# JEE Advanced 2026: SC, ST rates surge, women hit 6-year high 2026-10-05T06:37:04+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets The qualification rate for Scheduled Caste (SC) candidates in JEE Advanced 2026 rose to 50.16 per cent from 40.41 per cent in 2025, and for Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates to 42.14 per cent from 33.99 per cent, according to the Joint Implementation Committee report released by IIT Roorkee on Saturday, 3 October 2026. Women recorded their highest qualification rate in six years at 23.4 per cent, up from 21.7 per cent, with 10,107 qualifying, the first time the figure crossed 10,000. The overall qualification rate for General category candidates fell to 39.8 per cent from 43 per cent, and for OBC-NCL to 17.5 per cent from 18.2 per cent. The rises came even as qualifying marks increased across all categories: the Common Rank List cut-off rose to 92 out of 360 from 74. A total of 56,880 candidates qualified, up from 54,378 in 2025. Of these, 52,559 registered for JoSAA counselling, while 4,321 did not participate in choice-filling. Women secured 3,814 of the 18,861 IIT seats allotted, about 20.2 per cent. ## Indian Opinion Analysis Both Hindustan Times and Deccan Herald report the same JIC data without any discernible editorial slant, making this uniform straight reporting. The coverage is notable for the factual clarity it provides on two simultaneous trends: SC, ST and women qualification rates rising while General and OBC-NCL rates fell, despite higher cut-offs across all categories. The reports underline that qualifying does not guarantee a seat, 4,321 qualifiers skipped JoSAA counselling, and that women’s 20 per cent seat share is driven by the supernumerary scheme introduced in 2018. No outlet offers a political or institutional explanation for the category-wise shifts, leaving the distribution of candidate performance as the open question. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral - hindustantimes.com (neutral report) Straight data report with no editorial framing - deccanherald.com (neutral report) Straight data report with no editorial framing This brief was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Tags: IIT Roorkee, JEE Advanced, JIC, JoSAA Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/jee-advanced-2026-sc-st-rates-surge-women-hit-6-year-high/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/jee-advanced-2026-sc-st-rates-surge-women-hit-6-year-high/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/