FIRST IN INDIA

FIRST IN INDIA

First Among Indian Women

• First and youngest roller skater.

            Sheetal Pandya (7 years old).

• First Asian woman to sail around the world

            Ujwala Patil, 1988.

• First athlete to be awarded Arjuna Award (woman)     

      Stephie D’Souza

• First deputy chairperson of the Rajya Sabha     

      Violet Aiwa

• First ever woman musician to be awarded the Padma

      M.S. Subbhulakshmi Vibhushan

• First highest individual score in women’s Test cricket

      Mithali Raj

• First Indian elected the Chairman of the World Health Organization (WHO)

      Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur

• First Indian girl to win the British chess championship

      Tania Sachdev of Delhi at age of 8 years old.

• First Indian musician to win the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Public Service

      M.S. Subbhulakshmi.

• First Indian to leap past 6.50 metres (long jump)

      Aitfu George

• First Indian woman check pilot on an airbus A 300

      Captain Nivedita Bhasin

• First Indian woman commander of a jet aircraft

      Capt Miss Saudamini    Deshmukh of Indian Airlines.

• First Indian woman merchant banker    

      Naina Lai Kidwai, vice chairman of J.M. Morgan Stanley.

• First Indian woman pilot of Boeing 707 plane   

      Saudamini Deshmukh

• First Indian woman pleader         

      Regina Guha

• First Indian woman to be appointed as assistant director of the World Health Organization

      Poonam Khetrapal Singh in general July 1998.         
               

• First Indian woman to become Miss World      

      Rita Faria

• First Indian woman to enter the final of an Olympic athletic event

      P.T. Usha, Los Angeles, 1984.

• First Indian woman to qualify Olympic semi final (in athletics)

      Shiny Abraham

• First Indian woman to scale Mt. Everest           

      Bachendri Pal of UP on May    24,1984.

• First Indian woman scoring a Test double century         

      Mithali Raj

• First Indian woman to win a match at a Grand Slam      

      Nirupama Vaidyanathan

• First Indian woman to win Miss Universe title

      Sushmita Sen

• First Indian/Asian woman to swim the English Channel

      Miss Arati Saha (now Mrs. Arati Gupta), 1959.

• First lady pilot to join Air India 

      Miss Harpreet A hluwalia

• First lady to receive the Dada Saheb Phalke award      

      Devika Rani

• First practicing lady doctor of India                  

      Dr. Rakhmabai

• First recipient of Arjuna Award in women’s cricket

      Shanta Rangaswami

• First recipient of best actress award     

      Meena Kumari

• First scientifically documented test tube baby

   Harsha (born at the King Edward Memorial Hospital, Bombay on August 6, 1986, this project headed    by Dr Indira Hinduja launched by the Institute for Research in Reproduction (IRR), through in vitro fertilization.

·        First woman advocate of India

     Cornelia Sorabji of Allahabad High Court Bar in 1923.

·        First woman airline pilot in the world   

     Prem Mathur of India.

·        First woman ambassador to former Soviet Union

     Vijayalakshmi Pandit from 1947 49.

·        First woman ambassador to the U.N.  

     Vijayalaxmi Pandit in 1953-54.

·        First woman athlete representing India in the Olympics

      Mary D’Souza in 1952 at Helsinki

·        First woman cabinet minister of India

     Raj Kumari Amrit Kaur

·        First woman Chief Election Commissioner of India

     V.P. Rama Devi

·        First woman Chief Justice of a High Court       

     Justice Leila Seth of Himachal Pradesh, August, 1991.

·        First woman Chief Minister of a State  

     Mrs. Sucheta Kripalani of Uttar Pradesh from 1963 to 1967.

·        First woman Chief Secretary to a State Government

     Mrs. Trivedi to Assam government

·        First woman cricket umpire                 

     Anjali Rajgopal

·        First woman cricketer holding the record for the maximum number of Test wickets

     Diana Eduljee, (119 wickets)

·        First woman cricketer to receive Arjuna Award

     Shanta Rangaswami

·        First woman Dalit Chief Minister of India         

     Ms.Mayawati of Uttar Pradesh.

·        First woman elected as the Deputy Chairman of Rajya Sabha.

      Mrs.Violet Aiwa. 1962-66 and 1966 & 69.

·        First woman foreign Consul General in India

     Mrs. Ernestine S Heck, US Consul General in Chennai.

·        First woman Governor of a State                    

     Mrs. Sarojini Naidu

·        First woman group team joins in the Air Force

     Saunith Shergill (21) and Siveka Khurana (23) from Chandigarh.

·        First woman hockey player to receive Arjuna Award

     Ann Lumsden, 1961.

·        First woman IAS Officer         

     Anna Rajam George, 1950.

·        First woman IPS Officer         

     Kiran Bedi, 1972

·        First Women Director General of Police of a State

     Kanchan Chaudhury Bhattacharya (DGP of Uttaranchal ) troliover in june, 2004

·        First woman jockey of India                

     Ayesha Captain

·        First woman Joint Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation

     Archana Ramasundram

·        First woman judge of the Supreme Court

      

             Fatima Beevi

·        First woman mayor of a city    

  

   Tara Cherian of Madras, 1957.

·        First woman member broker of the Bombay Stock      

     Meera Patel, 1986. Exchange

·        First woman minister of India  

     Mrs. Vijayalakshmi Pandit

·        First woman novelist to win the Murthi Devi award      

     Dr. Prathibha Roy (for Oriya)

·        First woman officer in the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF

     Ms.Alka Nanda Das,) as an Assistant Commandant in 1990-91.

·        First woman Para jumper of the Indian Air Force        

     Geeta Chanda

·        First woman Postmaster General         

     Mrs. Sushila Chourasia of Madhya Pradesh

·        First woman President of the Indian National Congress

     Mrs. Annie Besant, 1917

·        First woman President of the United Nations General Assembly

     Mrs. Vijayalaxmi Pandit

·        First woman Prime Minister of India    

     Indira Gandhi, 1966.

·        First woman railway driver of India     

     Ms. Surekha Yadao.

·        First woman ruler of India       

     Raziya Sultana of Delhi.

·        First woman speaker of a State Assembly

     Mrs. Shanno Devi

·        First woman squash player awarded Arjuna Award     

     Bhuvaneshwari Kumari, 1982.

·        First woman to be appointed as Air Vice Marshall in the Indian Air Force

     Padma Bandyopadhyaya

·        First woman to become the Chairman of the University Grants Commission

     Madhuri Shah

·        First woman to become Vice Chancellor         

     Hansaben Mehta of the Maharaja Sayaji Rao University, Baroda 1949.

·        First woman to climb Mt. Everest twice           

     Ms. Santosh Yadav, in May 92 and May 93
.

·        First woman to fly a fighter aircraft                  

     R. Swarnalatha

·        First woman to fly the national flag (tri color) abroad

     Bhikaji Rustom Cama in Paris, 1907

·        First woman to get Shaurya Chakra    

     Manisha Varma, on April 14, 1990.

·        First woman to reach Antarctica                      

     Mehar Moos in 1977.

·        First woman to swim fastest the English Channel

     Anita Sood, 8 hours 15 minutes (Asian record).

·        First woman to win the All India Rifle shooting competition

     Miss Geeta Sundaram, 1975.

·        First woman to win the Jnanpith Award

     Ashapurna Devi

·        First woman to win the national billiards championship 

     Usha Rao on August 9, 1989.

·        First youngest woman in the world to climb Mt. Everest

     Ms. Dicky Dolma at the age of 19 years old.

·        First woman to swim across seven seas and five Conti- nents

     Bula Chaudhary

·      First woman deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India

      K. J. Udeshi

·        The first Indian woman officer to be deployed on board a foreign Navy Ship

     Surgeon Commander Divya Gautam,    part of a 10-member Indian Navy medical team            

     serving abroad US Navy hospitalship Mercy.

·        The first Indian woman player to win a four-star badminton tournament

      Saina Nehwal defeated Julia Xian.Pei Wong of Malaysia in the women’s singles final of the      

      Philippines Open Badminton Tournament of Pasig City; Manila on May, 28,2006.

·        First woman President of the Republic of India

      Mrs. Pratibha Patil

·        First woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha

     Smt Meira Kumar

First Person 

• First British Governor General of the new Dominion of India

: Lord Mountbatten

• First and the Last Indian Governor – General of Free India

: C. Rajagopalachari

• Last Governor-General of India who also became the first Viceroyof India

: Lord Canning

• Last Viceroy of India

: Lord Mountbatten

• First British Governor-General in India

: Warren Hastings

• First Commander-in-Chief  of free India

: General Cariappa

• Tenth and the last Guru of the Sikhs

: Guru Gobind Singh

• First Chinese pilgrim to visit India

: Fa-Hein

• First European to visit China

: Marco Polo

• First European invader on Indian soil

: Alexander the Great

• First U.S.A. President to visit India

: D. Eisenhover

• First Russian Prime Minister to visit India

: V.I.Bulganin

• First British Prime Minister to visit India

: Harold Macmillan

• First President of the USA

: George Washington

• First President of the Chinese Republic

: Sun Yat-Sen (1912)

• First Prime Minister of Great Britain

: Robert Walpole

• First Women Prime Minister (twice) (Sri Lanka) of a Country in the World

: Mrs. S. Bandaranaike

• First India’s Spaceman

: Sqn. Ldr. Rakesh Sharma

• First Indian to scale Mount Everest

: Phu Dorjee

• First President of Indian Republic

: Dr. Rajendra Prasad

• First Woman Prime Minister of India

: Mrs. Indira Gandhi

• First Indian to win Nobel Prize

: Dr. Rabindranath Tagore

• First President of Indian National Congress

: W.C.Bonerjee