www.alumni.du.ac.in / The University of Delhi Alumni eZine Edition Eight 2020 wn 070 alumna Padmavathy Bandopadhyay gets Padma Shri 2020

alpix 0853 Air Marshal Padmavathy Bandopadhyay PVSM, AVSM, VSM

Kayem Air Marshal Padmavathy Bandopadhyay, PVSM, AVSM, VSM is the First woman Air Marshal of the . She is the second woman in the to be promoted to a three-star rank.

Padmavathy was born 4 November 1944 at Tirupathi, Andhra Pradesh. Her mother was bedridden with tuberculosis, and Padma ended up being her primary caregiver at the age of 4-5 years. In addition, her neighbour in the Gole Market neighbourhood in New Delhi was Dr S.I. Padmavati, Professor of Medicine at Lady Hardinge Medical College. She has said that her experience with her mother’s illness and hospitalization at Safdarjung Hospital and having a neighbouring lady doctor with the same name as her were early motivations to become a doctor.

After school, she made the difficult and uncommon transition from Humanities to Science stream in Delhi University. She studied Pre-medical at Kirori Mal College and then joined Armed Forces Medical College, Poona in 1963.

She joined the IAF in 1968. She married S N Bandopadhyay, a fellow Air Force officer and was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal VSM for her conduct during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

Sati Nath and Padma were the First IAF couple to receive a President’s Award in the same investiture parade.

In her career she has been First woman to become a Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Society of India and the first Indian woman to have conducted scientific research at the North Pole. She is also the First woman Armed Forces officer to have completed the Defence Service Staff College course in 1978. She was the Director Medical Services (Air) at the Air Headquarters.

In 2002, she became the First woman to be promoted to (two-star rank).She subsequently went on to become the First woman Air Marshal of Indian Air Force. Padmavathy is an aviation medicine specialist and a member of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Wikipedia 12.02.2020 adapted click Big B, Kabir Khan and The Charismatic Kayems