Group Captain Jankiramiah Arunachalam (13725) Aeronautical Engineering (Electronics) was commissioned into the Engineering Branch of the IAF on 08 July 74. During his career, he has worked in Communications, Signal Intelligence and Radars of various types. He is qualified on Mirage 2000. He has commanded a Wireless Experimental Unit.

Group Captain Arunachalam is posted to a flying base since 02 Mar 98 as Chief Engineering Officer. On assuming charge he recognised that the fighter fleets at his base were facing serious problems in serviceability due to a combination of management anomalies and acute shortage of critical spares. Galvanising his maintenance team into action, the officer adopted many innovative procedures to reduce down time of the limited number of available aircraft. Some of these are:- a. Design and fabrication of engine-stands for storage of Cat D aero engines, thus sparing the engine trolleys for servicing/ snag rectification. b. Fabrication of a de-fuelling rig for faster contamination-free de-fuelling of aircraft, in place of the laborious gravity method, an innovation adopted since then by other Stations. c. Innovative use of Cat D engines to undertake 200/400 hrs servicing and subsequent replacement of the engine with a new one, thus cutting down the downtime of the aircraft. d. Fabrication of testing facilities for Signal Processor, Doppler Navigator and elements of the Flight Control System.

In addition, Group Captain Arunachalam designed and developed a software for compilation of snag-data and construction of a snag-analysis tree, which has been effectively used to hasten snag rectification. The maintenance of another type of fighter aircraft, with its ageing problems, proved to be a more daunting task to the Group Captain, who once again had to fall back on ingenuity and innovation to overcome the hurdles. Among other things, repairs undertaken locally on the Cockpit Pressurization and Canopy Locking Systems are examples of the officer's initiative and drive.

For distinguished service of a high order, the Hon'ble President is pleased to award 'Vishisht Seva Medal' to Group Captain Jankiramiah Arunachalam.