It is official now, Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) 2021 will be held by IIT Bombay and Joint Admission Test (JAM) 2021 by Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. The conducting body for GATE and JAM has been confirmed on gate.iitb.ac.in, which is the official website for IIT Bombay.
The IIT has uploaded a notice regarding the same. In it, both the exams and their conducting bodies have been disclosed.

IIT Bombay last conducted Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) in 2013. After 8 years in 2021, the IIT will hold GATE again. It is expected as per the usual schedule of the exam, that the GATE 2021 brochure will release in July 2020, the application process will start in the month of September 2020 and the exam will be held in February 2021.
From 2011, IITs have been holding the Joint Admission Test for M.Sc (JAM). Now, this is the first time since then that IISc Bengaluru will hold JAM in 2021. Going by the last year’s schedule, JAM exam notification can release in August 2020. The application process starts in September 2020 and the exam can be held in February 2021.
However, due to COVID-19 pandemic, GATE 2021 and JAM 2021 timeline might get affected.
GATE is a computer-based test for admission of graduates in M.E / M.Tech / M.Arch / Ph.D courses. The scorecard of GATE is valid for 3 years and on the basis of it, qualified candidates get admission in IITs, NITs, CFTIs. GATE is a computer-based test in which 65 questions are asked ad the total marks in the exam is 100. 2 types of question are asked in GATE, they are Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and Numerical Answer Type (NAT) questions.
JAM is a national level online entrance exam, held for admission to M.Sc, Joint M.Sc – Ph.D., M.Sc – Ph.D. dual degree, etc. programmes. JAM is conducted by IITs and integrated Ph.D. degree admission in IISc is also done via JAM scores. JAM is held for a duration of 3 hours and 60 questions of 100 marks are asked. 3 types of questions are asked in the exam – Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs), Multiple Select Questions (MSQs), and Numerical Answer Type (NAT) questions.
There are 25 papers in GATE. The candidates can appear in any one paper of their choice and as per their eligibility. On the other hand, there are a total of 6 subject papers, of which candidates can choose to appear for a maximum of 2 papers.
As per the NIRF ranking 2020, this year Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru has been ranked #2 in the overall category and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has been ranked at #4 in the same category.