NEET-UG to be conducted in 13 languages for first time; exam centre opened in Kuwait: Dharmendra Pradhan

New Delhi, July 13: In a first, medical entrance exam NEET-UG will be conducted in 13 languages with Punjabi and Malayam being the new additions, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announced on Tuesday.

He also said that a new exam centre for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) has been opened in Kuwait to facilitate the Indian student community in the Middle East.

"Registrations for the NEET(UG) 2021 has started on http://ntaneet.nic.in from 5:00 pm today. For the first time in the history of NEET(UG) exam and in order to facilitate the Indian student community in the middle east, an examination centre has been opened in Kuwait," he tweeted.

"The NEET(UG) 2021 will be for the first time conducted in 13 languages with new addition of Punjabi and Malayalam," Pradhan said.

The languages which are now being offered are Hindi, Punjabi, Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Urdu and English, he said.

The Minister had on Monday announced that the NEET which was earlier scheduled on August 1 will now be conducted on September 12.

The number of cities where examination is conducted will be increased from 155 to 198. The number of examination centres will also be increased from 3,862 used in the 2020.

Last year, it was conducted on September 13 amid strict precautions in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 13.66 lakh candidates had appeared in the exam of whom 7,71,500 qualified.