Ayyalasomayajula Lalitha

Ayyalasomayajula Lalitha (A Lalitha) (27 August 1919 – 12 October 1979) was India's first female engineer.

Early life and education Ayyalasomayajula Lalitha was born in a Telugu-speaking family in Madras (now Chennai) on 27 August 1919. Her husband died four months later. Her father, Pappu Subba Rao, supported her wish to complete her secondary education and study engineering at the otherwise all-male College of Engineering, Guindy (CEG) where he was a professor. Lalitha graduated in 1943 with a degree in electrical engineering - becoming India's first woman engineer. She completed her practical training with a one year apprenticeship in Jamalpur Railway Workshop, a major repair and overhaul facility. Following this, in 1948, Lalitha joined a British firm Associated Electrical Industries (AEI) in Calcutta and worked on the largest dam in India, Bhakra Nangal Dam, designing transmission lines, and substation layouts.

Lalitha was elected as a member of the British Women's Engineering Society in 1965 and served as the Organising Committees' India representative for the Second International Conference of Women Engineers and Scientist (ICWES) held in Cambridge in July 1967 and ensured that five women from India were able to attend.

Personal life Lalitha did not remarry after her husband's death. She lived for most of her life with her sister-in-law who helped to bring up her daughter Syamala, who took degrees in science subjects and became a mathematics teacher.

In 1979, Lalitha died of a brain aneurysm, aged 60.