Jaipur: Shubham Kumar achieved All India Rank 1 in JEE Advanced 2026, continuing a trend where the top rank has been secured by a student who prepared in Kota for three consecutive years. This follows Ved Lahoti of Indore (2024) and Rajit Gupta of Kota (2025). Kumar hails from Gaya in Bihar.
Admissions Surge in Kota
Local hostel and mess associations have noted that these results have bolstered parental confidence in sending their children to Kota for competitive exam coaching, such as JEE and NEET. They report an approximate 20% to 25% increase in admissions this year, signalling a rebound after a post-pandemic decline in student numbers.
After the pandemic, Kota welcomed around 200,000 students in 2022. Subsequently, this figure declined to 160,000 in 2023, further dropping to 145,000 in 2024, and by 2025, Kota hosted about 125,000 students. This year, however, an upward trend is being observed again.
Reasons for Resurgence
Naveen Mittal, president of the Kota Hostel Association, stated, “There was a time when Kota faced some setbacks, but with results of the past few years, there is a strong resurgence of interest and attraction among students toward the coaching hub. People have realised that while every major coaching institute has centres across India, the specific infrastructure for academics and accommodation available in Kota is exceptional.”
Locals attribute the resurgence to three primary factors:
- Affordable accommodation tailored to student needs, with infrastructure capable of housing over 200,000 students.
- Consistent and quality performance in IIT-JEE and NEET-UG, with one in every four students admitted to IITs having studied in Kota.
- An academic ecosystem that motivates students and fosters a strong drive to study alongside national-level competition.
Enhanced Facilities
The Kota Hostel Association also mentioned that facilities like tracking students’ attendance at night and in the morning have been implemented, along with meal attendance. If a student misses a particular meal—breakfast, lunch, or dinner—hostel or mess staff check with the student to see if they are unwell.
Sarita Jain, mother of AIR 8 Kanishk Jain, who studied in Kota almost two decades ago before getting into MNIT Jaipur, said, “When Kanishk wanted to pursue engineering and we came to Kota from Pune, we saw that the city upgraded its facilities and the quality of education remained the same, which cannot be matched anywhere else.”
