The government has jointly appointed the new chiefs for the country’s premier spy agencies, Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) on the same day. Arvind Kumar will replace Rajiv Jain as IB chief, who completed his tenure of two and a half years. Head of all police organizations, an IB director enjoys a fixed tenure of two years. Whereas, Samant Goel, became the Chief of India’s reputed security agency Research and Analysis Wing or RAW has taken over as its chief by replacing Anil Dhamsana.

Both Mr. Goel and Mr. Kumar are IPS officers from the 1984 batch. Both the names were finalized by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), which was headed by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself and along with the Home Minister Amit Shah.

Arvind Kumar, the newly appointed Director of Intelligence Bureau, is considered as a specialist about Kashmir affairs and issues with a specialization in counter-terrorism and is noteworthy that he has been closely involved in tackling Left-wing extremism at the IB. The IB Director, Arvind Kumar is currently in charge of the Special Director, Kashmir in Intelligence Bureau. His tenure will be of 2 years starting from June 26, 2019, as the 27th Director of Intelligence Bureau by replacing Rajiv Jain.

The Intelligence Bureau (IB) is India's internal intelligence agency. In 1947, it was renamed as the Central Intelligence Bureau under the Ministry of Home Affairs. The first director of the Intelligence Bureau was T. G. Sanjeevi Pillai he holds the post for a period from April 12, 1947, to July 14, 1950.