Surgeon Vice-Admiral Rajat Datta has been appointed as the new Director-General of Armed Forces Medical Services and would be the seniormost medical officer of the armed forces in India.
He will replace incumbent Lieutenant General Anup Bannerjee and assume the office on January 1, 2021. He will have a tenure of 23 months.
Datta is an alumnus of Armed Forces Medical College, Pune and after completing his MBBS in 1982, was commissioned into AMC on 27 Dec 1982.
Thereafter, he went on to do his post-graduate studies in General Medicine viz MD and DNB from Bangalore University and National Board of Examinations respectively in 1990 followed by Doctorate of Medicine (DM) in Cardiology from Pune University in 1998. He is a Fellow of Society of Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions USA. He also holds the coveted appointment of Cardiologist to the President of India.
He is a committed doctor, renowned for his professional competence and skills. He has been the Professor of Cardiology as well as an examiner for several Universities and Post Graduate Medical Institutions in India such as Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, JIPMER, National Board of Examination. Additionally, he is also the examiner for the Dept of Biotechnology at IIT Roorkee.
Over the past three and a half decades, besides tenanting the usual appointments in several military hospitals, he has also served as Classified Specialist (Medicine and Cardiology) in 151 Base Hospital and Command Hospital (WC) Chandimandir. Thereafter as Sr Advisor and later Consultant (Medicine and Cardiology), he was the Professor and Head of Department of Cardiology, at both Army Institute of Cardio-Thoracic Sciences, Pune and Army Hospital (R&R) Delhi Cantt.
He had been holding the prestigious appointment of Comdt AFC, New Delhi where he was Physician to the Army Chief. He was also Addl DGMS (Army) New Delhi. He had been holding the appointment of Comdt, CH (CC) Lucknow, MG Med, HQ Central Command and Comdt, Army Hospital (R&R) Delhi Cantt. In all these administrative appointments, he continued his work as a cardiologist and has the distinct honour of being one of the pioneers in the Armed Forces in Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement (TAVR) procedures for which he has been endorsed as a solo-implanter with one the largest series of successful cases in the country.
Prior to assuming the present appointment, the Flag Officer held the prestigious appointment of Director General Medical Services (Navy).
For his dedication and devotion to the service, he was awarded VSM in 2005, SM (D) in 2014 and AVSM in 2017. He has also been awarded GOC-in-C (WC) Commendation Card and GOC-in-C (SC) Commendation Card in 2006 and 2008 respectively. The Flag Officer is appointed as Honorary Surgeon to The President of India with effect from 01 Feb 2020. Immensely popular among his peers and juniors, he was selected as Col Comdt of the AMC.
Maj Gen Rashmi Datta, VSM, spouse, is MG (Med) HQ Delhi Area and they are blessed with one son, Maj Shivesh Datta who is proudly following the footsteps of his illustrious parents in the AMC at 404 Fd Hosp.
( With inputs from ANI )
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