NEW DELHI, 24 July 2020: In a first for agriculture education in India, Sumant Bindal, an M.Sc. Agriculture (Genetics & Plant Breeding) student of Lovely Professional University (LPU), has bagged a fully-paid scholarship worth INR 1.3 crore to pursue his PhD in Plant Sciences at the prestigious Australian National University (ANU).

This is perhaps the biggest scholarship ever bagged by an agriculture student from India. The programme would commence in September 2020 at ANU. Sumant’s topic of research would be ‘Identification of signalling pathways activated by resistant genes against Fusarium wilt in tomato’.

His research would focus on how to make tomatoes completely resistant to Fusarium wilt, a plant fungus that infects tomatoes worldwide, and has reportedly caused up to 45 percent yield loss to tomato crop in India in the past. 
 
Speaking on this, Sumant Bindal said, “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.”
 
This is not the first time that Sumant has received international recognition. Last year, he had also got an opportunity to intern at the globally renowned World Vegetable Center in Taiwan which was fully funded by the Taiwan government. He was one of the 15 Masters’ students from across the world who were chosen for this fellowship.
 
LPU Chancellor Ashok Mittal said, “Sumant is one of the brightest students at LPU. It is a moment of great pride for all of us to see him get an opportunity to study at one of the world’s leading research universities. The 1000 acres of farmland that we have, offers students plenty of opportunities to research and implement what they learn.”
 
The School of Agriculture at Lovely Professional University is one of the leading institutes for Agricultural education in India. Last year as well, Sam Williams Carey, one of the research scholars from LPU secured admission and a full-paid scholarship of $100,000 for pursuing PhD at the prestigious Wayne State University, USA, the university said in a statement.

Founded in 1946, ANU is regarded as one of the world's leading research universities. It is ranked 1st in Australia and the whole of Oceania by the 2019 QS World University Rankings. ANU counts six Nobel laureates and 49 Rhodes scholars among its faculty and alumni.