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First woman CMD in public sector banking

Ranjana Kumar has become the first woman CMD of a public sector bank. She took over as CMD of Indian Bank on June 1 this year. Prior to this appointment as the CMD, she worked as Executive Director of Canara Bank and as the head of the New York operations of Bank of India. It was in the latter capacity that she got the BoI a `strong` rating from the Federal Reserve in 1998 - a first time achievement in two decades since the bank`s entry into New York.

Ranjana Kumar who is regarded as an outstanding officer is expected to turn around the fortunes of Indian Bank which along with UCO Bank and United Bank of India has been categorised by the Finance Ministry and RBI as the weakest of the weak banks.

Ranjana Kumar started her career in 1966 as probationary officer at the Bank of India.

Niloufer Bhagat

This lawyer-activist wife of the former navy chief, Vishnu Bhagat, is a no-nonsense woman. Very articulate, she speaks with a conviction that people find difficult to ignore. She is one of those not known for cowing down or mincing words. Her hour of trial came on December 30, 1998, when she spoke on her husband`s behalf, without sparing anyone and accused the government of communal designs in removing him from his post.

There have been other instances in the past too, that have shown her forthrightness and articulateness. While investigating the 92-93 violence in Mumbai, she opposed the Maharashtra government before the Sri Krishna Commission and managed to show that there was some Shiv Sena complicity in the carnage.

A lawyer for 28 years now, Niloufer Bhagat has created a formidable reputation for herself and despite being considered controversial at times, her ship is far from floundering.

M. S. Subbulakshmi - A Profile

Her memorable role as Meera in the pre-independence film of the same name is still fresh in everyone`s mind. For, with the voice of an angel and a face to match, Subbulakshmi looked every inch the woman that she played. She set the screen afire with her devotional fervour. From those days to the present, Subbulakshmi has spanned three generations of singers. But none can match the purity and the spiritual quality of her music. It is this `bhakti` which MS brought to her music that made her incomparable, unsurpassable and set her apart from so many other great voices in the country. Few are blessed with such a fantastic combination: a golden voice, grace, dignity and an ineffable beauty. Truly, a rare breed indeed.

Usha Narayanan

Usha Narayanan, the first lady of India, is a person who, despite basking in the glory of her husband`s achievements has nonetheless managed to have a personality of her own. With a sweet and charming personality she has mastered the art of playing the perfect hostess. But behind the charm lies an intelligent and erudite mind that has to its credit several translations, published in several Indian publications. Besides being a translator, she is also a wordsmith. In December 1998 she made news by releasing her first book Sweet and Sour, which contains translations from Thein Pe Myint`s Burmese stories. She is also the President`s official copy taster. Every morning, she sits with several newspapers and marks off with her red pen the news items, which she thinks, might be of interest to the President.

Apart from all this she is also a trained social worker, who specialises in the subject of juvenile delinquency.

Another first for indian women

Swaran Kanta Nigam is currently the head of the CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes). When she took over earlier this year, she became the first woman to head the organisation since its inception, almost 4 decades ago.

With this, S.K. Nigam became the first female head of the country`s apex income tax body. S.K. Nigam is the only woman on its board, as well.

First Female Bishop for AME Church

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, the oldest black church in the U.S., elected its first-ever female bishop. Hallelujah!

The Church, the oldest black church in the U.S., elected its first-ever female bishop. Delegates chose Vashti McKenzie of Baltimore as one of the four new leaders. "The stained-glass ceiling has been pierced," said McKenzie in her acceptance speech.

The AME Church has 2.3 million members in the U.S., Canada, England, Africa and the Caribbean, of which almost 70 percent are women. For the past two decades, women have run for bishop without winning. Among the 42 candidates for bishop this year, two were women.

Once elected, bishops serve until retirement.

The first woman Air Commodore in the Indian Air Force

Feet firm on the ground

Air Commodore Padmavati Bandopadhyaya, after 32 years in the Air Force, is at 55, the first woman Air Commodore in the Air Force. And that is just one of the firsts in a long string of achievements to her credit.

Commissioned into the Air Force in 1968, Bandopadhyaya was the only woman in her batch of officers.

Graduating in 1967, she was the first woman to enter the field of aviation medicine. She was the first woman officer to have successfully completed the course offered by the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington.

She and her husband, Wing Commander S.N. Bandopadhyaya, were the first husband and wife team to be awarded the Vashist Seva Medal for their work during the 1971 Indo-Pak war:

She was the first Indian woman officer to have conducted research in the Arctic region. And she was the first woman to be made a fellow of the Aerospace Medical Society of India.

Coming from a conservative Tamilian family, educated in Tamil, when she joined the AFMC, Bandopadhyaya thought she had been paradropped into a whole new world.

Suddenly she was with people who ate with forks and knives, spoke in English and sang English songs. She could only eat using her fingers, spoke little Hindi or English, and knew no English songs. Today, Bandopadhyaya prattles in Bengali as well - a language she picked up after marrying a Bengali Air Force officer.

Trained in Carnatic classical vocal music ("like all south Indian children", she insists), Bandopadhyaya is fond of listening to music and likes mythology as well.

These days,