Ahmedabad: Approximately 48,000 students from Gujarat are set to join over 13.6 lakh candidates nationwide as the first phase of the JEE Main 2026 kicks off on Wednesday. The high-stakes engineering entrance exam will be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) from Jan 21 to 29. Of the 13,63,900 registered candidates across India, 4,77,543 belong to the open category, 1,64,682 to the economically weaker sections (EWS), 5,37,161 to the other backward classes (OBC), 1,37,970 to the scheduled castes (SC), and 46,644 to the scheduled tribes (ST).
The exam serves as the primary gateway to premier institutions like the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Information Technology (IIITs). It also acts as the qualifying round for JEE Advanced, the entry point for the IITs. Held twice annually, the system allows students to appear again in the second phase this April. The NTA will consider the “best of two” scores for the final merit ranking, offering aspirants a crucial buffer to improve their performance. In Gujarat, exam centres across major cities have finalized preparations to accommodate the thousands of local students appearing in this winter session.
