Nagaland posts highest-ever NEET-UG qualification rate

59.2% qualify, reversing last year's dip

Morung Express News
Dimapur | July 17

Nagaland recorded its highest-ever National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate), NEET-UG qualification rate in 2026, with 59.2% of candidates qualifying, marking a sharp recovery from last year's dip and surpassing the previous record set in 2023.

According to data released by the National Testing Agency (NTA), 3,866 candidates from the State registered for NEET-UG 2026, up from 3,757 in 2025. However, the number of candidates appearing for the examination declined from 3,532 to 3,289.

Despite the lower turnout, the number of qualified candidates increased from 1,813 in 2025 to 1,946 this year. Consequently, Nagaland's qualification rate rose from 51.3% to 59.2%, an increase of 7.8 percentage points. The data further indicate that while 243 fewer candidates appeared for the examination, 133 more candidates qualified compared to the previous year.

The latest result marks a significant turnaround after 2025, when Nagaland had registered its first notable decline since the NTA began conducting the examination. 

Over the years, the State's qualification rate has steadily improved from 29.34% in 2018 to 34.52% in 2019, before crossing the 40% mark in 2020 (40.5%) and 2021 (40.4%).

It then climbed sharply to 54.51% in 2022, reached 55.96% in 2023, and remained at 55.6% in 2024, before dipping to 51.3% in 2025.

The 59.2% recorded in 2026 is the highest for the State since the NTA took over conduct of NEET.

According to the NTA's list of State toppers, Subhasmita Nayak emerged as Nagaland's top performer in NEET-UG 2026. She secured a 97.86464 percentile under the General category and an All India Rank (AIR) of 42,124.

Nationally, 11,21,185 of the nearly 19,99,895 who appeared for NEET-UG 2026 qualified, translating to a 56.1% qualification rate. A total of 22.80 lakh candidates had registered for the examination. More than 58 per cent of the qualified candidates are women.

Within the North-East, Assam accounted for the highest number of qualifiers at 18,435, followed by Manipur (5,070), Arunachal Pradesh (2,179), Nagaland (1,946), Tripura (1,807), Meghalaya (1,658), Mizoram (1,353) and Sikkim (579).

At the national level, Aryan Gupta of Punjab secured All India Rank (AIR) 1 with a 99.9999 percentile, followed by Panshul Bansal of Haryana (AIR 2) and Uplakshya Goyal of Rajasthan (AIR 3). The NTA also reported that 138 candidates scored above 670 marks or equivalent to a percentile of 99.9930996 or higher, highlighting the highly competitive nature of this year's examination.

As per the NTA, 19 candidates scored above 700 out of 720 while 1,492 candidates scored 650 and above. Those scoring 600 and above stood at 10,160 candidates while  90,780 candidates scored 500 and above. 

The qualifying cut-offs also increased across all major categories this year. For the Unreserved (UR)/EWS category, the qualifying marks rose to 715–213, up from 686–144 in 2025. 

The OBC, SC and ST categories saw the qualifying range increase to 212–177, compared to 143–113 last year. For UR/EWS-PwBD, the qualifying range increased to 212–194 from 143–127, while OBC-PwBD and SC-PwBD candidates qualified within the 193–177 range, up from 126–113 in 2025. The ST-PwBD qualifying range also increased to 191–177, compared to 143–113 last year.

The NEET re-test was held in June 21 5,440 centres spread across 551 cities in India and 14 international locations and results were declared on July 16. 

Counselling and Candidate Advisory
Meanwhile, the NTA informed that counselling for the All-India Quota in MBBS/BDS is conducted by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) while State quotas are conducted by respective State authorities. 

Accordingly, it advises candidates should rely only on official websites: neet.nta.nic.in, mcc.nic.in and State counselling portals for any information. 

The NTA also cautioned candidates are cautioned against fraudulent calls, messages or websites offering admission, seat blocking or score improvement.

NTA does not contact candidates seeking money or credentials. Suspicious communication may be reported at neetug2026@nta.ac.in or 011-40759000, it added.