List of Indian Coast Guard directors general

The Director General of the Indian Coast Guard (DG ICG) is the head of the Indian Coast Guard. The DG ICG has their office in the Coast Guard Headquarters (CGHQ) in New Delhi. Appointed by the Government of India, the DG ICG reports to the Minister of Defence. The Director General is assisted by four Deputy Directors General, each holding the rank of inspector-general, and other senior officers heading various staff divisions. The Additional Director General of the ICG serves as the second-in-command to the Director General. The post of Director General of the Indian Coast Guard is held by a three-star rank holder as a position and is not a rank in itself. It is a Commander-in-Chief grade and is equivalent to vice admiral of the Indian Navy, lieutenant general of the Indian Army and the air marshal of the Indian Air Force.^{[1][lower-alpha 1]} The rank of Additional Director General of the Indian Coast Guard is equivalent to vice admiral of Higher Administrative Grade of the Indian Navy.^{[2][3][lower-alpha 2]}

List of appointees

After the Coast Guard Act 1978 came into force on 19 August 1978, the first Director General was appointed on the same day.^[4] Vice Admiral V. A. Kamath, deputed from the Indian Navy, served as the first DG ICG. Appointed on 19 August 1978, he served in the capacity until 31 March 1980.^[5] Traditionally, appointees to the DG position have come from the Indian Navy, although the current office holder, Rajendra Singh, is a direct entry Coast Guard officer. While several previous Directors General have come from the Coast Guard stream – such as Rameshwar Singh and P. Paleri – they have all initially been commissioned into the Indian Navy before later being permanently deputed to the Coast Guard service.^[6] As such, Singh has the distinction of being the first regular direct entry officer of the Indian Coast Guard to be promoted to the position of ADG and to achieve three-star rank, doing so on 11 January 2013. He was later appointed as the DG, taking over this position in early 2016.^[3] Singh succeeded Vice Admiral H. C. S. Bisht on 1 March 2016.^[7] Besides the distinction of being the first three-star rank officer of the Indian Coast Guard, Rajendra Singh is the first Coast Guard officer to become the Director General.^[8]

#	Name	Image	Appointment date	Left office	Notes
1	Vice Admiral V. A. Kamath		19 August 1978	31 March 1980	First holder of the position of DG ICG. Prior to his appointment as the DG ICG, he served as the Vice Chief of the Naval Staff. Member of the Rustamji Committee, the committee appointed to suggest measures for the creation of Indian Coast Guard.[5][9][10]
2	Vice Admiral Swaraj Prakash		1 April 1980	31 March 1982	[5][10]
3	Vice Admiral M. R. Schunkar		1 April 1982	31 March 1984	[5][10]
4	Vice Admiral S. Jain		19 June 1984	14 February 1985	[5][10]
5	Vice Admiral I. J. S. Khurana		15 February 1985	30 June 1987	[5][10]
6	Vice Admiral H. Johnson		10 July 1987	27 June 1990	[5][10]
7	Vice Admiral S. W. Lakhar		28 June 1990	31 August 1992	[5][10]
8	Vice Admiral K. K. Kohli		5 October 1992	3 January 1995	[5][10]
9	Vice Admiral P. J. Jacob		4 January 1995	17 November 1996	[5][10]
10	Vice Admiral R. N. Ganesh		18 November 1996	4 March 1999	[5][10]
11	Vice Admiral C. DeSilva		5 March 1999	6 March 2001	[5][10]
12	Director General Rameshwar Singh		7 March 2001	29 September 2001	[5][11]
13	Vice Admiral O. P. Bansal		30 September 2001	12 January 2003	[5][12]
14	Vice Admiral Sureesh Mehta		13 January 2003	19 August 2004	Later served as the Chief of the Naval Staff of India.[5][13][14]
15	Vice Admiral A. K. Singh		20 August 2004	24 February 2006	Later served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command and as the FOC-in-C of the Eastern Naval Command.[5][15]
16	Director General Dr. P. Paleri		28 February 2006	31 August 2006	[5][16]
17	Vice Admiral R. F. Contractor		31 August 2006	30 November 2008	[5][17]
18	Vice Admiral Anil Chopra		1 December 2008	29 October 2011	Later served as the FOC-in-C of the Western and the Eastern Naval Commands.[18][19][20]
19	Vice Admiral M. P. Muralidharan		1 November 2011	28 February 2013	Prior to his appointment as the DG ICG, he served as the Chief of Personnel at the IHQ of MoD (Navy) and as the first commandant of the Indian Naval Academy.[21][22]
20	Vice Admiral Anurag G. Thapliyal		1 March 2013	31 January 2015	Prior to his appointment as the DG ICG, he served as the commandant of the Indian Naval Academy.[23][24]
21	Vice Admiral Harish Bisht		1 February 2015	28 February 2016	Present FOC-in-C of the Eastern Naval Command.[25][26]
22	Director General Rajendra Singh		1 March 2016	present	First non-navy officer to be appointed the Director General.[8][27]

Notes

Footnotes

Citations

References

• "Director General: Indian Coast Guard". Indian Coast Guard. Government of India. Retrieved 28 June 2016. 
• Hiranandani, Gulab Mohanlal (2010), Transition to Guardianship: The Indian Navy 1991–2000, Lancer Publishers LLC, ISBN 978-1-935501-66-4 
• Sharma, M. D. (2008), Paramilitary Forces of India, Gyan Publishing House, ISBN 978-81-7835-708-9 
• Reddy, Krishna (2007), Tmh General Knowledge Manual, Tata McGraw-Hill Education, ISBN 978-0-07-061999-9 

External links

• Official website of Indian Coast Guard
• Organisational structure of Indian Coast Guard