The order has been issued by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) that is headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has Home Minister Amit Shah as its member.
"V.K. Johri, IPS, who is presently working as Special Secretary, in the Cabinet Secretariat as Officer on Special Duty, has been appointed as Director General, Border Security Force (BSF)..," a Home Ministry statement said.
Johri, a 1984-batch Indian Police Service officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, is presently serving as the Special Secretary in the external intelligence agency RAW, under the Cabinet Secretariat.
The 1984 Madhya Pradesh cadre officer will succeed R.K. Mishra, who retires on August 31.
The order also stated that Johri has been appointed as an Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Union home ministry with "immediate effect."
Johri will attain superannuation in September, 2020, the order stated.
The BSF, with a present strength of about 2.5 lakh personnel, is country's largest border guarding force and is tasked to secure two of India's most important and sensitive fronts with Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The two other border guarding forces are ITBP (China) and SSB (Nepal and Bhutan).