Engineering Entrance Exam

To register for GATE 2026, candidates need to visit the official GATE GOAPS portal, which is now activated. IIT Guwahati has released the GATE 2026 official notification along with the official website. Candidates can follow the steps below to access the GOAPS portal for GATE registration -

• Firstly, candidates have to create a login using their full name, a valid email ID, and mobile number. Make sure to provide the contact number and email address that is active, as all notifications will be sent there. 
• Once the registration is completed, candidates will receive a GATE enrollment ID and an OTP for verification. 
• Candidates need to create a password and log in using the credentials created - GATE enrollment and Password.
• After logging in to the GATE GOAPS 2026 portal, candidates need to fill out their personal, educational qualification, and exam-related details. 
• After entering all the necessary details, they have to upload their documents as per the specifications. The documents include- passport-size photograph, scanned signature, category/PwD certificate (optional). 
• Once all of the above is completed, proceed to pay the GATE application fees 2026. 
• Keep a copy of the receipt and submit the GATE 2026 application form. 

Make sure to save and take a printout of the submitted application form for future reference. 

Yes, in case you completed the declaration form of OBC-NCL when filling in the JEE advanced application form and also uploaded your OBC-NCL certificate then this will be taken into consideration. The declaration form is a specific document that applies only when the candidate lacks his the latest OBC-NCL certificate (dated on or later the 1 st of April of the year of admission) at the moment of the application. In filling the declaration, you commit to produce the valid, the latest certificate in the process of seat allocation and reporting. It is important that your uploaded certificate must be in a form prescribed, as well as issued by a qualified authority. Inability to produce the valid certificate later will lead into abatement of the OBC-NCL benefits.

You get an 80 percentile by a candidate of OBC category in JEE Main and qualify OBC cutoff, so you are entitled to counselling in NIT. But in popular branches such as CSE/ECE/Mechanical, getting admission in the best NITs, will be extremely tough. You have the best chance of newer or less competitive NITs (e.g. NIT Agartala, NIT Manipur, NIT Mizoram) in major branches such as Civil, Chemical, Metallurgy, or Biotechnology. There are also bright chances of you in GFTIs (Government Funded Technical Institutes) in branches. Further, you might want to go to college counselling in your state government as domicile quotas are a big boost to your chances of admission.

Your rank in JEE main with an 83.74 percentile is 83,000 which is high enough and this is because of your OBC category. Even though, you will be entitled to NIT counselling because the OBC cutoff is typically in the range of 79-80 percentile, your chances of getting selected in most NITs are very slim and even in case of the popular branches like CSE, ECE, or Mechanical. You would stand the best chances in less competitive or newer NITs (e.g in states of North-East, such as NIT Agartala, NIT Manipur, NIT Mizoram) in branch like Civil, Chemical or Metallurgy and possibly in GFTIs (Government Funded Technical Institutes) via JoSAA and especially via CSAB special rounds, where cutoffs are usually lower.

As you have a JEE Main SC category rank of 17,000; you will have good opportunities in getting admission to different government colleges particularly in NITs, IIITs and GFTIs with regard to some branches.You can possibly get into some of the lower ranked NITs ( e.g. NIT Agartala, NIT Arunachal Pradesh, NIT Manipur, NIT Nagaland, NIT Puducherry, NIT Sikkim, NIT Mizoram) in such departments as Civil, Mechanical, Biotechnology, Metallurgy and less desired engineering profiles. In newer or less popular IIITs (e.g. IIIT Manipur, IIIT Una, IIIT Bhagalpur) you could get to be in a branch other than CSE/IT in the IIITs. GFTIs ( Government Funded Technical Institutes ) give you more options across the branches considering the rank of your SC category.