John Shinoj tops KEAM engineering entrance, Anakha Anil bags first rank in pharmacy

John Shinoj of Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district topped the Kerala Engineering Architecture Medical (KEAM) entrance test 2025 in the engineering stream and Anakha Anil of Pathiyoor in Alappuzha has bagged the first rank in the pharmacy stream. The results were declared by Higher Education Minister R. Bindu here on Tuesday (July 1, 2025).

Hari Kishan Baiju of Cherai in Ernakulam is the second rank holder and B.N. Akshay Biju of Kakkur in Kozhikode is the third rank holder in the engineering stream. Hrishikesh R. Shenoy of Arpookkara in Kottayam got the second rank and Fathimathu Zahra of Kunnakkavu in Malappuram got the third rank in pharmacy respectively.

B.R. Dhiya Roopya of Perumpuzha in Kollam (rank number 9) is the topper among women in the engineering stream while Hridin S. Biju of Nileshwaram in Kasaragod and K.S. Sabarinath of Manarcaud in Kottayam scored the highest among the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes categories, respectively.

The Minister said that of the 86,549 applicants who had appeared for the engineering entrance test, 76,230 had qualified. Subsequently, a rank list of 67,505 applicants who had furnished the details of their marks was prepared. Of the 33,425 applicants who appeared for the BPharm entrance test, 27,841 figured on the rank list. The KEAM examination for engineering and pharmacy courses was held from April 23 to 29. Ms. Bindu said that the engineering rank list had been prepared applying the new normalisation process.

This was implemented to ensure a level-playing field for engineering aspirants from the State syllabus, addressing their long-standing concern that they were at a disadvantage compared with their counterparts from the Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education. The students from State syllabus schools had complained that they were losing roughly 15 to 20 marks in the normalisation process when KEAM scores where combined with higher secondary marks, especially in core subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics.

This time, the first rank holder in engineering is from a State syllabus higher secondary school. Of the first 10 rank holders, five each are from the State syllabus and the CBSE. Of the 47,175 applicants in the State syllabus, 43 figured in the first 100 ranks. Of the 18,284 in the CBSE stream, 55 figured in the first 100 ranks.

The Minister said that the admission process for BTech courses would have to be completed by August 14 in line with the academic calendar prepared by the All-India Council for Technical Education.