The Story of Tessy Thomas Hi Frnds.. Happy New Year. This is an inspirational blog for all of us. Tessy Thomas is India’s Missile Woman. She could have been an IAS officer; she even wrote the exam. But an interview with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) happened. She got through and was asked to join immediately. Today, she is hailed as the ‘Missile Woman of India’ and ‘Agniputri ‘(one born of fire) after the deadly projectiles she has helped develop. The first woman to head an Indian missile project, Tessy Thomas has decisively broken the glass ceiling to make her mark in a traditionally male bastion. Having stood out ever since she joined the DRDO in 1988, she has played a pivotal role in India’s missile development programme, particularly in the making of its long-range nuclear-capable ballistic missile, the Agni-V. Tessy Thomas Born in Kerala’s beautiful Allapuzha district to an IFS officer father and homemaker mother, Tessy’s first introduction to the