A Lalitha

Lalitha, the fifth of seven children, was born in 1919 to Pappu Subba Rao.[2] All her brothers were educated to be engineers while the sisters were imparted basic education.[1]

Lalitha was married at the age of 15 in 1934 and had her first and only child, a daughter named Syamala, at the age of 18. A few months later, in 1937, her husband died.[2][3]

Determined not to spend her life in mourning as a widow or in remarrying, she decided to continue her education. She completed her intermediate exam with first class from Queen Mary's College, Chennai and joined the College of Engineering (CEG), University of Madras, Chennai, in 1939 to pursue electrical engineering. A single mother and a widow, she became the first female student of CEG.[2][4]

After graduating in 1944, Lalitha assisted her father in his research and joined the Central Standard Organisation, Simla, for a brief time. Later, she joined the British firm, Associated Electrical Industries (AEI). She executed contracts, did substation layouts, and designed transmission lines. The work she did on the electrical generators of the Bhakra Nangal Dam is noteworthy. She spent three decades in AEI and retired in 1977.[2]

In 1953, she became an associate member of the Council of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) and a full member in 1966.[4] In 1964, she became the first and the only woman engineer from India to attend the First International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientists (ICWES), New York.[2]

She died in 1979 due to brain aneurysm.[2][1]