Admiral D K Joshi, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, NM, VSM (Retd.) was the 21st Chief of Naval Staff, having assumed office on 31 August 2012. Born on 04 July 1954, in Almora (Uttarakhand), he is a specialist in anti-submarine warfare. He is an alumni of Naval War College (USA), College of Naval Warfare (Mumbai) and National Defence College (New Delhi). He has also been the Senior Instructor (NAVY) at Defence Services Staff College (Wellington).

Admiral Joshi has served in a variety of command, staff and instructional appointments. His commands at sea include guided missile corvette INS Kuthar, guided missile destroyer INS Ranvir and the aircraft carrier INS Viraat, during which he was awarded Nausena Medal, VishistSeva Medal and YudhSeva Medal respectively. Admiral Joshi was also the Defence Advisor in the Indian High Commission at Singapore from 1996 to 1999, with concurrent accreditation to the Philippines.After his elevation to Flag rank, Admiral Joshi commanded the Eastern Fleet where he was awarded the AtiVishishtSeva Medal (AVSM).. He has also served in the Integrated Headquarters, as head of all the nodal branches. He served in the Personnel Branch as the Assistant Chief of Personnel (Human Resource Development), and Warship Production and Acquisition as the Assistant Controller of the Aircraft Carrier Programme (ACACP), and thereafter in the Operations Branch both as Assistant Chief of Naval Staff (Information Warfare and Operations) and as the Deputy Chief of Naval Staff.

Admiral Joshi voluntarily retired on 26 February 2014 having completed less than half of his tenure as CNS. On 08 October 2017, he assumed the appointment of Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He has also been designated as Vice Chairman, Islands Development Agency, for which orders were issued in 2017