Tier 1 — Elite IITs (Closing Rank Below 1,131)
These elite IITs — IIT Madras, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee, and IIT Hyderabad and others — offer AI & Data Science (Gender-Neutral) accessible only to candidates with JEE Advanced Category Ranks at or below 1,131. Competition here is among the most intense in Indian engineering admissions. IIT Madras and IIT Kharagpur and others are showing tightening competition year-over-year — meaning these seats are becoming progressively harder to secure.