Dr Madhuri Kanitkar third woman in the country to become Lieutenant General

Lieutenant General Dr Madhuri Kanitkar on Saturday (February 29) became the third woman officer in the Indian armed forces to achieve the second-highest post in the force. Lt Gen Dr Kanitkar has also become the first woman paediatrician to achieve this milestone. She has now been posted to Headquarters, Integrated Defence Staff under the Chief of Defence Staff.

Major General Madhuri Kanitkar has been posted under the Chief of Defence Staff which has a key role in ensuring optimum utilisation of allocated budget, ushering in more synergy in procurement, training and operations of the services through joint planning and integration.

Dr Kanitkar, who was once the dean of Armed Forces Medical College Pune, has served in the Army for 37 years. It is to be noted that Lt Gen Dr Kanitkar's husband Rajiv is also a Lieutenant General.

Punita Arora, who was a surgeon vice-admiral, was the first woman to hold the post of Lieutenant General. Padmavathy Bandopadhyay was the second woman to become the Lieutenant General.