The JEE-Advanced exam for admission to the 23 IITs across the country will be held on July 3 (Saturday).

The announcement came from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, that will conduct the examination this year. The date was fixed at a meeting of the IIT Joint Admission Board on December 31.

The mode of the examination will be announced in a day or two, an official of IIT Kharagpur said.

Debashish Chakravarty, the organising chairman, JEE-Advanced 2021, said: “On July 3, the first paper of JEE-Advanced will start at 9am and end at noon. The second paper will be held from 2.30pm to 5.30pm.”

A statement issued by IIT Kharagpur says that in 2021, apart from India, JEE (Advanced) centres are likely to be set up in Dubai, Dhaka, Kathmandu and Singapore.

“The admission board decided that the final decision on conduct of examination at foreign center(s), if at all, will depend on the prevailing conditions at the time of JEE-Advanced 2021,” the statement reads.

V.K. Tewari, the director of IIT Kharagpur and chairman of the admission board, said: “While the candidates might have missed the usual preparation and probably been in a more disadvantageous situation compared to those who appeared for the examination in 2020, looking at the aspirant community as a whole, the competition would remain the same considering the crème de la crème who will be appearing in the examination.”

The board will shortlist 2,50,000 students (from all categories) from JEE-Main, who will appear in the JEE-Advanced.

In 2020, IIT Delhi was the organising institute for JEE-Advanced in which a total number of 1,60,838 candidates registered for the exam.

About 43,204 candidates qualified JEE-Advanced.

The total intake was approximately 16,061. The figure is likely to remain the same.

IIT Kharagpur had last organised JEE Advanced in2014.

The board has decided to shortlist two lakh fifty thousand (250,000) students (including all categories) from JEE-Main to appear for JEE- advanced).