Rajasthan's Mahesh Kumar tops NEET-UG, MP's Utkarsh Awadhiya bags second rank

Rajasthan's Mahesh Kumar has topped the medical entrance exam NEET-UG, while Madhya Pradhesh's Utkarsh Awadhiya has bagged the second rank, the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced on Saturday.

More than 12.36 lakh candidates out of 22.09 lakh test takers qualified the exam. The number is down from last year's 13.15 lakh qualifying candidates. However, the number of test takers was also higher last year at over 23.33 lakh.

Maharashtra's Krishang Joshi and Delhi's Mrinal Kishore Jha bagged the third and fourth ranks, respectively.

Among females, Delhi's Avika Aggarwal emerged topper, bagging the fifth rank nationally.

The maximum qualifying candidates are from Uttar Pradesh (over 1.70 lakh), followed by Maharashtra (over 1.25 lakh) and Rajasthan (over 1.19 lakh).

The National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Undergraduate (NEET-UG) is the largest entrance exam in the country in terms of the number of candidates appearing for the test.

The NTA conducts the NEET every year for admission into medical colleges. A total of 1,08,000 seats are available for the MBSS course -- approximately 56,000 in government hospitals, and about 52,000 in private colleges.

Admissions to undergraduate courses in dentistry, Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha also utilise NEET results for admission.