| Punita Arora | |
| Honorific Suffix: | PVSM, SM, VSM |
| Birth Date: | 31 May 1946 |
| Birth Place: | Lahore, Punjab, British India |
| Allegiance: |  India |
| Branch: | |
| Rank: | Lieutenant General Vice Admiral |
| Commands: | 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]
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]
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]
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]
She has been awarded with 15 medals in her 36 years of career in Indian Armed Forces.
| Param Vishisht Seva Medal | Sena Medal (2006) | Vishisht Seva Medal (2002) | ||
| Special Service Medal | Sangram Medal | Sainya Seva Medal | 50th Independence Anniversary Medal | |
| 25th Independence Anniversary Medal | 30 Years Long Service Medal | 20 Years Long Service Medal | 9 Years Long Service Medal | |