Police
Who was the first woman to become a Lieutenant General in the Indian Army?
Answer (Detailed Solution Below)View answer ▾Hide ▴
Answer: Option C — Punita Arora
Detailed Solution
Lieutenant General Punita Arora became the first woman in the Indian Army to reach the rank of Lieutenant General, the second-highest rank in the Army, in 2004. She belonged to the Army Medical Corps.
About Punita Arora:
She was born in 1946 in Lahore (now in Pakistan). Her family moved to India after Partition.
She studied medicine at the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune, and joined the Army Medical Corps in 1968. She was a specialist in gynaecology and obstetrics.
In 2004, she became the first woman Commandant of the Armed Forces Medical College, Pune.
She later moved to the Indian Navy and became the first woman Vice Admiral (the Navy's equivalent of Lieutenant General) in 2005, as Director General of Medical Services (Navy).
She received several honours, including the Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) and the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM).
She is therefore the first woman to hold the second-highest rank in both the Indian Army and the Indian Navy.
Other women "firsts" in the armed forces:
- Padma Bandopadhyay: the first woman Air Marshal of the Indian Air Force (2004), also from the medical services.
- Madhuri Kanitkar: the third woman Lieutenant General (2020) and the first woman paediatrician in the armed forces to reach that rank; she later became Vice-Chancellor of the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences.
- Priya Jhingan: the first woman to join the Army as a cadet (1993).
- Mitali Madhumita: the first woman officer to receive the Sena Medal for gallantry (2011).
- Sadhna Saxena Nair: the first woman Director General of Medical Services (Air Force) and later the first woman Director General of Hospital Services (Armed Forces) (2024).
- Women can now become officers in many branches of the armed forces with permanent commission, after the Supreme Court's judgement in the Babita Puniya case (2020).
Why not the other options?
- ✗Madhuri Kanitkar became a Lieutenant General in 2020, after Punita Arora.
- ✗Priya Jhingan was the first woman cadet in the Army (1993).
- ✗Mitali Madhumita was the first woman officer to win the Sena Medal.
Quick tip
Remember: First woman Lieutenant General = Punita Arora (2004, Army Medical Corps), also first woman Vice Admiral (Navy, 2005); first woman Air Marshal = Padma Bandopadhyay (2004).
💬 Discussions on this question
Ask a doubt ›Still stuck on this question? Ask our faculty and fellow students — answers appear here.
Ask a doubtMore Firsts in India & World Questions
View all ›More General Knowledge Questions
- Q1.The techniques of Rasa and Bhava used in Indian classical dance trace their origin to which ancient text?Indian Dance Forms
- Q2.Lavani, Powada, Koli, Waghya Murali and Dhangari Gaja are folk dances of which state?Indian Dance Forms
- Q3.The one-act play associated with the Sattriya tradition of Assam is called:Indian Dance Forms
- Q4.Which dance form of Goa is known as the 'Warrior Dance'?Indian Dance Forms
- Q5.Manipuri dance is based on the Rasleela themes of:Indian Dance Forms
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.