Bhubaneswar/Rourkela: Satwik Patnaik from Rourkela has secured the top position among candidates from Odisha in the NEET-UG 2026 re-examination, achieving an All India Rank of 40 according to the state-wise merit list released by the National Testing Agency. He scored 700 marks out of 720 and a percentile of 99.9979, making him the only Odisha aspirant to break into the national top 50.
A resident of Sector-1 in Rourkela, Satwik has a strong academic background, having earlier represented India at the Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad in Türkiye, where his team of five earned a bronze medal. He completed schooling up to Class X in Rourkela before relocating to Jaipur on a scholarship that included free coaching for NEET-UG and JEE. He appeared for both examinations, securing AIR 1,321 in JEE Advanced and even gaining admission to the mechanical engineering branch at IIT Delhi before focusing on medicine.
Family support played a key role in his success. Satwik’s father, Subhendu Patnaik, a senior official at Rourkela Steel Plant, credited his mother, a BSNL employee posted in Kolkata, for much of the achievement. She took leave without pay for two years to stay with him in Jaipur during his preparation period.
Another notable performer from the state, Amaan Kumar Nayak from Bhubaneswar, secured AIR 80 with a percentile of 99.9959 and 695 marks. This was his second attempt at the exam; he had scored 520 marks last year but opted not to join any medical college then. Amaan credited improvements in physics and guidance from a coaching institute, along with biology support from his father, Nihar Ranjan Nayak, a scientist at the Regional Plant Resource Centre in Bhubaneswar. He also qualified in JEE Main for NIT Rourkela but chose not to pursue engineering. Amaan aspires to secure a seat in one of the top AIIMS institutes.
Nationally, Punjab’s Aryan Gupta and Haryana’s Panshul Bansal jointly topped the re-exam with 715 marks each out of 720, with no candidate achieving a perfect score. A total of 11.21 lakh candidates qualified, and 138 aspirants across the country scored 690 or above. Odisha contributed several strong performers beyond the top two, including Abhilasha Panda (AIR 225), Debesh Kumar Sahoo (AIR 273), Piyush Priyambad (AIR 515), Prayash Prateek Mohanty (AIR 637), Pihu Singhania (AIR 653), and Sreyan Khuntia (AIR 959).
The timely declaration of results paves the way for upcoming counselling and admissions to MBBS, BDS, and other medical courses, keeping the academic calendar on track following the re-examination held in June.
