Vishisht Seva Medal

The Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM) is a decoration of the Indian armed forces. It is awarded to recognize "distinguished service of a high order" to all ranks of the Indian Armed forces.

Vishisht Seva Medal
Type	Military award
Awarded for	Distinguished service, to all ranks of the armed forces
Country	India
Presented by	President of India
Ribbon	32 mm, yellow with three 2 mm dark blue stripes. Yellow 6.5 mm, dark blue 2 mm, yellow 6.5 mm, dark blue 2 mm, yellow 6.5 mm, dark blue 2 mm, yellow 6.5 mm.
Obverse	A 35-mm circular medal, with a five-pointed star in the centre. Suspended from a straight-bar suspender. Named on the edge.
Reverse	The state emblem with the name of the decoration in Hindi above. "Vishisht Seva Medal" in Hindi.
Established	January 26, 1960
Precedence
Next (higher)	Sena Medal (Army) Nausena Medal (Navy) Vayusena Medal (Air Force)[1]
Equivalent	Yudh Seva Medal
Next (lower)	Uttam Jeevan Raksha Padak[2]

The award may be granted posthumously and subsequent awards are represented by a bar worn on the ribbon. The award carries with it the right to use "VSM" as post-nominal letters. The medal was originally established as the "Vishisht Seva Medal, Class III".[3] It was renamed to its present name on 27 January 1967. The design of the medal remained unchanged and the change be reflected only in the records.

From 1980, the Yudh Seva Medal was introduced to recognize exceptional services in an operational environment.[3] Since then the VSM has been restricted to non-operational service.