India's LPU student bags Rs 1.3 cr PhD scholarship from Aussie varsity

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 per cent yield loss to tomato crop in India in the past, it added.

Punjab-based Lovely Professional University (LPU) on Thursday said its post graduate agriculture student Sumant Bindal has bagged a fully-paid scholarship of Rs 1.3 crore to pursue PhD in plant sciences at Australian National University. "This is perhaps the biggest scholarship ever bagged by an agriculture student from India. The PhD programme would commence in September 2020 at ANU," Jalandhar-based LPU said in a statement.

Bindal, a post graduate in agri-genetics and plant breeding would be doing research on "Identification of signalling pathways activated by resistant genes against Fusarium wilt in tomato," the private university said. 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 per cent yield loss to tomato crop in India in the past, it added.