India, June 26 -- The Centre has appointed Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Mahesh Dixit as the next Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief, according to people familiar with the matter.

Dixit succeeds Tapan Deka, and will take over after the latter's extended tenure ends on June 30. Deka, a, a 1988-batch officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, had been appointed as IB chief in 2022 and given two one-year extensions thereafter.

The IB is India's premier domestic spy agency which collects intelligence on several issues, including g terrorism, conflicts in different regions, threat assessments related to government policies, counter-intelligence. It also provides assistance to other agencies and police forces.

A 1993-batch IPS officer, Dixit i...