The Centre on Wednesday appointed senior IPS officers Arvind Kumar and Samant Kumar Goel as the chiefs of Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), respectively.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved their appointments for a fixed two-year tenure, said two separate orders issued by the Department of Personnel and Training.

Kumar will take up the reins of the IB, country’s internal intelligence agency, from Rajiv Jain on completion of his extended tenure on June 30. Goel will take charge from Anil Kumar Dhasmana on completion of his extended tenure on Sunday.

Both Jain and Dhasmana, who were appointed for a two-year fixed tenure in 2016, were given six months extension in December last year.

Kumar, 59, a 1984 batch IPS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, is at present the special director in the IB and was heading the Jammu & Kashmir desk.

He has been working with the IB since August 1991.

Kumar has also served in the Indian Embassy in Moscow, Russia.

Kumar, who is considered an expert on the Kashmir and Naxal issues, is the second most senior officer in the IB after Jain.

Goel will succeed Dhasmana at the country’s external spy agency, RAW. Goel, a 1984 batch IPS officer of Punjab cadre, is at present the Special Secretary in the RAW.

Goel was heading the operations wing of the agency when the Pulwama incident happened in February this year in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed in a suicide bombing by the Pakistani terror group Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and India had to retaliate by carrying out aerial attack in Balakot. RAW has a separate Jammu and Kashmir desk where inputs relating to the terror-hit State is collected and collated, sources said.

Goel’s name had cropped in a CBI investigation into allegations and counter-allegations of corruption against each other by two of its former senior officers -- the then CBI director Alok Kumar Verma and Special Director Rakesh Asthana.

The CBI had booked Asthana on allegations of receiving a bribe from an accused, Manoj Prasad, probed by him in a case linked to meat exporter Moin Qureshi.