Bhubaneswar/Rourkela: Satwik Patnaik from Rourkela has emerged as the state topper in NEET-UG 2026, securing an All India Rank (AIR) 40, according to the state-wise merit list released by National Testing Agency on Thursday.Satwik, a resident of Sector-1 in Rourkela, is the only candidate from Odisha to figure among the national top 50 this year, scoring 700 out of 720, with a percentile of 99.9979.Another Odisha candidate, Amaan Kumar Nayak, secured AIR 80 with a 99.9959 percentile.Satwik had earlier represented India in Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad in Türkiye, where his team of five won a bronze medal.Satwik completed his schooling up to Class X in Rourkela, before moving to Jaipur after a school there offered him a scholarship with free coaching for NEET-UG and JEE. He appeared for both NEET-UG and JEE (Advanced). After securing AIR 1,321 in JEE (Advanced), he even took admission to the mechanical engineering branch of IIT Delhi.Satwik’s father, Subhendu Patnaik, a senior official at Rourkela Steel Plant, gives much of the credit for his son’s success to his mother, a BSNL employee posted in Kolkata. Satwik said his mother took leave without pay for two years and stayed with me in Jaipur during my preparation.Meanwhile, Amaan was among the 138 candidates across the country who scored 690 marks or above out of a total of 720 in the examination. It was Bhubaneswar-resident Nayak’s second attempt. “After completing Class XII, I appeared for NEET-UG last year and scored 520 marks. However, I did not take admission to any medical college. This year, I scored 695 and hope to secure a seat in one of the top AIIMS institutes in the country,” Amaan said.Amaan said he performed well in physics and improved on his previous score. “I took help from a coaching institute for my preparation. My father, Nihar Ranjan Nayak, a scientist at the Regional Plant Resource Centre, Bhubaneswar, helped me with biology,” he said.He also appeared for JEE (Main) this year and secured a at NIT Rourkela. However, he did not take admission.Among other achievers from Odisha are 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).
