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Tamil Nadu's Prabanjan J and Andhra Pradesh's Bora Varun Chakravarthi have topped the medical entrance exam NEET-UG this year with a perfect score of 720, the National Testing Agency announced on Tuesday.
A total of 11.45 lakh candidates out of 20.38 lakh have qualified the examination, up by 48 per cent from last year.
Among the states, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of qualifying candidates (1.39 lakh), followed by Maharashtra (1.31 lakh) and Rajasthan (over 1 lakh).
Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are the two most populous states in the country while Rajasthan also figures in the top 10 in terms of population. Kerala and Karnataka are the two other states in the top five with over 75,000 candidates each qualifying the examination.
The maximum number of candidates in top 10 are from Tamil Nadu, the state which has been opposing the centralised medical entrance test. In the top 50, eight candidates are from Delhi, seven from Rajasthan and six from Tamil Nadu.
Kaustav Bauri from Tamil Nadu with 716 marks is all India rank 3, while Punjab's Pranjal Aggarwal with 715 marks and through the tie-breaker method was declared all-India rank 4 and also the female topper.
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. If the scores still remain identical, the elder candidate gets the higher rank.
The NTA conducted the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) at 4,097 centres in 499 cities in India and abroad on May 7.
It was conducted in 14 cities outside India -- Abu Dhabi, Bangkok, Colombo, Doha, Kathmandu, Kuala Lumpur, Lagos, Manama, Muscat, Riyadh, Sharjah, Singapore, Dubai and Kuwait City.
"Seven candidates were identified using unfair practices in the examination and have been dealt with as per the norms," a senior NTA official said.
The examination was conducted in 13 languages -- Assamese, Bengali, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
NEET-UG is the qualifying entrance exam for admission to Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, Bachelor of Dental Surgery, Bachelor of Ayurveda, Medicine and Surgery, Bachelor of Siddha Medicine and Surgery, Bachelor of Unani Medicine and Surgery, and Bachelor of Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery and (H) Nursing courses.
There are more than 80,000 MBBS seats in over 540 medical colleges in the country.
The official said, "The NTA has provided all India rank to the candidates and the admitting authorities will draw merit list based on the ranks for the seats of MBBS and BDS falling under their jurisdiction."
"When candidates apply to their state, they will mention their category as per state category list. State counselling authorities will accordingly make their merit list. The same is the case with the domicile. The NTA has no role in it," the official said.
In all there are 16 candidates who scored 715 marks out of 720 and were granted all-India ranks four to 19 using the tie-breaker method.
All-India joint topper Bora Varun Chakravarthi is also OBC topper, while all-India third-rank holder Kaustav is the SC category topper. In all there are 11 candidates from the OBC category, two from SC and one from the EWS in the top 50.
In continuation of the trend in the past, over 1.6 lakh more female candidates than male qualified. Last year 1.3 lakh more female candidates than male qualified.
The exam recorded the highest attendance this year at 97.7 per cent. Last year, the medical entrance recorded 94.2 per cent attendance, while in 2018 it was 97 per cent.
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, the qualifying marks range for General and EWS PwD candidates is 136-121, up from 116-105 in 2022. This year's qualifying marks range for disabled among OBC and SC candidates is 120-108, up from 104-93.