Mumbai: India’s biggest engineering entrance exam just broke its own record. JEE Main Session-1 has logged close to 14.5 lakh registrations as of 7 pm on Thursday, the highest ever, crossing last year’s peak of 13.11 lakh. And the rush didn’t slow down — students kept signing up right until 9pm on November 27, the deadline.“The applicant pool has more than doubled in six years,” said Amit Ahuja, career counsellor at Allen Career Institute. The numbers tell the story: 2021 saw 6.52 lakh students register. In 2024, it jumped to 12.21 lakh. Now, 2026 may go even further, with Ahuja predicting that additional applicants in April could push unique candidate numbers beyond 16 lakh—a surge that will stiffen competition for NITs and IIITs.For students who made mistakes in their forms, a two-day correction window will be open by the National Testing Agency from December 1 to 2. “It’s the first and last chance to fix errors,” Ahuja said.Because technology is rewriting the job market, tech graduates today walk into bigger and better opportunities than general degree holders, said experts. Engineering institutes are also expanding capacity every year, easing the race for top seats in the best colleges. India currently offers around 58,000 seats across IITs, NITs, IIITs and GFTIs, up from 49,767 in 2021, apart from a massive private college network feeding the same ambition.Government initiatives to skill the youth are pulling even small-town and village students into the engineering pipeline, said experts. A senior faculty member added, “Skill-based employment drives and training projects are telling young India a simple truth: ‘Get technical, get hired’.”
