Vir Chakra

Vir Chakra is an Indian gallantry award presented for acts of bravery in the battlefield. It replaced the British Distinguished Service Cross (DSC), Military Cross (MC) and Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). Award of the decoration carries with it the right to use Vr.C. as a postnominal abbreviation (note the care to distinguish this abbreviation from that for the Victoria Cross (V.C.). It is third in precedence in the war time gallantry awards and comes after the Param Vir Chakra and Maha Vir Chakra.

Origin
Established by the President of India on 26 January 1950 (with effect from 15 August 1947). The statutes were amended 12 January 1952 to readjust the order of wearing as new decorations were established.

Appearance
The medal is 1-3/8 inch circular silver medal. A five pointed star, with the chakra in the center, and, on this, the domed gilded state emblem. The decoration is named on the rim and suspended from a swiveling straight-bar suspender. The decoration is almost always named and dated on the edge. Around a plain center, two legends separated by lotus flowers; above Vir Chakra in Hindi and in English. The ribbon is 32 mm, half dark blue and half orange-saffron. Dark blue 16 mm, saffron 16 mm.

Notable Vir Chakra Awardees
Some are listed:
 * 1) 2nd Lt. Gyanchand Nagar SS-23399
 * 2) Capt (Retd) Gurmeet Singh Punia, Air OP, Battle Casualty 1971 Indo Pak War
 * 3) 2nd Lt. Hardev Pal Nayyar SS-23397
 * 4) Denzil Keelor
 * 5) Trevor Keelor
 * 6) Krishan Kant Saini
 * 7) Mohammad Ahmed Zaki
 * 8) Satish Nambiar
 * 9) Lt Col BT Pandit
 * 10) Lt. Col. Anjaparavanda Thimaiah Ganapathy, Sikh Light Infantry, 1965
 * 11) Capt Ashok K Karkare, Arty
 * 12) Captain Ravinder Nath Gupta
 * 13) Nb Sub Doraiswamy
 * 14) Arun Prakash
 * 15) Jerry Prem Raj
 * 16) Rajiq Khan
 * 17) Shish Ram Gill
 * 18) Laxminarayan Ramdas
 * 19) Zafar Ali Shah
 * 20) Harbaksh Singh
 * 21) Devendra Singh Kandari, VrC, Operation: 1971 Cactus Lily, Date of Award: 10 Dec 1971
 * 22) Subedar Randhir Singh
 * 23) Sunil Khokhar
 * 24) Vijayant Thapar
 * 25) Gopal Krishna Trivedi
 * 26) Haneef Uddin
 * 27) Zorawar Chand Bakhshi
 * 28) Gurdev Singh Hans
 * 29) Capt Gopalam Lakshminarayana Swamy
 * 30) Wing Commander Vishnu Narain Johri
 * 31) Nb Sub Chuni Lal, AC, VrC, SM (Gallantry)
 * 32) Lieutenant Ram Lal Chauhan (1947)
 * 33) Ajay Ahuja
 * 34) Lt. Col. Raj Singh
 * 35) Jagandoj Limbu
 * 36) Major G C Verma 3 Dogra
 * 37) Lt. Com. Suvesh Kumar Mitter (1971)
 * 38) Captain Jintu Gogoi, 17th Garhwal (1999)
 * 39) K.S Raju Vrc 1971 (LEMP)
 * 40) Commandant N.C. Sharma
 * 41) Sub. Maj Kanshi Singh 9th Jak Poonch sector 1947
 * 42) Capt Ashok Kumar Karkare
 * 43) Naib Subedar (honorary captain) Ami Singh 1st Rajput C coy 6 February 1948 Naushera Sector, Tenidhar Check Post
 * 44) Naib Subedar Vasudev 1st Rajput C coy 6 February 1948 Naushera Sector, Tenidhar Check Post
 * 45) Naik Ramswaroop 1st Rajput C coy 6 February 1948 Naushera Sector, Tenidhar Check Post
 * 46) Naik Prabhati Singh 1st Rajput C coy 6 February 1948 Naushera Sector, Tendhar Check Post

The award carries with it a cash allowance and, in some cases, a lump sum cash award. This has been a rather controversial issue throughout the life of the decoration. From 1 February 1999, the central government set a monthly stipend of Rs. 850 for recipients of the award. In addition, many states have established individual pension rewards for the recipients of the decoration.