, although a participant may take part in both the State/UT and the National level competitions by registering separately for each.
• Entries must be submitted from the state of the affiliating institution.
• A bona fide certificate in the prescribed forwarding letter format, signed by the Registrar, Principal or Dean and bearing the official seal, must be submitted as proof of enrolment.
• Submissions must be original and unpublished. Any use of AI tools or plagiarised content will lead to disqualification.
• For State/UT level entries, submissions are accepted in the scheduled languages and in English. National level entries are restricted to English and Hindi.

Entries must be submitted in PDF format and must be typed, not handwritten or scanned. The word limits are 4,000 to 5,000 words for UG and PG participants and 5,000 to 6,000 words for participants in a doctoral programme.

The article must contain an introduction, conceptual and theoretical background, statement of the problem, objectives, methodology covering the methodological approach, variables and tools employed, data analysis and findings, discussion, conclusions, and policy suggestions and the way forward. Formatting must follow the Modern Language Association style, 9th edition, in Times New Roman 12-point with standard margins and double spacing. The article must carry nothing that reveals the identity of the author, and including such details will lead to disqualification from the review process.

Registration and submission are entirely online through the ICSSR applicant portal at app.icssr.org. New applicants create an account, verify the registered email address through the link sent to it, log in, open the CAG-ICSSR Research Article Writing Competition under Apply for Grants, and complete the application form along with the forwarding letter.

The application may be saved as a draft and edited until the final submission of the research article. Once the final submission is made, no further changes to the research article or the background information are permitted, and the completed application form can be downloaded from the dashboard. ICSSR has published a step by step registration and submission guide, linked below.

All applications submitted to the ICSSR are scrutinised and evaluated by experts and committees through a blind review process across multiple phases before the final results are declared. Evaluation carries weightage for policy relevance, originality, methodological rigour, citations, analysis and interpretation. The expert committee evaluates the articles and the top three are awarded.

The total prize money for the competition is approximately Rs 1 crore, sponsored by the Office of the CAG of India. State awards are conferred by the respective Principal Accountant General or Accountant General for each state in their offices. National awards are presented on Audit Diwas, 16 November 2026, at the CAG Headquarters, New Delhi. Awards are subject to the receipt of eligible entries, and CAG and ICSSR reserve the right to reject any application without assigning a reason and to publish the articles submitted.

There is no registration or submission fee. Participation in the CAG-ICSSR Research Article Competition is free at both the State/UT and the National level.