NEET-2025: Vijayapura boy tops Karnataka

Nikhil Sonnad, a native of Vijayapura who studied in Expert PU College, Mangaluru, emerged as the topper from Karnataka after the National Testing Agency (NTA) announced the NEET(UG)-2025 result on Saturday.

He got All India Rank (AIR) 17 and scored 670 marks (99.99%) out of 720 in the NEET. He had secured 98.3% in II PU exams in the Science stream this year and is aiming to join the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Delhi. He also secured 8th rank in B.Sc (Agriculture) in CET-2025.

Speaking to The Hindu, Nikhil said, “I have never followed a fixed schedule in studying. I have always been flexible. This year, the NEET was tough. The physics questions were very difficult. But I read and understood carefully without getting nervous and answered them. I did not expect to get AIR-17. Instead, I thought I would get a good rank. So, I am happy to be the State topper.”

Being born to doctor parents, Nikhil expressed his desire to pursue a career in cancer research and become a medical entrepreneur after his postgraduate degree.

This year, four students from Karnataka made it to top 50 ranks at the All India level. Ruchir Gupta, a student of Alpine Public School, Bengaluru, has secured AIR-22, Tejas Shailesh Ghotgalkar has got AIR-38, and Pranshu Jahagirdar of Allen Career Institute, Bengaluru, has got AIR-42.

According to an NTA release, of the 1,42,369 students from Karnataka who appeared, as many as 83,582 are eligible to take part in the counselling process this year.

Compared to the previous year, the number of candidates qualified from Karnataka this year has declined. Last year, 88,887 had qualified.

Under the Persons with Benchmark Disabilities (PWBD-Male), Gautam Kumar from Karnataka emerged as the national topper with AIR-1,684.

NEET was conducted in 13 languages, including Kannada, this year and 460 candidates registered to write in Kannada against last year’s 1,065.

This year, of the 22,09,318 candidates who appeared for the exam, 12,36,531 qualified from across the country. Of 11 transgenders, six got qualified.

The test was conducted on May 4 at 5,468 different centres in 552 cities across the country, including 14 outside India.

Published - June 14, 2025 09:22 pm IST