Nagaland’s poor Neet returns

Eastern Mirror Desk Dimapur, June 8: The pass percentage of students in the recently declared HSLC and HSSLC examinations in the state may have shown improvement but in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Neet), Nagaland performed poorly. Among the Indian states, Delhi topped the list with the highest success percentile with 74.92%, followed by Haryana (74.92), Chandigarh (73.24), Andhra Pradesh (70.72), Rajasthan (69.66), Punjab (68.61), Telangana (67.44), Kerala (66.59), Manipur (63.38) and Himachal Pradesh (63.28). Nagaland was ranked lowest with a mere 34.52% pass percentage, well below the national average of 52%. It was preceded closely by the neighbouring states of Mizoram and Meghalaya. The topper Nalin Khandelwal, was from Rajasthan and scored a total of 701 marks. The results also saw two students scoring an incredible 700 out of the total 720 marks. They were however ranked differently according to the inter-se merit rules laid out by NTA. In the case of two candidates scoring the same marks, the candidate having scored higher in Biology will be given preference. This is followed by the candidate with the higher marks in Chemistry, and then the candidate with the least number of attempted incorrect answers in all the tests. Lastly, the age of the two candidates is taken into account whereby the older candidate is given preference. There was a significant increase in the number of students with 14.52% registering for the exams this year. Although Maharashtra topped the list for the highest number of applicants, it was ranked fourth in the list of underperforming states. The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Neet) is conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admission to MBBS/BDS courses in India. The exams were conducted on May 5 all over India. However, students affected by cyclone Fani in the states of Odisha and Karnataka were allowed to reappear for the exam on May 20.