Authors feel greatly encouraged and motivated with the reviewer’s comments.
It is also acknowledged that this paper is probably the first of many papers to emerge from the study. As such, it is an overview paper that raises many questions. It would be interesting for the authors to provide more information about the research design and estimation methodologies, such as chi-square analysis of introgression lines, if possible for each crossed IL population. I only recommend some minor revisions before acceptance. Response: Authors once again thank the reviewer for correct assessment of the basic purpose of the manuscript. Yes, this is truly an overview paper presenting the interesting observations from our study. The introgression scheme and phenotyping of various biotic traits and drought phenotyping have been described in detail under ‘Materials and Methods’ section. The metric data on yield traits was statistically analyzed and results of ANOVA, heritability and critical differences have been presented in the manuscript. Authors agree that it would be more inferential with chi square values. However, the crossing scheme was viewed holistically and data on each cross was not maintained separately as the present study aimed at selecting introgression lines from multiples crosses with multiple stress resistance/tolerance by pooling several genes and QTLs into a common background. Despite maintaining large base populations, plants per se were selected based on marker positivity for inter-crossing and selfing and further stringent phenotypic selection for the targeted traits. Hence, chi-square which is perfectly apt for population derived from biparental crosses is not used in our study. This work is of outstanding quality, and I normally present more critical points in my reviews. However, this time it is just very beautiful work.