Dr. Jitendra Kumar, is Principal Scientist in the Division of Crop Improvement at Indian Institute of Pluses research, Kanpur. He has more than 17 years of research experience in plant breeding using both conventional and molecular marker-assisted breeding approaches on various crops. He contributed to the development of more than 1703 intron spanning markers in lentil. A significant contribution has been made by him in yield traits in lentil. Dr. Kumar also studied the genetics of important traits of lentil leading to the development of a number of prebreeding lines for genetic improvement in lentil. He also developed a candidate set of lentil germplasms and RIL mapping populations for traits related to biotic and abiotic stresses. His current research priorities include use of the molecular marker technology in conventional lentil breeding program for making genetic improvement towards biotic and abiotic stresses.