New R&AW, IB chiefs to be announced soon

New Delhi: India’s external and internal intelligence gathering agencies, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) respectively, are going to see new heads, the shortlisting process for which has begun.
The tenure of the present R&AW chief, Samant Goel, a 1984 Punjab cadre IPS officer, ends on 30 June. Goel, who took over the reins of R&AW in June 2019, had got an extension of one year in May 2021, just days before his two-year fixed tenure ended. Same was done in the case of IB chief Arvind Kumar, also a 1984 batch IPS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, who was appointed as IB chief in June 2019 before being given a one-year extension in June 2021.
As per convention, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet—the topmost body of government of India that finalizes appointments of top few posts of the country comprising the Prime Minister and the Home Minister—starts working on a suitable replacement for these two crucial posts well in advance. The possibility of these two officers being given another extension has been ruled out by officials.
Like in previous such appointments that have happened during the Narendra Modi government, the suggestion of Ajit Doval, the National Security Advisor (NSA), too, will play a crucial role on who should be appointed the new chiefs whose two years’ tenure will also see the May 2024 General Elections. Political parties for years have relied on the inputs of Intelligence agencies to gauge the mood of the public, both during national and Assembly elections.
Goel, who took over as the 23rd chief of the R&AW that was brought into existence four decades ago, has enjoyed one of the longest tenures as the chief of the secret agency, which because of the nature of its work and because of the failure to break the decades long silo-mentality, functions under the cover of anonymity and reclusiveness. Before him, only the founder of R&AW, R.N. Kao (who led the agency for almost nine years) and Girish Chandra Saxena, A.S Syali and Vikram Sood (all of them led the agency for three years) were given the opportunity to lead the agency for more than two years.
Goel so far had an uneventful tenure, which perhaps is a testament to the fact that the agency ensured that external threats were neutralised in the bud and before they could execute any terror related operations in the country. It was expected that Goel, who joined the agency during the time when Prime Minister Modi has been pushing for government agencies to become more active digitally, would bring the agency online on the lines of other similar global agencies like MI6 of United Kingdom, CIA which is the external intelligence agency of the US, Mossad of Israel, The General Directorate for External Security (France’s intelligence agency) and Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service, all of which have a dynamic website that apart from show-casing select work done by the respective agencies, also seeks to generate leads from the common public. However, no such initiative has been undertaken by the R&AW.