The outbreak of Covid-19 and the subsequent lockdown have had a huge impact on everyone’s daily life.
The year 2020, when the world was halting, the women were still at the front. Women were fulfilling their responsibilities with great courage in homes, at work places, as housewives, nurses, teachers, scientists to name a few. ‘On the Dot’ believes that every woman in the world is unique in herself. Our world would mean nothing without women. Their courage that exists in perfect harmony with amazing tenderness saves our world every day.
Women are always a source of inspiration and we take great pride to share the Inspirational stories of some of the women who scripted their success story on their own terms.
Bhavya Lal, Acting Chief of Staff
Bhavya Lal is acting chief of staff for NASA. As the senior White House appointee at NASA, Lal served as a member of the Biden Presidential Transition Agency Review Team for the agency and oversaw the agency’s transition under the administration of President Joe Biden.
Lal brings extensive experience in engineering and space technology, serving as a member of the research staff at the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) Science and Technology Policy Institute (STPI) from 2005 to 2020. There, she led analysis of space technology, strategy, and policy for the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and National Space Council, as well as federal space-oriented organizations, including NASA, the Department of Defense, and the intelligence community.
She has applied her expertise in engineering systems and innovation theory and practice to topics in space, with recent projects on commercial activities in low-Earth orbit and deep space, in-orbit servicing assembly and manufacturing, small satellites, human exploration, space nuclear power, space exploration, and space science. She has published more than 50 papers in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.
Kishori Pednekar: Mumbai Mayor Returned To Work As A Nurse After 18 Years
In April 2020, when the Corona was at its peak in Mumbai, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had donned the uniform of a nurse to boost the morale of healthcare personnel during the worst-ever crisis involving COVID-19 pandemic. The service and determination of this 57-year-old woman became an inspiration. Pednekar had worked as a nurse in a hospital at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust at Uran in Raigad district for more than a decade before becoming a member of the Shiv Sena in 1992. Kishori, the 77th mayor of Mumbai, works from 8 am to 2 pm. She says her priority is to keep the city clean and safe.
Arya Rajendran, a BSc student who became the youngest mayor in India
Arya Rajendran became the youngest-ever mayor in India after securing 54 votes in the 100-member city country. Arya Rajendran is still pursuing her graduation course — BSc (Mathematics) from the All Saints College in the Kerala’s capital.
Arya Rajendran is a CPI-M party member and began her political journey as a child activist in Balasangam, the children’s organisation affiliated to the CPI-M. She was in the Class-V then. Both her parents have been CPI-M members for decades. Local reports say her father is an electrician while her mother is an LIC agent.
She became the state president of the Balasangam later. In college, Arya Rajendran became a member of the Students Federation of India (SFI), the students’ wing of the CPI-M.
Arya Rajendra succeeds VK Prasanth, who was the youngest mayor of Thiruvananthapura when appointed in 2015. He was 34 at the time. The choice of two successive young mayors for the Kerala capital city shows the CPI-M’s outreach to the youth in the wake of its perceived declining support base among the young citizens.
With her appointment as Thiruvananthapuram mayor, Arya Rajendran also broke the record held by Sabitha Beegam who became the youngest Indian mayor — also first among Muslims — when she took over the Kollam municipal corporation in Kerala in 2000. Sabitha Beegam was 29 at that time.
In the mayoral election, Arya Rajendra defeated the BJP’s Simi Jyothish, who secured 35 — all BJP plus one Independent — votes. Among the priorities that Arya Rajendran has listed are setting up more primary health centres and waste management in Thiruvanthapuram.
BYJU’S Co-Founder Divya Gokulnath
Humble beginnings pave the way for big aspirations. Divya Gokulnath, co-founder and teacher, BYJU’S, is a living example of that maxim. The daughter of a doctor, her love for learning started early on and inspired her to pursue science and maths. Her parents always encouraged her to dream big, and their belief in her gave her strength to chase her goals fearlessly. She had a taste of teaching students at a young age, and she fell so in love with the profession that she gave up admission to universities in the US for further studies, and, instead, stayed back to help her students realise their dreams. The rest, as they say, is history.
Arundhati Katju: A lawyer who convinced the Supreme Court to decriminalise Section 377
Arundhati Katju (born August 19, 1982) is a lawyer qualified to practice in India and New York. She has litigated many notable cases at the Supreme Court of India and the Delhi High Court, including the Section 377 case, the case of a trans man being illegally confined by his parents, the Augusta Westland bribery case, the 2G spectrum corruption case and the Jessica Lal murder case. Her law practice encompasses white collar defence, general civil litigation, and public interest cases.
Katju obtained a B.A.LL.B. (Hons.) degree from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore (2005). After practising at the Indian bar for 11 years, she enrolled in the LL.M. program (2017) at Columbia University, New York where she was a Human Rights Fellow, James Kent Scholar, and Public Interest Honoree. Her doctoral research at Columbia University, as a Finkelstein Fellow, considers issues of criminal and constitutional law in India.
In the year 2019, in an interview with CNN Fareed Zakaria, Katju revealed that she was in a relationship with lawyer Menaka Guruswamy, with whom she convinced the Supreme Court in 2018 to decriminalise Section 377.
Dr. Ritu Karidhal: The Rocket Woman
Dr. Ritu Karidhal Srivastava is an Indian scientist working with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). She was a Deputy Operations Director to India’s Mars orbital mission, Mangalyaan. She has been referred to as a “Rocket Woman” of India. She was born and brought up in Lucknow and is an aerospace engineer.
She played a key role in the development of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, Mangalyaan, dealing with the detailing and the execution of the craft’s onward autonomy system. She was also the Deputy Operations Director of this mission.
Mangalyan was one of the greatest achievement of ISRO. It made India the fourth country in the world to reach Mars. It was done in 18 months time and at far lesser cost to the taxpayers- ₹450 crores only. Her job was to conceptualize and execute the craft’s onward autonomy system, which operated the satellite’s functions independently in space and responded appropriately to malfunctions.
She supervised the Chandrayaan 2 mission as the mission director.
Radha Vembu
Radha Vembu (born 1972) is an Indian billionaire businesswoman, and the owner of a majority stake in Zoho Corporation, an Indian software development company. Vembu has a degree in industrial management from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
Zoho Corporation was co-founded by her brother Sridhar Vembu, who started the business in 1996 as AdventNet. She owns a majority stake in the company and is a product manager for email service, Zoho Mail, and also the director of Corpus Foundation. She actively keeps herself away from the limelight.
Vembu is married, with one child, and lives in Chennai, India.
Manasi Girishchandra Joshi: Indian badminton player
Manasi Girishchandra Joshi (born 11 June 1989) is an Indian para-badminton player, the current World Champion and a changemaker. She started her professional sporting journey in 2015 and at present, she is ranked world no. 2 in women’s singles (SL3 category).Manasi was listed as the Next Generation Leader 2020 by TIME Magazine in October 2020 and she appeared on their Asia cover, making her the first para-athlete in the world and the first Indian athlete to be featured on the magazine’s cover, for being an advocate of rights for people with disabilities.
Aparna Kumar
Aparna Kumar is a 2002 batch IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre. She was attracted to mountaineering a few years earlier when she was posted at Moradabad, and commanding The 9th Battalion PAC. She was awarded Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award in 2018 for land adventure by the President of India.
She made her first attempt at climbing Mount Everest in April–May 2014, but due to major avalanche and the biggest disaster on the Everest, all expeditions were called off by the Nepal Government. Thereafter she attempted to climb Lobuche East peak (6,119 m/20,075 feet) and was able to summit it in April 2013. She found it difficult and strenuous, as she had to survive in temperature of -35 degrees and rare oxygen. In June 2013, she successfully climbed Stok Kangri (approximately 20,182 feet) in Ladakh, thereby becoming the first-ever IPS/ All India Service officer to do it.
She completed her Advance Mountaineering Course at ABVIMAS, Manali in July 2014 with flying colours and became eligible to undertake expeditions. She was adjudged with grade of A plus.
She got the good news of promotion from SSP to DIG on 2 January 2016. Then she scaled the highest peak of Antarctica. She was carrying the flag of India and U.P. Police on the top. She is the first-ever All India service officer (IAS, IPS, IFS) both male and female to achieve such a feat. She has just been promoted as DIG in January and now posted as DIG Technical services in Lucknow.
Ngangom Bala Devi: Indian footballer
Ngangom Bala Devi (born 2 February 1990) is an Indian women’s footballer who plays as a forward for Scottish Women’s Premier League club Rangers and India women’s national football team. While a semi-professional footballer in India, Devi also worked as a policewoman for the Manipur Police Department. She was promoted to Inspector rank following her impressive performance in football for Rangers WFC. She completed her education at the Oinam Thambal Mark College of OINAM.
Abhijita Gupta- a 7-year-old girl who bagged the title ‘Grandmaster of Writing’
Abhijita Gupta is being recognized as the world’s youngest writer by the International Book of Records. At the tender age of 7, she has also been awarded with the title ‘Grandmaster of Writing’ by the Asia Book of Records for her poetry and prose writing prowess. Penning a book at such a young age gives an insight into the Abhijita’s abundance of creativity and imagination, which she will be able to hone even more when she grows up. Currently, a student in Class 2, she took to writing at the age of 5. She lives in Ghaziabad with her parents, her father being a Chartered Accountant and her mother being engineer-turned-entrepreur.
Soma Mondal: Chairman of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL)
Soma is the first-ever women-head of the body. She replaces Anil Kumar Chaudhary, who superannuated on 31 December 2020. She joined SAIL in 2017 as the director (commercial). A 1984-graduate in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Technology-Rourkela, Mondal started her career as a graduate engineer trainee at NALCO NSE and rose to become a director (commercial) at NALCO.
Ameera Shah: Indian Entrepreneur
Ameera Shah (born 24 September 1979 ) is an Indian entrepreneur and the Managing Director of Metropolis Healthcare, a multinational chain of pathology centers based in Mumbai, with presence in seven countries. She is the daughter of Dr Sushil Shah, the founder and chairman of Metropolis Healthcare. She has been honored as a 2015 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.