Punjab teen Navdeep tops medical entrance, eyes MBBS in Delhi

A 17-year-old son of a Punjab school teacher and two close friends from Madhya Pradesh on Friday took the first three positions in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), an all-India examination for admission to medical and dental colleges.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), which conducts the examination, announced the results on Friday, ending weeks of suspense that saw the Madras high court withholding the outcome before the Supreme Court cleared it.

Launched in 2016, the NEET replaced a clutch of entrance exams conducted by states and colleges. There were more successful women than men, the results show, with 3.45 lakh clearing the exams out of 6.16 lakh who wrote it. About 2.66 lakh out of 4.73 men were successful. Five transgenders out of eight candidates also passed the exam held on May 7, the CSBE said.

The topper, Navdeep Singh, secured 697 out of 700 and plans to pursue an MBBS degree from Maulana Azad Medical College in Delhi for MBBS, his father, Gopal Singh, told HT in Mukstar, 550km from Chandigarh.

“I was hopeful of clearing the exam but I had not expected to become the all India topper,” said Navdeep, whose hobbies include playing cricket.

Two other students from Punjab were placed among the top ten, with Nikita Goyal securing the 8 position and Tanish Bansal coming 10. The results were particularly sweet for the friends from Indore, Archit Gupta and Manish Mulchandani, who were placed second and third.

Archit and Manish left their homes to live in a hostel so that they could concentrate on their studies and motivate each other.

They attended the same coaching institute in the Madhya Pradesh city.

“Archit and I always compete with each other, but it is a healthy competition and it helped us both in scoring well,” said Manish, who will represent India in the Bio Olympiad in London on July 23. Both were also placed among the top 10 of successful candidates in an entrance exam to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Others in the top ten were Karnataka’s Sankeerth Sadananda (4), Maharashtra’s Dogra Abhishek Veerendra (5), Kerala Deric Joseph (6), Haryana’s Kanishh Tayal (7) and Uttar Pradesh’s Aryan Raj Singh (9).

I was hopeful of clearing the exam but I had not expected to become the all India topper NAVDEEP SINGH , TOPPER