IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi and IIT Madras have emerged as the first choices of the country’s top JEE-Advanced rankers in 2026. According to a report by Times of India, 97 of the top 100 rankers were allotted seats at these three prestigious IIT institutes. The report cited the Joint Implementation Committee report prepared by IIT Roorkee.
IIT Bombay tops among other institutes
As per the report, IIT Bombay alone accounted for 68 of the top 100 rankers. It is followed by IIT Delhi and IIT Madras, which secured the remaining 29 seats.
Among the top 25 rankers, eight each took admission at IIT Delhi and IIT Madras, and six others joined IIT Bombay. The report claims that IIT Bombay remains at the top spot among all engineering institutes in the country. This comes after the IIT Bombay suicide case around the tragic death of 22-year-old second-year B.Tech student Sahil Ravindra Wakode, who died by suicide on September 18, after he was caught allegedly using ChatGPT during his exam.
Meanwhile, a total of 18,861 admissions were made across all IITs this year, the report said.
Percentage of women among qualifiers
Among these, women accounted for 3,814 of the total admissions, or approximately 20.2%. It marked a marginal increase from 20.15% in the previous year, added the report.
The number of women receiving IIT seat allotments recorded an increase of 4%, going from 3,664 in 2025 to 3,814 in 2026. Of this year’s allotments, 3,777 were in seats reserved exclusively for women, while 37 were in seats open to candidates of all genders.
IITs added women-only seats to ensure that women account for at least one-fifth of new undergraduate students.
SC, ST candidates increase
The report also highlighted a significant increase in the number of Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates qualifying for JEE-Advanced in 2026. The number of SC qualifiers rose from 12,528 in 2025 to 15,856 this year. On the other hand, the number of ST qualifiers has also increased from 5,017 to 6,379 this year.
Both categories recorded an increase of around 27% as qualifiers went up from 54,378 in 2025 to 56,880 in 2026.
Including candidates with disabilities in both years, the qualification rate among registered candidates increased by 9.9 percentage points for SC candidates to 50.2% and by 8.3 percentage points for ST candidates.
The JEE Advanced 2026 exam was held on May 17. This year’s result was declare on June 1.