New Delhi, June 4: President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday presented Distinguished Service Awards to 92 senior armed forces personnel at the Defence Investiture Ceremony-II held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The recipients, who included serving and retired officials from all three services, included 30 awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM), the highest award for distinguished service during times of peace, and five awarded the Uttam Yudh Seva Medal (UYSM), the second-highest award for distinguished service during conflict.
The remaining 57 were awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM), the second-highest award for distinguished service during times of peace. Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were also present on the occasion.
The PVSM recipients included Western Command chief, Lt General Manoj Kumar Katiyar, Lt General Dhiraj Seth, Lt General Anindya Sengupta, Lt General Devendra Sharma, newly-appointed Andaman and Nicobar Command chief and former Defence Intelligence chief, Lt General Dinesh Singh Rana, Northern Command chief Lt General Pratik Sharma, Vice Admiral Sanjay Jasjit Singh, Vice Admiral Suraj Berry, IAF vice chief, Air Marshal Narmdeshwar Tiwari, Air Marshal Balakrishnan Manikantan, and South-Western Air Command chief Air Marshal Nagesh Kapoor. Director General of Military Operations, Lt General Rajiv Ghai, Lt General Zubin A Minwalla, Lt General Hitesh Bhalla, Air Marshal Sujeet Pushpakar Dharkar (retd), and Air Marshal Pankaj Mohan Sinha (retd) were conferred the UYSM. The AVSM awardees included Lt General Pushpendra Pal Singh, Lt General Vijay Bhaskaran Nair, Lt General Rahul Raghavendra Singh, Lt General Sadhna S. Nair, VSM, Lt General Shrinjay Pratap Singh, Lt General Rajagopal Chellamani Srikanth, Lt General Divya Gaurav Misra, Lt General Shivinder Singh, Lt General Devinder Pal Singh, Vice Admiral Lochan Singh Pathania, Vice Admiral Rajesh Dhankhar, Air Marshal Venkataramanan Rajasekhar, Major General Harsh Chhibber, Major General M Khalid Zaki, Major General Rajwant Singh, Major General Balbir Singh, Rear Admiral Sandeep Mehta, Air Vice Marshal Ajay Kumar Pan, Air Vice Marshal Venigalla Srinivas Choudary, and Air Vice Marshal Manish Sahdev.
IANS