Gaya boy tops JEE, Hyderabad teen No.1 among girls

MUMBAI: The IIT Delhi zone stood out in the JEE (Advanced) 2026 merit list, accounting for the top three all-India rankers as well as the highest-ranked girl candidate in a year that also threw up an interesting social trend: a higher qualification rate for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates (52.8%) than those in general category (41.3%) for the first time.The IIT zones refer to the location of exam city, not necessarily place of residence or study.Shubham Kumar, son of a hardware shop owner from Gaya secured All India Rank (AIR) 1 with 330 out of 360 marks, followed by KabeerChhillar (329 marks) from Gurugram. Jatin Chahar from IIT Delhi zone and Mohit Shukla from IIT Madras zone came third and fourth.Arohi Deshpande, originally a resident of Hyderabad, emerged as the highest-ranked girl, securing AIR 77 with 280 marks. A Nagpur boy, Kovid Boob, topped the SC category, securing AIR 82.