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.

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.

“Thank you, sir!” was Dr. Madhuri Kanitkar’s crisp response to her husband, from one three-star general to another, after he pipped the epaulettes of a lieutenant general on her shoulders. The Kanitkars became the country’s first-ever couple to have achieved the high rank of three-star officers in the armed forces when Lt. Gen Madhuri Kanitkar took over as the new deputy chief of integrated defence staff (medical) here on Saturday. Her husband, Lt Gen Rajeev Kanitkar, an armoured corps officer, retired as the Army’s quartermaster general in 2017.

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.

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