Yes. Karnataka runs its own M.Tech admission and it does not use GATE at all.
Karnataka PGCET, conducted by KEA, admits to M.E., M.Tech and M.Arch alongside MBA and MCA. Its PGCET-2026 Information Bulletin is explicit that the merit list is prepared separately for each of those three streams solely on entrance-test marks. Degree marks are checked for eligibility only — an aggregate of 50% across all years of the degree, 45% for SCA, SCB, SCC, ST and Category-I candidates of Karnataka. The bulletin does not permit rounding the aggregate, so 49.6% does not qualify.
This is not a small side door. We hold 1,199 verified PGCET M.Tech closing ranks across 64 Karnataka colleges — 706 from Round 1 and 493 from Round 2 of the 2025 cycle — transcribed from KEA's own allotment publications and published on this site's Karnataka PGCET cut-off pages.
GATE is a separate national route, not a harder version of the same one. The institutions that admit on it, IISc and NITK Surathkal among them, do not admit through KEA counselling at all, so no PGCET rank exists for them.
What would change this: KEA making a GATE score a condition in a future PGCET notification. Read the current bulletin before assuming the 2026 rules hold.
Answered 8 Sept 2026