One lakh fewer JEE (Main) aspirants in 2016

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New Delhi: The number of applicants for all-Indian engineering exam JEE Main has dropped again in 2016.

Last year in 2015, the number of applicants dropped by 50,000. This year, it is down by almost a lakh. JEE (Main) is the first round of test for admission to undergraduate engineering courses (B.Tech.). The national-level joint entrance examination is conducted by CBSE every year.

At least 13.03 lakh students got themselves registered for JEE Main in 2014 while in 2015, 13.56 lakh applicants had registered for the exam. Surprisingly, this year the number of applicants decreased further as total 12.07 lakh aspirants registered for the exam.

According to experts, since last few years, large number of engineering seats remain vacant in the engineering colleges of every states. It could be because of variety of career choices to students today.

The last date of online submission of application form of JEE (Main) 2016 was extended till January 11, 2016 (12.00 midnight) in view of requests from various stakeholders.  

JEE (Main) is conducted for admission to technical institutions such as NITs, IITs and institutions in participating states. Of the total applicants, the top 1.5 lakh students are selected to take the JEE (Advanced) for admissions to IITs. The IIT council had decided to shortlist at least 2 lakh candidates this year.