Human Resource Development Centre and RUSA organized the 13th Benchmark series Lecture. This Benchmark Lecture series was envisaged by Prof Manoj K Dhar, Vice-Chancellor to invite intellectual and academicians of par excellence so that faculty, scholars, and students benefit and inspire from their qualitative work. In this regard, Dr. Rajeev Varshney, Research Program Director – Accelerated Crop Improvement, from The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad spoke on “Fast Forward Breeding and Rapid Delivery Systems for International Agriculture”. Dr. Varshney in his PowerPoint presentation explained the concept of Genomics Assisted Breeding and its relevance to scientists and farmers. He expressed his work and ideas on using chickpea genomics to address global challenges for enhancing crop productivity. He discussed the need of understanding the genetic makeup of a crop for its improvement and how modern-day biotechnological tools are helping to study or look for desirable genes present in the wild crops. Dr. Varshney emphasized the idea of using genomic assisted breeding/gene-editing tools to remove undesirable genes from the crops by domestication or crop breeding. He also talked about Pan-Genome and Innovative Genomics Breeding to reveal the hidden genetic variations which are accessible to genetic studies and breeding. He also elaborated how Rapid Delivery systems can be used to support the farmers using Digital Decision Support Tools. Dr. Varshney also briefed the genomics resources developed by his colleagues and collaborators under Tropical Legume Project with an objective to update crop improvement in some developing countries.  He also discussed his recent work on developing a genetic variation map in chickpea based on the sequencing of 3,366 genomes with the collaboration of 35 countries from 06 continents where they proposed a haplotype-based breeding approach for developing tailor-made high-yielding disease resistant and climate-resilient chickpea varieties.  He also emphasized on machine learning approach to predict the crop yield from genomics data. It is pertinent to mention here that Dr. Varshney, has published more than 450 high-quality research papers/articles and has an h-index of 100 with more than 47,000 citations. He is the most cited author from the country. His area of research is on the most resilient, climate-smart, and nutritious legume and cereal crops which are critical to the dry land tropics. Prof Manoj K Dhar, Vice-Chancellor, University of Jammu, the Chief Guest on the occasion expressed his sincere thanks to well-reputed and celebrated Scientist within and outside Country, Dr Varshney for accepting the invitation of Jammu University and explaining in detail Genomics Assisted Breeding and its various contours. Prof Dhar said that Dr. Varshney is an example which everyone should follow to get inspired that a person with a humble background can achieve unimaginable heights in the field of Science. He further said that this is the era of collaborations and by doing so, the institutions are able to share their valued resources and give faculty, scholars, and students to enhance their potential and play a vital for the development of the nation. On the occasion, Prof Naresh Padha, Dean Academic Affairs, and Prof Rahul Gupta, Rector, Bhaderwah Campus were also honoured on the occasion by the Vice-Chancellor for their contribution to the Benchmark series Lecture of Jammu University. Earlier, Prof S. K Pandita, Director, HRDC delivered a formal welcome address whereas Ranjeet, Kalra, teaching faculty delivered a formal vote of thanks. Among others, various Deans, Faculty members, scholars, students from various institutions were also present on the occasion.