Director General of the Indian Coast Guard

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.

Director General of the Indian Coast Guard
Flag of Indian Coast Guard
Indian Coast Guard
Abbreviation	DG ICG
Reports to	Minister of Defence
Seat	Coast Guard Headquarters, New Delhi
Appointer	Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC)
Formation	19 August 1978
First holder	Vice Admiral V. A. Kamath, PVSM
Deputy	Additional Director General of the Indian Coast Guard (ADG ICG)
Website	DG ICG

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 equivalent to Vice Admiral of the Indian Navy, Lieutenant General of the Indian Army, Air Marshal of the Indian Air Force, and the Director General of Central Armed Police Forces/State Police Forces.^[1][a] The rank of Additional Director General of the Indian Coast Guard is equivalent to that of a Lieutenant General of the Indian Army.^[2][3][b]

Paramesh Sivamani is the current Director General of the Indian Coast Guard who assumed the office after Rakesh Pal died on 18th August 2024 following a cardiac arrest.

History

The Indian Coast Guard came into being on 19 August 1978. The new service was to function under the overall command and control of a Director general.^[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] Until 2016, appointees to the DG position were Officers of the Indian Navy deputed to the Coast Guard.

Three direct entry Coast Guard officers have gone on to head the service. While two previous Directors General have come from the Coast Guard stream –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]

Additional responsibilities

Apart from heading the Coast Guard, the DGICG is also:^[7]

• Chairman, National Maritime Search and Rescue Board (NMSARB)
• Chairman, National Oil-spill Disaster Contingency Plan Committee (NOSDCP)
• Chairman, Offshore Security Co-ordination Committee (OSCC), of which the Flag Officer Defence Advisory Group is a member.
• Indian Governor to Regional Co-operation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against ships in Asia (ReCAAP)

Insignia

The badges of rank have a crossed sword and baton over three eight-pointed stars and the Ashoka emblem above, on a golden shoulder board. The Director General wears gorget patches which are navy blue patches with three golden stars and oak leaves under the three golden stars. In addition to this, the double-breasted reefer jacket has three golden sleeve stripes consisting of a broad band with two narrower bands.

List of Directors General

No.	Portrait	Name	Took office	Left office	Time in office
1		Kamath, V. A.Vice Admiral V. A. Kamath PVSM (1921–2017)	19 August 1978	31 March 1980	1 year, 225 days
2		Parkash, SwarajVice Admiral Swaraj Parkash PVSM, MVC, AVSM (1923–2004)	1 April 1980	31 March 1982	1 year, 364 days
3		Schunker, M. R.Vice Admiral M. R. Schunker PVSM, AVSM (1924–2021)	1 April 1982	31 March 1984	1 year, 365 days
4		Jain, S.Vice Admiral S. Jain	19 June 1984	14 February 1985	240 days
5		Khurana, I. J. S.Vice Admiral I. J. S. Khurana	15 February 1985	30 June 1987	2 years, 135 days
6		Johnson, H.Vice Admiral H. Johnson	10 July 1987	27 June 1990	2 years, 352 days
7		Lakhar, S. W.Vice Admiral S. W. Lakhar	28 June 1990	31 August 1992	2 years, 64 days
8		Kohli, K. K.Vice Admiral K. K. Kohli	5 October 1992	3 January 1995	2 years, 90 days
9		Jacob, P. J.Vice Admiral P. J. Jacob	4 January 1995	17 November 1996	1 year, 318 days
10		Ganesh, R. N.Vice Admiral R. N. Ganesh	18 November 1996	4 March 1999	2 years, 106 days
11		Silva, John Colin DeVice Admiral John Colin De Silva PVSM, AVSM (1943–2019)	5 March 1999	6 March 2001	2 years, 1 day
12		Singh, RameshwarVice Admiral Rameshwar Singh	7 March 2001	29 September 2001	206 days
13		Bansal, O. P.Vice Admiral O. P. Bansal	30 September 2001	12 January 2003	1 year, 104 days
14		Pizey, CharlesVice Admiral Sureesh Mehta PVSM, AVSM (born 1947)	13 January 2003	19 August 2004	1 year, 219 days
15		Singh, A. K.Vice Admiral A. K. Singh	20 August 2004	24 February 2006	1 year, 188 days
16		Paleri, PrabhakaranDirector General Prabhakaran Paleri	28 February 2006	31 August 2006	184 days
17		Pizey, CharlesVice Admiral R. F. Contractor AVSM, NM	31 August 2006	30 November 2008	2 years, 91 days
18		Chopra, AnilVice Admiral Anil Chopra PVSM, AVSM	1 December 2008	29 October 2011	2 years, 332 days
19		Muralidharan, M. P.Vice Admiral M. P. Muralidharan	1 November 2011	28 February 2013	1 year, 119 days
20		Thapliyal, AnuragVice Admiral Anurag Thapliyal	1 March 2013	31 January 2015	1 year, 336 days
21		Bisht, HarishVice Admiral Harish Bisht PVSM, AVSM (born 1957)	1 February 2015	28 February 2016	27 days
22		Singh, RajendraRajendra Singh Bisht PTM, TM (born 1959)	1 March 2016	30 June 2019	3 years, 121 days
23		Natarajan, KrishnaswamyKrishnaswamy Natarajan PVSM, PTM, TM (born 1961)	1 July 2019	31 December 2021	2 years, 183 days
24		Pathania, Virender SinghVirender Singh Pathania PVSM, PTM, TM (born 1963)	31 December 2021	31 January 2023	1 year, 31 days
25		Pal, RakeshRakesh Pal AVSM, PTM, TM (1965–2024)	19 July 2023	18 August 2024 †	1 year, 30 days
26		Paramesh SivamaniParamesh Sivamani PTM, TM (born 1965)	15 October 2024		66 days

† - Died in office

Notes

Footnotes

1. FOC-in-C: Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, GOC-in-C: General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, AOC-in-C: Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief.
2. In the Indian Armed Forces, three-star ranks fall into three categories, namely: HAG Scale, HAG+ Scale, and Commanders (GOC-in-C /FOC-in-C /AOC-in-C) Scale. HAG Scale stands at the bottom, whereas the Commanders Scale is the highest.^[2]

References

1. "CG Organisation: Indian Coast Guard". Indian Coast Guard. Government of India. Retrieved 28 June 2016.
2. "Indian Coast Guard Explained in Detail". Naval Journey. Retrieved 26 July 2016.
3. "Indian Coast Guard gets new director-general: All about it". India Today. 27 February 2016. Retrieved 18 November 2016.
4. "COAST GUARD TO BE FORMED IN AUGUST" (PDF). pibarchive.nic.in. 29 June 1978.
5. "VICE ADMIRAL SWARAJ PARKASH TAKES OVER AS DIRECTOR GENERAL COAST GUARD" (PDF). pibarchive.nic.in. 31 March 1980.
6. "Rajendra Singh first non-navy officer to head Coast Guard". Zee News. 24 February 2016. Retrieved 11 July 2016.
7. Singh 2018, p. 285.

Bibliography

• "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
• Reddy, Krishna (2007), Tmh General Knowledge Manual, Tata McGraw-Hill Education, ISBN 978-0-07-061999-9
• Singh, Anup (2018), Blue Waters Ahoy!, The Indian Navy 2001-2010, HarperCollins Publishers India, ISBN 9789353025526

External links

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