Another first for women in defence forces

Air Vice-Marshal Padmavathy Bandhopadhyay is all set to add another first for women in the Indian defence forces. Close on the heels of Puni...

Air Vice-Marshal Padmavathy Bandhopadhyay is all set to add another first for women in the Indian defence forces. Close on the heels of Punita Arora becoming the first woman Lieutenant General in the Indian Army, Air Vice-Marshal Bandhopadhyay, 59, of the Indian Air Force is all set to become the country’s first woman Air Marshal. She was the first woman to become an Air Vice-Marshal as well, in 2002, and her list of firsts stretches with her 36-year-long career.

Born in Tirupati (AP) and brought up in Delhi, the singular dream of becoming a pilot drove Bandopadhyay to join the IAF in 1968, but problems with her eyesight ruined the dream, compelling her, instead to settle for a medical career with the air force.

She became the first woman to finish the Defence Service Staff College course in the late 1970s, became the first woman Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Society of India, and interestingly, was the first Indian woman to conduct research at the North Pole with an Indo-Russian group. In addition, she was the first woman to command the IAF’s Central Medical Establishment (CME).

Story continues below this ad

In 1975, she specialised in aviation medicine, a nascent science in India at that time — it was this that allowed her to fly for the first time, as aviation medicine needed a deep understanding of the pulls and pressures pilots faced when they flew. Her work afforded her flights in MiG-21s, MiG-25s and Gnats. She now has a large corpus of research to her credit. Her research at the North Pole proved that Indians could acclimatise to extremely cold conditions.

Her first hands-on operations included saving lives during the 1971 war with Pakistan when she and her husband Wing Commander (retd) S.N. Bandhopadhyay were based at Halwara in Punjab.

In Odisha, Modi mounts ‘loot tantra-vs-bachat utsav’ attack on Congress over GST

India3 hr ago

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday hailed the revised Goods and Services Tax (GST) structures, saying the era of “double bachat (saving) and double kamai (income)” has arrived under the Bharatiya Janata Party rule. Addressing the ' Namo Yuva Samabesh' in Jharsuguda, Modi accused the Congress of indulging in “loot tantra (tactics)” while in power.

View all shorts

Live Blog

PHOTOS