Bangalore:
India's first woman career diplomat Chonira Muthamma died Wednesday in a hospital in Bangalore. She was 85.
In 1949 she wrote the Union Public Service Comission (UPSC) examination and became the first woman to enter the civil services. She opted for the Foreign Service and was posted as a diplomat in several capacities in Europe, Asia and Africa. In 1970 Muthamma was posted to Hungary as the first woman Ambassador of India and was later Ambassador in Netherlands and Ghana. Her last posting was in The Hague.
Earlier she had taken the government of India to Supreme Court over the issue of discrimination on promotion and Justice V R Krihsna Iyer had delivered a scathing judgement against the government and Muthamma was made an Ambassador.
Muthamma retired from the IFS in 1982 after 32 years of service. She was later nominated as the Indian member of the Independent Palmer Commission on Defence and Security issues which was primarily concerned with nuclear disarmament set up by Olaf Palmer of Sweden which presented it's findings to the United Nations.