The Directorate of Military Intelligence (M.I.) is the Intelligence arm of the Indian Army. The primary mission of military intelligence is to provide timely, relevant, accurate, and synchronized intelligence support to tactical, operational and strategic-level needs of the army.

It also conducts counter-intelligence activities to detect, identify and neutralize adversarial intelligence threats inside the Indian Army.

Approximately 3,700 military personnel are assigned to intelligence duties. These personnel are trained at Military Intelligence Training School and Depot (MINTSD), Pune.

The operational geographical mandate of the organization is set to 50 km from the border.

The agency was set up in 1941 as part of the erstwhile British Indian Army to generate field intelligence for the army, in the Second World War. After India's independence, the Directorate of Military Intelligence (M.I.) was initially tasked with generating only tactical or field intelligence in all countries bordering India.

In 1978, the directorate was involved in the Samba spy scandal, wherein it was later found that the directorate had falsely implicated three Indian Army officers as Pakistani spies.

In early 1957, 2 M.I. officers had infiltrated into Chinese territory and carried out a reconnaissance operation. It was due to this operation, that Indian government got first-hand evidence that China had illegally built a road in Aksai Chin. The personnel had joined a group of yak grazers in disguise and gathered the first-hand evidence.

In late 1990s, M.I. officers were also deployed in Tajikistan and later into Afghanistan, in support of the Ahmad Shah Massoud–led Northern Alliance that overthrew the Taliban in 2001 with the aid of the US-led coalition forces in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and the subsequent War in Afghanistan.