Small town dreams: How a UP girl landed in UK

Early this March, Dr Antima Gupta stood facing a crowd of some rather fashionable people at the L'Oreal headquarters in Paris. Dressed in a sari, she spoke about tuberculosis and its growing threat to the world.

           Gupta is an unlikely face for the international cosmetics brand that counts stunners such as Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Sonam Kapoor amongst its ambassadors. However the 29-year-old scientist born in small town India best reflects the country's aspirations and its successes. Her Parisian sojourn was to receive the L'Oreal-UNESCO for Women in Science Fellowship. 

The grant that has honoured 90 women across continents over the last 12 years has seen only two Indian recipients (Professor Indira Nath from the Institute of Pathology (ICMR), Safdarjung Hospital Campus in New Delhi being the other one).

Through this fellowship, Dr Anitma Gupta will be able to pursue her post-doctoral research in tuberculosis at the Department of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck in the University of London.