If you've been deep in NEET-PG counselling, it's easy to assume every government medical college PG seat in India runs through MCC's AIQ and state counselling. It doesn't. AIIMS (all 19 campuses), JIPMER Puducherry, PGIMER Chandigarh, NIMHANS Bengaluru and SCTIMST Trivandrum -- 23 institutes in total, among the most sought-after in the country -- sit outside NEET-PG counselling entirely. Admission to their MD/MS/MDS/DM/MCh seats runs through a completely separate exam: the Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test, or INI-CET. A lot of NEET-PG aspirants either don't know this exam exists, or know the name but not how it actually works -- which is a real gap, because INI-CET is open to the same candidates and worth planning for alongside NEET-PG, not instead of it.
What INI-CET actually is
- Conducted by: AIIMS New Delhi, centrally, for seats across all 23 INI institutes.
- Frequency: twice a year -- a session held in May (for the July intake) and one held in November (for the January intake). You can attempt either or both in a year.
- Eligibility: an MBBS degree from an NMC-recognised institution, a completed rotating internship, and a minimum aggregate of 55% (General/OBC/EWS) or 50% (SC/ST) in MBBS -- there is no requirement to have taken or qualified NEET-PG first. The two exams are entirely independent of each other.
- Format: a computer-based test with 200 MCQs across four sections of 45 minutes each. Each section locks once its time is up -- you cannot go back to an earlier section once you've moved on. Marking is +1 for a correct answer and -1/3 for an incorrect one.
Because it's a separate exam with its own exam calendar, its own application process, and its own counselling and seat allotment -- run by AIIMS, not MCC -- candidates who want a shot at any of these 23 institutes need to register and prepare for INI-CET specifically. Qualifying NEET-PG does not get you into AIIMS or JIPMER, and qualifying INI-CET does not get you a state or AIQ government-college seat under NEET-PG.
The same problem NEET-PG candidates have -- just for a different exam
Once you've cleared the exam, the real question is identical to the one every NEET-PG candidate asks: what rank actually gets me which institute and which specialty? A raw rank or percentile doesn't answer that on its own -- you need real historical closing-rank data, specialty by specialty and institute by institute, the same way we approach it for NEET-PG on this site. Guessing from a vague "trend" or an unsourced number is exactly the kind of thin, unverifiable content this site has always tried to avoid -- and it turns out the same problem exists for INI-CET aspirants, just with a much smaller, more specialised pool of 23 institutes.
ini-cet.com: a free, real-data tool for INI-CET
ini-cet.com is an independent, free resource built specifically for this -- a sibling in spirit to this site, built on the same principle that a figure is only worth publishing if it traces back to an official document. It's not affiliated with AIIMS or any INI institute, and it says so plainly. Its free tools include:
- Rank Predictor -- estimates where an expected score or rank could land, based on real historical closing ranks rather than a guessed formula.
- College Predictor -- shows which institute+specialty combinations have actually been within reach of a given rank in past rounds.
- Cutoff Explorer -- browsable opening and closing ranks by institute, branch and category.
- Specialty & Institute Explorers -- comparative views across specialties and across all 23 institutes.
- Seat Matrix & Fees data -- official seat allocations and fee structures in one place.
- Guides & FAQs -- plain-language explainers on reading INI-CET cutoffs and official notices.
Every one of these is free to use, every figure links back to the official source document it came from, and the site marks when each dataset was last verified -- the same transparency standard we try to hold ourselves to here. As with any predictor, including our own: treat it as a calibration point from real past data, not a guarantee about a future round, and always confirm your own result on the official AIIMS portal before acting on it.
If you're preparing for both exams
There's no conflict in applying to both NEET-PG and INI-CET -- many candidates do exactly that, since they run on different calendars with different seat pools. Keep your documents (MBBS certificate, internship completion certificate, state medical council registration, category certificate) ready for both processes, since the paperwork required overlaps heavily even though the exams and counselling are entirely separate. Use the NEET-PG Help Predictor for MCC's AIQ and state-quota seats, and ini-cet.com for the 23 INI institutes -- between the two, you're covering real data for every government PG seat pathway in the country.