Last Updated:July 17, 2026, 09:46 IST

NEET UG 2026 Topper: Aryan Gupta grew up in a family of doctors who inspired him to pursue medicine. He now aims to become oncologist.

Aryan Gupta secured an exceptional 99.9999 percentile and scored 715 out of 720 marks. (Image: PTI)

In the NEET UG 2026 results announced on Thursday, Ludhiana’s Aryan Gupta secured AIR 1. While growing up in a family of doctors inspired him to pursue medicine, Aryan said it was his grandmother’s battle with stage 4 cancer that gave his career goal a deeper purpose. He now aims to become oncologist.

Aryan secured an exceptional 99.9999 percentile and scored 715 out of 720 marks. Speaking to PTI after the results were announced, Aryan described the achievement as “surreal” and said months of relentless hard work had finally paid off.

“I secured AIR 1. I scored 715 out of 720. My father and mother are doctors. I worked very hard. There were days when I barely slept, but now it feels like a dream. Everyone is happy. I studied for 16-17 hours a day. I want to become an oncologist. My grandmother died of cancer when I was in Class 3, and that’s when I took a pledge. There is so much to do in life, but I am feeling really good,” he said.

Medicine has always been a part of Aryan’s life. His father, Dr Sachin Gupta, is an anaesthesiologist, while his mother, Dr Reena Gupta, is a gynaecologist. His elder brother is also pursuing MBBS after securing AIR 54 in NEET UG 2025.

Aryan’s journey to the top, however, was not without setbacks. The first NEET UG 2026 examination, held on May 3, was cancelled following allegations of a paper leak, forcing candidates to appear for a fresh examination on June 21.

Recalling the announcement of the re-examination, Aryan admitted it was emotionally difficult. “I cried because it was very disheartening. But within two days, I accepted that it wasn’t happening only to me—it was happening to everyone,” he said.

The second attempt ultimately worked in his favour. Aryan improved significantly, reducing his mistakes from five in the first examination to just one in the re-exam, helping him secure the top rank.

NEET UG Result 2026: Key Highlights

The National Testing Agency (NTA) declared the NEET UG 2026 results on Thursday, announcing that 11.21 lakh candidates qualified for admission to undergraduate medical, dental, AYUSH and allied health courses. The number of qualifiers declined from 12.36 lakh in 2025 to 11.21 lakh this year, but the numbers appearing also fell from 22.09 lakh to close to 20 lakh.

Their score was 29 marks higher than the 686 secured by the 2025 topper, when an unusually tough paper ensured that not a single candidate crossed 700. While 19 candidates scored 700, 138 obtained 690 marks. More than 93 per cent of the 138 candidates scoring above 690 were appearing for NEET-UG for the first time. A total of 1,492 candidates scored 650 or above, while 10,160 scored 600 or more, according to the NTA.

Haryana’s Panshul Bansal secured AIR 2 with the same 99.9999 percentile, while Rajasthan’s Uplakshya Goyal claimed AIR 3 with a 99.99985 percentile. Bihar’s Ayush Bhalotia ranked AIR 4, Maharashtra’s Kudale Shravani Krishna emerged as the highest-ranked female candidate at AIR 5, and Bihar’s Riya Ranjan secured AIR 6.

“The results were declared within time through re-engineering of the process, with stages designed to run in parallel rather than in sequence, and with the de-linking of the OMR sheet challenge from answer key release. Each stage was completed in full and made available for candidate view,” the NTA said.

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