NEW DELHI: Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Mahesh Dixit officially took charge as the new Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) on Tuesday. He succeeds Tapan Kumar Deka, who completed a distinguished four-year tenure at the helm of the agency.

Dixit, a veteran 1993-batch officer from the Andhra Pradesh cadre (currently serving in Telangana), will lead India’s premier internal intelligence agency for a fixed two-year term. His appointment was cleared last week by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

From Medicine to the Civil Services

Before entering law enforcement, Dixit earned a postgraduate degree in medicine (MD). Despite ranking an impressive 35th on the UPSC Civil Services merit list—a score high enough to secure a spot in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) or Foreign Service (IFS)—he chose the Indian Police Service (IPS). He joined the 1993 batch under the Andhra Pradesh cadre (later reallocated to the Telangana cadre following the state’s bifurcation).

Extensive Intelligence & Field Experience

Dixit has spent more than 26 years of his three-decade career directly within the Intelligence Bureau (IB). Before being elevated to Special Director (the agency’s second-in-command) and subsequently Director, his career spanned some of the most sensitive operational zones in the country: