India, Oct. 5 -- The qualification rate for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates in JEE Advanced 2026 rose sharply by 9.8 and 8.1 percentage points, respectively, from last year, while women recorded their highest qualification rate of 23.4% in the six years covered in the Joint Implementation Committee (JIC) report the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee released on Saturday. It fell by 3.2 percentage points to 39.8% for general category candidates, and for Other Backward Classes-Non-Creamy Layer (OBC-NCL) declined by 0.7 percentage points to 17.5%.

The SC qualification rate rose to 50.16% this year from 40.41% in 2025. The ST rate increased to 42.14% from 33.99%. About one in every two registered SC candida...