MA Admission 2026

Centre for Development Studies (CDS) invites applications for its two year MA programme in Applied Economics starting in the academic year 2026-27. Admission is open to Indian nationals as well as students from selected SAARC countries.

ELIGIBILITY

• For Indian students

A bachelor’s degree in any discipline with at least 50 percent of marks.  Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates and Persons with Disability (PwD) are eligible to apply irrespective of the percentage of marks secured in the bachelor’s degree. Students should have done a paper on mathematics/statistics or any other quantitative subject either in their 10+2 or undergraduate level.

• For SAARC students

Candidates must have a bachelor’s/undergraduate degree with English as the medium of instruction and the undergraduate programme must be equivalent to an undergraduate programme of an Indian university. Students should have done a paper on mathematics/statistics or any other quantitative subject either in their 10+2 or in their undergraduate level.

NUMBER OF SEATS AND RESERVATION

 Twenty five seats are available for Indian nationals and two seats are available for SAARC category. If seats remain vacant in SAARC category, such vacant seats will be made available to Indian students. CDS provides reservation as per Government of India rules.

SELECTION

 The selection of candidates will be based on the percentile scores of Common University Entrance Test – CUET (PG)-2026. SAARC candidates are exempted from the entrance test.

Percentile score = 100 *  No. of candidates scored less than or equal to you

Total number of candidates who appeared for that subject

For details see https://exams.nta.nic.in/cuet-pg/participating-universities/government-institutions-fully-funded/ and the MA Prospectus of CDS.

HOW TO APPLY

Indian nationals

Candidates who have appeared in the Common University Entrance Test – CUET (PG) 2026 for the test paper codes specified in the Prospectus and meet the prescribed eligibility criteria may apply through the online link.

Application Fee is Rs. 300 and it is non-refundable. There is no application fee for candidates belonging to SC,ST, PwD (with ≥40% disability) categories. Any bank or payment gateway service charges must be borne by the applicant.

SAARC candidates are required to fill-in the application form available on the website. The filled-in application form and relevant documents should be emailed to admissionma@cds.edu.  Last date to apply is 28^th May 2026 (5 pm IST).

There is no application fee for candidates from SAARC countries.

Candidates are advised to keep checking our website for the latest updates about admission related matters. For any queries or additional information please contact Academic Programme Office on Tel: 0471 2774253/4 during office hours (9 AM to 5 PM) or write to us (admissionma@cds.edu)