Arti Sarin Retires as India's First Woman Armed Forces Medical Chief

By: Women Entrepreneurs Review Team | Tuesday, 1 September 2026

Surgeon Vice Admiral Arti Sarin, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, the first woman to head the Armed Forces Medical Services and the highest-ranking woman officer in the history of the Indian Armed Forces, retired on Sunday after more than 41 years of service.

Arti retired as the 46th Director General Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS), the senior-most medical appointment across the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force. Air Marshal Sandeep Thareja, currently Director General Medical Services (Air), has taken over as DGAFMS from September 1, 2026.

Her military career began on December 26, 1985, and spanned clinical medicine, teaching, hospital administration and tri-service leadership. She is among the few officers to have served across all three armed forces during her career.

Born into a naval family, Arti studied at Timpany School in Visakhapatnam before joining the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune. She completed her MBBS and later earned an MD in Radio diagnosis from AFMC in 1992. She also completed a DNB in Radiation Oncology from Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai, and underwent specialized training in Gamma Knife surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.

Key Highlights:

• Arti became the first woman to head the Armed Forces Medical Services
• She completed 41 years of distinguished service across all three armed forces
• She received the PVSM, AVSM and VSM for her service

Arti was attached to various military hospitals over the years such as INHS Dhanvantari in Port Blair, INHS Kalyani in Visakhapatnam, INHS Sanjivani at Kochi and INHS Asvini at Mumbai. She additionally led the departments of Radiation Oncology at Army hospital (Research & Referral), Delhi, Command hospital (Southern Command), Pune, AFMC and INHS Asvini.

Later she became a senior commander. At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic Arti was serving as Command Medical Officer, Southern Naval Command, which is the second appointment for a woman to hold this position. In January 2021, she assumed the leadership of INHS Asvini from Surgeon Rear Admiral Sheila S. Mathai, a first between two woman flag officers.

Arti was promoted to Surgeon Vice Admiral on October 5, 2022 and is the sixth woman officer in the Indian Armed Forces to be given three-star rank and the third woman Vice Admiral in the Navy. She then went on to become Director and Commandant at AFMC and in January 2023 became Director General Medical Services (Air) in the rank of Air Marshal. In March 2023, she took charge as Director General Medical Services (Navy).

Lieutenant General Daljit Singh stepped down as DGAFMS on October 1, 2024, to be replaced by Arti. Her duties on the job included medical policy and healthcare services for all personnel, veterans and families of the three services.

On this journey, she has worked on aspects such as more rapid casualty evacuation, on-site treatment, extended field care, mental resilience and the application of new technologies in military medicine. She also spoke about the need to cooperate with institutions like DRDO, IITs, IISc, ICMR, etc. with the Armed Forces.

She has received numerous awards for her work. Arti was awarded the Param Vishisht Seva Medal (PVSM) by President Droupadi Murmu during the Defence Investiture Ceremony in June 2026. Previously, she had been awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 2024 and Vishisht Seva Medal in 2021.

Arti's retirement comes after a career of 40 years in the Armed forces which shattered a lot of records for women in India's military forces. By becoming the first woman to be appointed the country's top military medical organization, her appointment marked another milestone in the history of military medicine.