OBC candidate from Andhra among 2 joint toppers of NEET – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu’s Prabanjan J and Andhra Pradesh’s Bora Varun Chakravarthi, an OBC candidate, scored a perfect 720 (99.99 percentile) to be declared joint toppers of this year’s NEET-UG exam, results of which were announced by the National Testing Agency on Tuesday night.
In all, there are 11 candidates from the OBC category, two from SC and one from the EWS in the top 50, including Kaustav Bauri, an SC candidate from Tamil Nadu, who was ranked 3rd with 716 marks.
A total of 11.45 lakh candidates out of 20.4 lakh have qualified the medical entrance exam. Among states, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of qualifying candidates (1.4 lakh), followed by Maharashtra (1.3 lakh) and Rajasthan (over 1 lakh).
The number of candidates this year increased by 15.5% from 2022.
Punjab’s Pranjal NEET-UG topper among girls
Punjab girl Pranjal Aggarwal became the topper among women in NEET-UG, bagging all India rank 4 with 715 marks. In all, 16 candidates scored 715 marks (out of 720) and were granted all-India ranks- 4 to 19- using the tie-breaker method.
According to a senior NTA official, candidates who scored identical marks are accorded ranks as per the tie-breaker rule where the candidate with higher marks in biology is ranked above the rest. In case of identical marks in biology, the same rule is applied for chemistry, followed by physics. Even after this, if the scores remain identical, the older candidate gets the higher rank.
Interestingly, four candidates in top 10 are from Tamil Nadu, the state which has been opposing the centralised medical entrance test. State-wise in the top 50, eight candidates are from Delhi, followed by seven from Rajasthan and six from Tamil Nadu.
In all, over 1.6 lakh more female candidates qualified as compared to last year when 1.3 lakh more female candidates had qualified. Kerala and Karnataka are the two other states in top five with over 75,000 candidates each qualifying in the exam.
NEET-UG 2023 was conducted on May 7 and it recorded the highest attendance with 97.7% of nearly 20.9 lakh aspirants taking the test. Last year, the medical entrance recorded 94.2%, while in 2018, it recorded 97%. Seven cases of unfair practices have been detected by NTA. With the aspirants scoring high, the range of qualifying marks this year increased significantly as compared to 2022. While the range of qualifying marks for general and EWS category had been set at 720-137 as against 715-117 in 2022, the cut-off for OBC, SC and ST increased to 136-107 from 116-93 in 2022. Similarly, qualifying marks range for general/EWS PwD candidates is 136-121, up from 116-105 in 2022. This year’s qualifying marks range for disabled among OBCs and SC candidates is 120-108, up from 104-93.
In a statement, NTA said: “The Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) will conduct the counselling for 15% All India Quota seats, deemed universities, central universities, seats of ESIC and AFMC, BHU and AMU. Candidates may visit the website www.mcc.nic.in for further information. Candidates will apply for 15% All-India quota seats as per the directions of DGHS and counselling will be stopped once the seats are exhausted. The details and schedule of counselling would be available on the websites of the ministry of health and family welfare and medical education directorates of states.”