Rank 992
IIT-JEE is India's engineering entrance examination, and the rank it produces is the whole of the currency: it decides, name by name, who enters which Indian Institute of Technology and on which branch. India.com reports that Karuturi placed 992nd nationally, and fourth in the physically challenged category, which is administered as a separate list against the same paper.
The rank was good enough to take him to IIT Madras. What makes it unusual is everything attached to it. He had dropped out of school because his family could not afford to keep him in it, and was later admitted to a missionary school in Tanuku. The gap between a village primary education interrupted by poverty and a place inside the national top thousand is not usually closed.
Teeparru
The family home was in Teeparru, by the Godavari river. His father drove for a living; his mother kept the house; the household, in the report's words, lived in poverty. That is the background against which the accident has to be read.
India.com's account of what followed is brief and unsparing: after the accident, a private hospital declined to treat him because the family could not pay, and a government hospital amputated both legs. He has used a wheelchair since. The report does not give his age at the time, the date, or the nature of the accident, and this page does not supply them. The family later moved to Tanuku, where he was admitted to the missionary school that carried him to the entrance examination.
IIT Madras
Karuturi took his B.Tech at IIT Madras, the Chennai campus of the Indian Institutes of Technology. The branch he read is not named in the source used here.
The practical dimension of that move is easy to underestimate. An IIT degree is four years of residential study several hundred kilometres from home, taught at a pace designed to shake out the unprepared, and the campus infrastructure a wheelchair user needs is not something a student can negotiate from a village. He finished it.
Where Naresh is now
He received offers from several companies and chose Google, where India.com reports he works as a software engineer. Neither the office nor the team is named, and the report gives no date for when he joined.
The arc has made him a fixture of Indian motivational coverage, retold at intervals in the same compressed form: village, accident, rank, IIT, Google. What that form loses is the ordinary part, which is the decade of school work in between and the people who paid for it. No source consulted here gives the names of the teachers at the missionary school in Tanuku, and they are the part of the story most worth having.
What is documented, and what is not
Firm: born in Teeparru village, Andhra Pradesh, by the Godavari; father a driver, mother a homemaker; the family lived in poverty and he left school for a period because of it; both legs were amputated at a government hospital after a private hospital declined treatment for want of funds; he uses a wheelchair; he was admitted to a missionary school in Tanuku; he cleared IIT-JEE with All India Rank 992 and fourth in the physically challenged category; he took a B.Tech at IIT Madras; he works as a software engineer at Google, having had offers from several companies.
Not documented: his birth year and current age, the year and circumstances of the accident, his age when it happened, the branch he read at IIT Madras, the year he graduated, the year he joined Google and where he is based. The source carries no direct quotation from him. Widely circulated retellings add detail this page has deliberately left out.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rajveer Meena | India | Reciting 70,000 decimal places of pi blindfolded | Age 0 |
| Rishi Shiv Prasanna | India | Winning the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar in 2023 at eight, for… | Age 0 |
| Ishita Katyal | India | Becoming the youngest Indian speaker at TEDYouth in New York at 10 (2015) | Age 10 |
| Nandini Agrawal | India | All India Rank 1 in the 2021 CA Final at 19 years and 330 days | Age 19 |
| Naga Naresh Karuturi | India | Clearing IIT-JEE with All India Rank 992 after losing both legs | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- All India Rank 992 in IIT-JEE and fourth in the physically challenged category
- Both legs amputated at a government hospital after a private hospital declined treatment for want of funds
- Born in Teeparru, Andhra Pradesh; father a driver, mother a homemaker; later schooled at a missionary school in Tanuku
- B.Tech at IIT Madras; now a software engineer at Google
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- His age at the time of the accident, and the date and nature of the accident, are not stated
- Birth year and current age are not stated
- The branch he read at IIT Madras and his graduation year are not stated
- No direct quotation from him appears in the source used here
Questions people ask about Naga Naresh Karuturi
What rank did Naga Naresh Karuturi get in IIT-JEE?
All India Rank 992, and fourth place in the physically challenged category, according to India.com.
How did he lose his legs?
The report says only that he lost both legs after an accident, that a private hospital declined to treat him because the family lacked funds, and that a government hospital amputated them. It does not give the date, his age, or the type of accident.
Where did he study?
He took a B.Tech at IIT Madras. His branch is not named in the source used here.
Where does he work now?
At Google, as a software engineer, according to a March 2025 report. The office and team are not named.
Where is he from?
Teeparru village in Andhra Pradesh, on the Godavari. The family later moved to Tanuku.
How old is Naga Naresh Karuturi?
No source consulted for this page gives his birth year or his current age.
What do his parents do?
His father was a driver and his mother a homemaker. The report describes the family as living in poverty.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Naresh’s story?
What was Naga Naresh Karuturi's All India Rank in IIT-JEE?
Which institute did he attend?
Where does he work, according to the 2025 report?
Sources
- Meet N Naresh, who lost both legs in accident, cleared IIT JEE, studied at IIT Madras, got job with Google — India.com, 2025-03-24
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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