Lucknow: When the NEET PG 2026 results were declared on Sept 24, Sqn Ldr Pallakshi Prasad (28), a medical officer posted at Air Force Station, Kanpur, drew widespread praise after securing All India Rank 2.Director General Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS) Air Marshal Sandeep Thareja congratulated the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) alumna from the C3 batch, calling the result a proud moment for the Armed Forces Medical Services.For Pallakshi, whose name means “soft”, the achievement follows years of regimented preparation alongside demanding military postings. “I always knew I would become a doctor,” she said, crediting her parents’ support despite both being engineers.Born in Ranchi and raised in Hyderabad, she studied at Delhi Public School before clearing NEET UG 2016 with an All India Rank of 1,312 without taking a drop year.With limited options due to home-state admission rules, she applied to AFMC at her mother’s urging. Her mother, Shyamlee Prasad, is a practice head at Infosys. Pallakshi entered AFMC after securing girls’ merit rank 3 and later graduated sixth in overall merit in her batch. “I fell in love with the AFMC campus and everything it stood for. By the time I graduated, I didn’t feel like an outsider to the uniform anymore. Taking permanent commission was a natural decision,” she said.Commissioned into the Indian Navy on May 15, 2021, she served for nearly two and a half years as a medical officer on a warship before moving to the Indian Air Force in 2025. She said ship service shaped both her personal discipline and professional outlook.Preparing for NEET PG while on duty required consistency over long study stretches. “I used to study whenever time permitted — between patients, after duty hours — through books and online platforms. It wasn’t about long hours every day, but about being consistent,” she said.She credited mentor Dr Vineet Behera, a serving military doctor, for her success and noted that she presented a research paper on chronic kidney disease at the Bombay Medical Congress during her internship. She is considering radiology, internal medicine and dermatology for specialisation.Her father, Chandra Kishore Prasad, principal chief safety officer, Central Railway, said her determination was evident early, citing her leadership as head girl and a second-place finish in an international English Olympiad. Now posted in Kanpur since 2025, Pallakshi is married to a serving IAF doctor. She is the first in her family to join the Armed Forces, while her parents and younger brother, Kshitij Prasad, pursued engineering and technology.
