# Captain Yashika, a Kargil War veteran, exhorts women to take up an unconventional career
RNS: Captain (Retd) Yashika Hatwal Tyagi, Kargil War Veteran and renowned defence analyst, while delivering a lecture today on gender equality at Penman Auditorium of IIT (ISM), encouraged women to take up unconventional careers and be prepared to face failures as these are the initial steps of success.
Captain Tyagi, while addressing a gathering of over 500 budding technocrats, further said, “When you take up the new career, you will have to be very strong in character because success will be few and far; your success will depend on how resilient you are because after every failure you will have to get up and move on.”
“When you choose an unconventional career, there will be rejections, and life will not be easy for you because the world wants you to make a mistake and world challenges you, but you will have to take the challenge to bring a change and be victorious,” further said, Captain Tyagi.
The lecture was held under the Knowledge Festival in the context of Viksit Bharat@2047, visualized, conceptualized, and imagined by Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji.
An Alumnus of Prestigious Officers Training Academy, Chennai, Captain Tyagi is the first female officer from the logistics wing of the Indian Army to be part of the battle zone in Operation Vijay (Battle of Kargil).
The lecture series is being organized on the Directive of the Ministry of Education, Government of India, on different themes, including policies for the poor and marginalized; Rising Nari Shakti women; education; Skill development; Reforms and Resurgence Crafts of Governance of India; Environmental Cosmos and policies; tech-powered India; Computing and communication, etc.
Selected as the first woman veteran from the Army, Navy and Air Force to represent millions of veterans of the Indian Armed Force on the Republic Day Parade this year, Captain Tyagi, who retired in 2021, cleared the services selection board exam in 1994 and got into the Officers Training Academy. Brought up in a family of soldiers, the President of India felicitated Captain Tyagi for her work in the field of women empowerment, youth development and leading through personal example on August 21, 2023.
A corporate leadership multiplier, Captain Tyagi, who is a warrior mindset and military-inspired leadership coach, was felicitated on August 15, 2023, at Rajbhavan of Uttarakhand by the governor, Lt Gov Gurmit Singh and Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Pushkar Singh Dhami.
