VIR CHAKRA

Vir Chakra is an Indian gallantry award presented for acts of bravery in the battlefield. Award of the decoration carried 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. Naik Gulab Singh Yadav
2. Ajay Ahuja
3. Dinesh Chandra Bhandary
4. Kuldip Singh Brar
5. Alfred Tyrone Cooke
6. Vonthibettu Prabhakara Hegde
7. Denzil Keelor
8. Trevor Keelor
9. Krishan Kant Saini
10. Mohammad Ahmed Zaki
11. Satish Nambiar
12. Arun Prakash
13. Jerry Prem Raj
14. Rajiq Khan
15. Shish Ram Gill
16. Laxminarayan Ramdas
17. Zafar Ali Shah
18. Harbaksh Singh
19. Subedar Randhir Singh
20. Sunil Khokhar
21. Vijayant Thapar
22. Gopal Krishna Trivedi
23. Haneef Uddin
24. Zorawar Chand Bakhshi
25. Gurdev Singh Hans
26. Gopalam Lakshminarayana Swamy

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.