Centre appoints A Ajith Kumar as Rubber Board chief

Senior IAS officer A Ajith Kumar appointed as Kerala-based Rubber Board's chairman, a post lying vacant for over a year and a half. 
•    The appointment comes less than a month ahead of Assembly polls due in the southern state on May 16.
•    The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the appointment of Kumar,a 1994 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre, to the post of chairman, Rubber Board, Kottayam, an order issued by Department of personnel and Training. 
•    He has been appointed for a period up to May 31, 2018, which is the date of his superannuation.
•    The post has been lying vacant since August 2014. The vacancy has been a political issue in the state. 
•    Ramesh had denounced the Union governments policy for the rubber sector, saying India has become a large importer of natural rubber due to poor investments in the Rubber Board.
•    Commercial cultivation of natural rubber was introduced in India by the British, although the experimental efforts to grow rubber on a commercial scale in India were initiated as early as 1873 at the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta. 
•    The first commercial Hevea plantations in India were established at Thattekadu in 1902.