Senior Telangana Cadre IPS Officer Mahesh Dixit Appointed IB Director
Known for his strong ground-level intelligence capabilities and expertise in counter-terrorism, Dixit has handled several sensitive assignments involving left-wing extremism, cross-border infiltration and internal security.
Hyderabad: Senior Telangana cadre IPS officer Mahesh Dixit has been appointed Director of the Intelligence Bureau (IB), India’s premier domestic intelligence agency. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet on Thursday cleared the appointment of the 1993-batch IPS officer, who succeeds Tapan Kumar Deka.
Dixit, a career intelligence officer with more than three decades of service, has spent a significant portion of his career on Central deputation with the Intelligence Bureau, steadily rising through the ranks from joint director to additional director and later special director. He was promoted as additional director in 2022 and elevated as special director on an in-situ basis in September 2024, becoming one of the organisation’s senior-most officers.
Dixit was from the cadre of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh and allotted to Telangana upon state bifurcation.
One of the most significant phases of his career was his tenure as chief of the IB’s Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB) in Srinagar, where he supervised intelligence operations across Jammu, Kashmir and Leh. His posting coincided with the period following the Centre’s abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, when the region witnessed heightened counter-terror operations, cross-border infiltration attempts and intensive efforts to maintain internal stability. Officials credit him with playing a key role in monitoring security threats and strengthening intelligence networks during this crucial period.
Known for his strong ground-level intelligence capabilities and expertise in counter-terrorism, Dixit has handled several sensitive assignments involving left-wing extremism, cross-border infiltration and internal security. He is also regarded as an expert in tracking Islamist extremist networks across southern India, particularly in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, in addition to his extensive experience dealing with Kashmir-related security issues.
His long field experience in Jammu and Kashmir is expected to influence the agency’s strategy in addressing Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, radicalisation and narco-terror networks. As director of the Intelligence Bureau under the Union home ministry, Dixit will oversee the country’s counter-intelligence, counter-terrorism and internal security operations, while coordinating intelligence gathering and security assessments across the nation.
