Computer science graduate, debate champion: Major Shweta Pandey, the army officer, who will help PM Modi hoist the tricolour

Maj Pandey is the first woman officer to carry the national flag and lead a first-ever tri-services Indian Armed Forces Contingent during Russia’s Victory Day Parade at Red Square in Moscow in June this year.

Major Shweta Pandey, an officer of the Indian Army, will help Prime Minister Narendra Modi unfurl the national flag this year during the Independence Day ceremony at Delhi’s Red Fort on Saturday.

Major Shweta Pandey represents the nation in Victory Day parade held in Moscow, Russia. (ANI)

Maj Pandey is the first woman officer to carry the national flag and lead a first-ever tri-services Indian Armed Forces Contingent during Russia’s Victory Day Parade at Red Square in Moscow in June this year.

Last year, three women Indian Air Force (IAF) officers had assisted PM Modi during the Independence Day ceremony. Flying Officer Preetam Sangwan had assisted the Prime Minister in the unfurling of the national flag, while flight lieutenant Jyoti Yadav and flight lieutenant Mansi Geda were positioned on either side of the saluting dais.

Here is more about the officer:

* Maj Pandey was commissioned in the army in March 2012 from the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Tamil Nadu’s Chennai.

* Pandey is an Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) officer at the Indian Army’s 505 base workshop.

* She is posted with 505 Army Based Workshop (ABW) in Delhi Cantonment.

* The officer is a Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) expert and has completed both basic CBRN and staff CBRN courses from the College Of Military Engineering (CME) in Maharashtra’s Pune.

* Maj Shweta holds a degree in computer science and has done her advance course in radars. She has won more 75 medals and 250 certificates in various national and international events such as speeches, debates, extempores, etc in school and college.

* She is an alumnus of the City Montessori School (CMS) in Lucknow.

* Her father Raj Ratan Pandey served as an additional director (finance) in the Uttar Pradesh government and her mother Amita Pandey is a professor of Sanskrit and Hindi.