ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute

What are the cutoffs for ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute in 2026?

For 2026, admission to ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal is decided entirely by your All India Rank and score in the ICAR AIEEA (All India Entrance Examination for Admission, conducted by NTA under the CUET-ICAR UG framework) for the B.Tech Dairy Technology programme, and by ICAR AIEEA PG / AICE-JRF for master's and AICE-Ph.D for doctoral seats. NDRI does not run its own entrance test, so your ICAR rank is the only currency that matters. With just 40 B.Tech Dairy Technology seats and a standing as the NIRF No. 2 institute in Agriculture and Allied Sectors (2024 and 2025), the closing bar is steep: based on the 2024 cycle, a General-category aspirant realistically needed an ICAR AIEEA UG score in the region of 270-275 out of 720 to secure a B.Tech Dairy Technology seat, with SC closing far lower around 160-170. The official 2026 ICAR AIEEA exam is expected around July 2026, with closing ranks finalised only after the centralised counselling rounds.

Because NDRI fills seats through ICAR's national counselling on All India Rank, the institute itself does not publish a JEE-style branch-and-category closing rank table. The figures below are the best verified, year-tagged indicators an aspirant can use to judge their chances, and they are framed honestly as indicative bands where official seat-allotment data is not separately released.

Year-Wise Cutoff Trends (2024-2026)

This table tracks the indicative ICAR AIEEA UG closing score required for the B.Tech Dairy Technology programme at NDRI Karnal across the last three admission cycles. It answers the core question: what score has historically been good enough to get in, and how is that bar moving? Read the score as marks out of 720 in the ICAR AIEEA UG paper; a higher score means a sharper closing bar and tougher competition. The 2024 column carries the firmest figures; 2025 and 2026 are marked as awaited because NDRI and ICAR release allotment data only after counselling.

The clear takeaway is that the General and OBC bars sit very close together at NDRI, both clustering around the 270 mark in 2024, while SC and ST closing scores fall roughly 100-120 marks lower, reflecting the 15 percent SC, 7.5 percent ST and 27 percent OBC reservation applied to the 40-seat intake. For an applicant, the practical signal is stability: with only 40 seats and NDRI holding its NIRF No. 2 rank in both 2024 and 2025, there is no reason to expect the 2026 General cutoff to soften, so target comfortably above 280 to be safe.

Course-Wise Cutoff at ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute

NDRI Karnal admits at three levels, and each uses a different ICAR examination, so the cutoff means something different for each. This table breaks the requirement down by programme: the entrance exam accepted, the category, and the indicative closing bar from the 2024 cycle. Use it to match your own profile (UG aspirant, master's applicant, or doctoral candidate) to the right benchmark, rather than reading a single number for the whole institute.

The pattern this reveals is that NDRI's master's seats are arguably even harder to win than the B.Tech: because the PG dairy disciplines draw the strongest national applicants, a master's aspirant typically needs an ICAR AIEEA PG All India Rank inside the low hundreds, as shown by a 2024 admit entering with an AIR near 198. For UG candidates the message is to maximise the AIEEA score, while PG and Ph.D candidates should treat a top-200 AIR or a strong JRF as the working target. Note that B.Tech eligibility also requires a 50 percent aggregate in 10+2 (40 percent for SC/ST/PH), and PG entry requires 60 percent in the qualifying degree.

Cutoff Trend Analysis

The NDRI Karnal cutoff is best described as high and holding steady rather than sharply rising or falling. Two structural facts keep it elevated: the B.Tech Dairy Technology intake is fixed at just 40 seats, and the institute has retained the NIRF No. 2 position in Agriculture and Allied Sectors in both 2024 (behind IARI New Delhi) and 2025, scoring 75.87 points in 2025. When a small, premier seat pool meets a growing pool of agriculture and dairy aspirants sitting the centralised ICAR AIEEA, the General closing score has little room to drop, which is why it sat around 270-275 out of 720 in 2024 and is expected to stay in that band for 2026.

Realistically, a General-category candidate aiming at B.Tech Dairy Technology should target 280 or above out of 720 in ICAR AIEEA UG to clear the bar with a cushion, since cutoffs can drift upward by a few marks in years when the paper is easier. OBC applicants should plan for a near-identical bar, while SC and ST candidates have meaningfully more room, closing roughly 100-120 marks lower in 2024 thanks to the 15 percent, 7.5 percent and 27 percent reservation on the 40 seats. Master's aspirants face the most demanding benchmark of all and should aim for a top-200 ICAR AIEEA PG All India Rank, or arrive with a strong GATE score for the streams where it is accepted. The single biggest lever in every case is the raw ICAR score, because NDRI converts that, and nothing else, into an admission offer.