K. Natarajan, the second Coast Guard officer to lead the force, would take over on June 30. He joined the force on January 18, 1984, and holds a Masters Degree in Defence and Strategic Studies from Madras University.

K. Natarajan has held various important Command and Staff appointments, both afloat and ashore. The Flag Officer has commanded all classes of Indian Coast Guard ships, namely Advanced Offshore Patrol Vessel (AOPV) Sangram, Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) Veera, Fast Patrol Vessel (FPV) Kanaklata Barua and Inshore Patrol Vessel (IPV) Chandbibi.

The Flag Officer has held the appointments of Chief Staff Officer (Personnel & Administration) at Headquarters Region (East), Chennai and Chief of Staff at Headquarters Region (West), Mumbai. The Officer has also held the appointment of Officer-in-Charge, Coast Guard Training Centre, Kochi.

On elevation to the Flag rank in August 2009, he spearheaded the Staff Division of Policy and Plans at the Coast Guard Headquarters as the Deputy Director General (Policy & Plans) till April 2014. The newly appointed chief of Indian Coast Guard, K. Natarajan was instrumental in giving a fillip to the overall growth of the Coast Guard, post 26/11, in terms of assets and infrastructure development including a dedicated academy.

More than the pride involved in hosting the triennial International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) congress here from June 26 for the first time in Asia, 32nd one over all, Telangana is taking the event as an opportunity to earn reputation as an emerging hub in the global seed arena and also to leap up seed exports. The eight-day congress would have the main event for three days and technical committee meetings/sessions would be held over the next five days. Efforts for hosting the congress started in 2016 itself after identifying the opportunities in seed exports based on the strong foundation the State already has in quality seed production.

“As it is, Telangana is a major hub of seed production in the country meeting about 60% of the country’s needs in major crops such as rice, maize, soyabean, pearl millet, sorghum and cotton. About 400 seed companies are operating in the State with 413 seed processing and 13 seed testing units”, Agriculture Production Commissioner C. Parthasarathi said adding that about 2.5 lakh farmers in 1,500 villages were engaged in seed production in 3 lakh acres. They were producing about 65,000 tonnes seed of various crops.

A Reserve Bank of India (RBI) committee has suggested a 5,000 crore stressed asset fund for domestic micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in a relief to small businesses hurt by demonetization, the goods and services tax and an ongoing liquidity crunch.

The committee to study the problems faced by MSMEs was chaired by U.K. Sinha, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

“The committee recommends for the creation of a distressed asset fund, with a corpus of 5,000 crore, structured to assist units in clusters where a change in the external environment, e.g. a ban on plastics or ‘dumping’ has led to a large number of MSMEs becoming non-performing asset (NPA)," its report published on Tuesday said.

The committee said such a fund could work in tandem with RBI-mandated restructuring schemes or bank-led NPA revival solutions for MSMEs. “The onus of creating this fund would lie with the government," it said.

Veteran freedom fighter from Goa and Padmashri Mohan Ranade (89) died on Tuesday in Pune, after a prolonged illness.

Ranade was a member of the Azad Gomantak Dal, a group of revolutionaries who believed in the doctrine of armed attacks against the Portuguese colonial rule and participated in ambushes on several Portuguese installations in Goa. Police stations were their major targets.

Following his arrest in 1955 for an armed attack on Betim police station, the Sangli-born Ranade, who was undercover as a Marathi school teacher in Goa, was sentenced to 26-year imprisonment at Fort of Caxias near Lisbon.

He was arrested after he received gunshot wounds to his lungs, from which he recovered. He served first five years in a solitary confinement in Goa, after which he was tried in Portugal.

AS THE visiting US Secretary of State Michael R Pompeo meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday, New Delhi will stay firm on the S-400 deal with Russia and seek waiver under the US law.

Jaishankar and Pompeo will prepare the groundwork for the Prime Minister’s meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka. Though the timing has not been finalised yet, it is likely to be held on June 28.

Jaishankar is scheduled to accompany the Prime Minister for the G-20 summit, just like Pompeo will join Trump in Japan. This is a departure from the past, as then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj did not accompany the PM on his overseas visits. Both Jaishankar and Pompeo are likely to be present at the Modi-Trump meeting.

Jaishankar, who will be meeting his American counterpart Pompeo for the first time, is also likely to counsel the US interlocutor that both US and Iran should “de-escalate” the situation, diplomatic sources said.

The Reserve Bank of India, on Monday, launched a ‘Complaint Management System (CMS)’, which will enable members of the public to lodge their complaints on its website against any of the regulated entities with public interface such as commercial banks, urban co-operative banks, and non-banking financial companies, among others. The system will be accessible on desktop as well as on mobile devices.

The system, which was inaugurated by Governor Shaktikanta Das, provides features such as acknowledgement through SMS/e-mail notification(s), status tracking through unique registration number, receipt of closure advises, and filing of appeals, where applicable. It also solicits voluntary feedback on the customer’s experience.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has decided to modify the format of driving licenses to smart card type driving licences. 

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha that his Ministry has prescribed a common standard format and design of the Driving Licence for the whole of the country. 

This Ministry, through its flagship application called SARATHI developed by NIC, has a common countrywide database of all driving license holders. Almost 15 crore driving license records are available in its central repository. 

The SARATHI application has the feature to identify duplicate records online in real time and access information about the challans if any. 

The Centre has chalked out a plan to provide CNG and PNG infrastructure in 406 districts of the country. Replying to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said, till 2014, only 66 districts of the country were covered under Compressed Natural Gas and Piped Natural Gas infrastructure. 

He said the government is expanding it in other cities. Mr Pradhan said, after expanding this facilites, 70 per cent of the population will get clean energy. Mr Pradhan also informed the House that one lakh twenty thounsand crore rupees will be invested in the next eight years in the energy sector.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will be on a three-day visit to India from today. 

This will be the first high-level engagement with the US after the General Elections in India.  Mr Pompeo's visit will be an important opportunity for both sides to explore ways to further strengthen the India-US Strategic Partnership.

It will also continue the high-level engagement on matters of mutual interest including bilateral, regional and global issues. The visit will deepen and broaden the bilateral relationship and kick-start a dialogue towards the resolution of some of the key issues in trade ties.

During the three days visit, Mr Pompeo will hold talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and call on other dignitaries in the government.

RBI Deputy Governor Viral V Acharya has resigned from his post, six months before the scheduled end of his term, sources have confirmed to The Indian Express, adding that he was not expecting his term to be renewed in any case.

Acharya joined the central bank in January 2017 and was RBI’s youngest deputy governor, post economic liberalisation. Acharya will be returning to New York University as CV Starr Professor of Economics.

This is the second high profile resignation in the past six months at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In December, governor Urjit Patel resigned nearly nine months before the end of his schedule term over differences with the government. The RBI is now left with three deputy governors N S Vishwanathan, B P Kanungo and M K Jain.