MISSILE WOMAN BEHIND INDIAN TEST LAUNCH
Missile Woman behind Indian test launch
Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-45876-Missile-Woman-behind-Indian-test-launch
Updated 54 minutes ago
Updated 54 minutes ago
NEW DELHI: Hailed as a trail blazer in male-dominated India, Tessy Thomas juggles domestic duties with her day job — as the country’s top ballistic missile expert.
Thomas was project director for the Agni V long-range nuclear-capable missile which was test-fired last week in a major military advance that will give India the ability to hit all of rival China’s cities for the first time.
Thomas was project director for the Agni V long-range nuclear-capable missile which was test-fired last week in a major military advance that will give India the ability to hit all of rival China’s cities for the first time.
Celebrated as “Missile Woman” in the local media, she has lent a new and unusual face to the secretive world of India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). But while the Roman Catholic from southern Kerala state has changed perceptions of her profession and challenged tradition along the way, she says she remains the doting wife and mother at home.
“In Indian culture, we feel that women are also supposed to be taking care of the home, so a little bit of challenges are there,” the 48-year-old told AFP. “But all my lady colleagues are also doing the same, just like me.
The Agni V was a prestige project for India. Its 5,000-kilometre (3,100 mile) range is seen as vital for national defence and another demonstration of the nation’s rising power.
President Pratibha Patil, another woman in a prominent position, commented after the launch that “the work of Thomas in the Agni programme would hopefully inspire more women in choosing careers in science”.
In January, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that Thomas was an example of a “woman making her mark in a traditionally male bastion and decisively breaking the glass ceiling”.
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