For the first time in the history of The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), the examinees can write in Odia language. The Education Ministry has approved a total of 13 languages in which the examination will be conducted.
Taking to the micro blogging site Twitter, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, "The NEET(UG) 2021 will be for the first time conducted in 13 languages with new addition of Punjabi & Malayalam. The languages now being offered are Hindi, Punjabi, Assamese, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Urdu and English."
Informing about the registration process, Pradhan said that it has started on http://ntaneet.nic.in from 5pm on Tuesday.
In another first, a NEET examination centre has been opened in Kuwait to facilitate the Indian student community in the middle east.
"This is in line with PM Narendra Modi’s vision of promoting regional languages under NEP 2020," he added.
The NEET (UG) 2021 will be held on 12th September 2021 across the country following COVID19 protocols. In order to ensure social distancing norms, number of cities where examination will be conducted has been increased from 155 to 198. The number of examination centres will also be increased from the 3862 centres used in 2020.