Punita Arora
Punita Arora | |
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| Born | May 31, 1946[citation needed] Lahore, Punjab, British India |
| Allegiance |  India |
| Service/ |  Indian Army Indian Navy |
| Rank |  Lieutenant General  Vice Admiral |
| Commands held | Armed Forces Medical College |
| Awards |  Param Vishisht Seva Medal Sena Medal Vishisht Seva Medal |
Surgeon Vice Admiral (Lieutenant General) Punita Arora PVSM, SM, VSM is a former Flag Officer of the Indian Navy and the Indian Army. Arora was the first woman in the Indian Armed Forces to be promoted to a Three-star rank. She held the ranks of Lieutenant General in the Indian Army[1] and Surgeon Vice Admiral in the Indian Navy.[2]
Early life[edit]
She was born into a Punjabi family which hails from Lahore. When she was only one-year-old, her family moved[3] to India during partition and got settled in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh.[4]
Education[edit]
She studied in Sophia School in Saharanpur till 8th grade. After that she moved to Guru Nanak Girls Inter-College. In 11th standard while getting admitted to Government school for boys she decided to take Science as a career. She joined Armed Forces Medical College, Pune in 1963[5] which was the second batch of the AFMC and she turned out to be the topper of that batch.[4]
Career[edit]
Punita Arora was commissioned in January 1968.[6] Before becoming Surgeon Vice Admiral of Indian Navy she was Commandant of AFMC. She took the charge of commandant of Armed Forces Medical College on 1 September 2004 thereafter becoming the first woman officer to command the medical college.[7] Before that she was co-ordinating Medical Research of the armed forces at the Army headquarters as additional director-general of Armed Forces Medical Services (Medical Research).[6] She moved from the Army to the Navy as the AFMS has a common pool which allows officers to migrate from one service to another depending on the requirement.[8]
Awards and medals[edit]
She has been awarded with 15 medals in her 36 years of career in Indian Armed Forces.
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- Vishisht Seva Medal for providing efficient and timely help to victims of the Kaluchak massacre.[9]
See also[edit]
- Women in the Indian Armed Forces
- Padma Bandopadhyay
- Madhuri Kanitkar
- Sheila S. Mathai
- Rajshree Ramasethu
- Arti Sarin
References[edit]
- ^ "The General in Sari". Specials.rediff.com.
- ^ "Navy gets its 1st lady vice-admiral". The Times of India. 16 June 2005.
- ^ "rediff.com: The General in a Sari - A Slide Show". Specials.rediff.com. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
- ^ a b "Stars & Stripes". Archived from the original on 26 January 2013.
- ^ "Sorry!!". Archived from the original on 2018-10-14. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
- ^ a b "A Doctor Who Looks After An Army". The Financial Express. 8 September 2004. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
- ^ "Heera Mandi then and now". Tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
- ^ "Exclusive varsities for PIOs on the cards: Tytler". Tribuneindia.com. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
- ^ "Lieutenant General Of Indian Army Was A Sikh!!!". TrendPunjabi.com. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
- Indian Army personnel
- Female generals of the Indian Army
- Female admirals of the Indian Navy
- Living people
- 1946 births
- Women in 21st-century warfare
- Women in war 1945–1999
- Indian female military personnel
- Recipients of the Param Vishisht Seva Medal
- Recipients of the Sena Medal
- Recipients of the Vishisht Seva Medal
- Armed Forces Medical Services officers