JEE-Advanced for admission to IITs will be held on August 23: HRD Ministry

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will conduct the joint entrance examination –Advanced (JEE-Advanced) on August 23, HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank announced on Thursday.

The exam was earlier scheduled for May 17, 2020, but was deferred due to the nationwide lockdown to arrest the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The announcement comes two days after the HRD ministry declared the dates for JEE -Mains for admission into top engineering colleges and the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission into medical colleges

JEE (Mains) will take place from July 18 to July 23, while the NEET exam will be held on July 26.

Earlier this week, the government had announced to hold the Joint Entrance Exam-Mains (JEE-Mains) from July 18 to July 23. JEE-Mains is the first leg of the two-tier JEE entrance examination.

JEE-Mains is conducted for admission to engineering colleges across the country and is considered as a qualifying exam for JEE-Advanced.

The HRD Ministry's National Testing Agency (NTA) had also given students an option to change their opted centres for the two tests as many of them have moved to different places during the lockdown.

The country is locked down since March 25, over a week after universities and schools across India were closed as one of the measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.

The IIT counselling process also hinges on when CBSE and respective state boards announce results for the Class 12 board exams. To seek admission to one of the IITs, applicants also need to secure at least 75 per cent marks in their board exams.

The HRD Ministry is likely to announce the schedule for pending board exams on Friday.

(With PTI inputs)