Indian Armed Forces Appoints First Woman Director General of Medical Services

Lieutenant General Sadhna Saxena Nair, VSM, will assume the appointment of Director General Medical Services (Army) on August 1, 2024, making history as the first woman to hold this prestigious position. Before this, she was the first woman to serve as Director General Hospital Services (Armed Forces) upon her promotion to the rank of Air Marshal.

Lt. Gen. Nair began her schooling at St. Mary’s Convent in Prayagraj and completed it at Loreto Convent in Lucknow. Her education included stints at schools in Tezpur, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, and Chandigarh. She graduated from the Armed Forces Medical College in Pune with a distinguished academic record and was commissioned into the Army Medical Corps in December 1985.

She holds a postgraduate degree in Family Medicine, diplomas in Maternal & Child Health and Health Care Management, and has undergone a two-year training program in Medical Informatics at AIIMS, New Delhi. Additionally, she trained in CBRN Warfare with the Israeli Defence Forces and in Military Medical Ethics with the Swiss Armed Forces in Spiez, Switzerland. She was also the first woman Principal Medical Officer of Western Air Command, IAF, and Training Command, IAF.

For her meritorious service, Lt. Gen. Nair has been awarded the AOC-in-C (WAC) and CAS Commendations as well as the Vishisht Seva Medal by the President of India. She was an expert member of the Dr. Kasturirangan Committee for the medical education component of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2019. Three generations of her family have served in the Armed Forces over the last seven decades. She is married to Air Marshal KP Nair (Retd) and is uniquely distinguished as a daughter and sister of military doctors and wife and mother of IAF Fighter Pilots.