The State Innovation and Transformation Aayog (SITA) Assam has signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) with four leading colleges of the state to set up civil services study centres to help candidates from the state to succeed in civil services examination.

The SITA Assam is the state version of the Centre's policy think-tank NITI Aayog which replaced the state planning board in 2016.

The vice-chairman of the state government's think-tank Ramen Deka told The Telegraph that the SITA signedan MoA with Gurucharan College (Silchar in south Assam), Jagannath Barooah College (Jorhat in Upper Assam), Darrang College (Tezpur in north Assam) and Bhola Nath College (Dhubri in lower Assam) on Monday to set up thecoaching centres which should start functioning by next month.

"The MoA will be for five years. This is our first-such initiative. We will also have another MoA with a Guwahati-based college very soon,” Deka said.

He added: “Our focus will be on helping candidates to crack the UPSC-conducted IAS examination. We believe these coaching/study centres will also help them do well in other competitive examinations too.

"At present, less than one per cent clear the UPSC exams every year.”

The SITA Assam has been “entrusted with various responsibilities and the expectations have been to act on certain deliverables for the overall benefit of the state through good governance initiatives in the form of innovative ideas and policies that might help in transforming the service delivery mechanism in the most desired lines”.

The chief minister is the chairman of the organisation.

The SITA said the implementing agencies (colleges) of the coaching project will be working to prioritise the need to identify the interested students at the graduation level and then motivate them, giving them confidence and guiding them with basic infrastructure and study materials to prepare the right candidates for the civil services.