The Centre is set to appoint Mahesh Dixit as the new Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), elevating a career intelligence officer who has handled some of India’s most sensitive internal security assignments, including Jammu and Kashmir during the years following the abrogation of Article 370.
A 1993-batch IPS officer of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh cadre, Dixit has spent a significant part of his career on central deputation with the Intelligence Bureau, steadily rising through its ranks from Joint Director to Additional Director and later Special Director.
One of the defining phases of his career came as chief of the IB’s Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB) in Srinagar, where he oversaw intelligence operations covering Jammu, Kashmir and
Leh. The posting coincided with the security recalibration that followed the Centre’s decision to abrogate Article 370 in August 2019, a period marked by heightened counter-terror operations, cross-border infiltration attempts and efforts to maintain internal stability.
According to sources who spoke to CNN-News18, Dixit is known to have extensive experience tracking Islamist extremist networks in southern India, particularly across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, in addition to his work on Kashmir-related security issues.
He was promoted as Additional Director in the Intelligence Bureau in 2022 before being elevated as Special Director on an in-situ basis in September 2024, becoming one of the organisation’s senior-most officers.
As Director of the Intelligence Bureau, he will head India’s premier domestic intelligence agency under the Ministry of Home Affairs, overseeing counter-intelligence, counter-terrorism, internal security and intelligence coordination across the country.
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