NEW DELHI: Nearly two lakh more candidates are going to take the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test UG – 2019 (NEET UG 2019), a growth of 14.4% from last year. The entrance test for MBBS/ BDS aspirants saw registrations soar to a record 15.19 lakh candidates as against 13.26 lakh for NEET 2018. Government officials feel that making NEET mandatory for aspirants who aspire to pursue medical courses in foreign universities is also one of the factors for the increased test takers So far NEET had been conducted by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and had been embroiled in controversies frequently—from question paper leaks to mistakes in translation. Now all eyes will be on this edition after the government set up the National Testing Agency (NTA) under ministry of human resource development to conduct the examination. NEET UG 2019 will be conducted on May 5, 2019 and the results will be announced on June 5.According to data exclusively accessed by TOI, the number of female candidates who have registered are 1.5 lakh more than males and the number of OBC candidates (highest among all categories) is 1.42 lakh more than unreserved category candidates.A day before the expiry of the deadline for online registration, the Supreme Court allowed medical aspirants above the age of 25 years to appear in the NEET UG 2019 and the NTA extended the deadline till December 7, 2018. The total number of candidates above the age of 25 years who applied is 5,144 (0.3%). The apex court however has specified that their admission will be subject to the final outcome of the case. Maharashtra recorded the highest registration with 2,19,883 candidates, followed by UP with 1,57,669 candidate and Tamil Nadu with 1,40,385 candidates. In fourth place is Rajasthan with 99,711 and Bihar with 84,443 candidates in fifth place.City-wise, Delhi is the top choice for exam centre with 56,683 candidates preferring the National Capital followed by Patna with 52,420 candidates and Bangalore in 42,375 candidates. Kota (42,644) is the other city where more than 40,000 candidates have chosen it for first choice as exam centre.The initial plan, as announced by MHRD in July 2018, NEET UG like JEE (main) was supposed to be a computer-based test to be conducted twice a year and on multiple days. HRD minister Prakash Javadekar in July 2018 announced that all the exams to be conducted by NTA would be computer based. The ministry also announced the tentative dates for the exams, according to which NEETUG was scheduled for February 2019 with a repeat on May 2019.However, the ministry of health and family welfare wrote to the MHRD stating that a computer based exam would put rural and economically weaker students at disadvantage and hence asking them to continue with the offline examination or pen-paper mode in 2019 as well.