A Master’s student from Lovely Professional University has bagged a fully-paid scholarship which is worth Rs 1.3 crores for studying PhD in Plant Sciences at the prestigious Australian National University (ANU).

Sumant Bindal is currently pursuing his Masters in Science in the field of agriculture specialising in genetics and plant breeding and has added the feather of bagging the biggest scholarship by an agriculture student from the country, to his cap of achievements.

According to reports, his work will involve the ‘identification of signalling pathways activated by resistant games against Fusarium wilt in tomato plants’.

His research would focus on how to make tomatoes completely resistant to Fusarium wilt which is a plant fungus that infects tomatoes worldwide and has reportedly caused up to 45% yield loss to tomato crop in India in the past.

‘I am very excited to receive this scholarship. ANU is one of the leading research institutions in the world and a dream destination for me to pursue my PhD. I would like to thank my faculty and mentors at LPU who encouraged me at every juncture and helped me in applying to leading universities across the globe, including ANU,’ said Sumant, reported Indiatimes.

Last year, Sumant was a part of the World Vegetable Centre in Taiwan, where he served as an intern, with all expenses paid by the Taiwanese government. He was one of the 15 Master’s Degree students who were chosen to be a part of this.

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