Police
Who was the first woman Indian Police Service (IPS) officer?
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Answer: Option D — Kiran Bedi
Detailed Solution
Kiran Bedi became the first woman officer of the Indian Police Service (IPS) when she joined in July 1972 (1972 batch, Union Territories cadre, later AGMUT).
About Kiran Bedi:
- She was born in 1949 in Amritsar, Punjab.
- Before joining the IPS, she was a national and Asian women's tennis champion.
- She served in Delhi, Goa, Chandigarh, Mizoram and other places.
- She was nicknamed "Crane Bedi" after she had a car belonging to the Prime Minister's Office towed away for wrong parking in Delhi in 1982 (though she was not personally present when it happened).
As Inspector General of Prisons (1993-1995), she introduced major reforms at Delhi's Tihar Jail, one of the largest prisons in Asia. She started meditation (Vipassana), education, yoga and other programmes for prisoners, turning it into an "ashram".
For this work, she received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1994.
In 2003, she became the first woman to be appointed Police Adviser to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations.
She took voluntary retirement in 2007 as Director General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D).
She was part of the anti-corruption movement led by Anna Hazare (2011).
She served as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry from 2016 to 2021.
Other women "firsts" in Indian policing:
- Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya: the second woman IPS officer and the first woman Director General of Police (DGP) of a state (Uttarakhand, 2004).
- Meeran Chadha Borwankar: the first woman Police Commissioner of Pune and the first woman to head Mumbai's Crime Branch.
- Aparna Kumar: the first woman IPS officer to reach the South Pole (2019).
Why not the other options?
- ✗Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya was the first woman DGP of a state.
- ✗Meeran Chadha Borwankar was the first woman Police Commissioner of Pune.
- ✗Aparna Kumar reached the South Pole in 2019.
Quick tip
Remember: First woman IPS officer = Kiran Bedi (1972); Tihar Jail reforms; Magsaysay Award (1994); first woman UN Police Adviser (2003); first woman DGP = Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya.
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Firsts in India & World — Preparation
This question tests your understanding of Firsts in India & World, a key topic in the General Knowledge section. The detailed solution above uses a step-by-step approach to show the reasoning, and where available, a shortcut that helps you solve similar questions in under 90 seconds during the actual exam.
This topic covers the first persons and events in India and the world: the first Indian to win a Nobel Prize, the first woman to hold major offices, the first to climb Everest or reach space, and India's first institutions, newspapers, railways and satellites. It also covers the largest, longest, highest and smallest records in India and the world. These are pure memory questions, so revise them as short lists by theme: first women, first in sports, first in science and space, and first in governance. Be careful with the exact wording, such as 'first Indian' versus 'first person of Indian origin', or 'first woman President' versus 'first woman Prime Minister', since options are often designed to exploit this. Practise the firsts in India and the world questions below, written in the style of the general awareness sections of exams such as SSC, banking, railways, CUET GAT, MAH CET and CLAT. Each question comes with a detailed explanation that adds related facts, so every question helps you revise more than one point.