Indian-origin Ajay Banga becomes 14th President of World Bank

Ajay Banga, an Indian-origin American, was on Wednesday chosen because the President of the World Bank by its government administrators for a five-year time period beginning June 2.

“The Board appears ahead to working with Mr. Banga,” the World Bank Board mentioned in an announcement.

Banga was the nominee of President Joe Biden of the US, which has chosen each World Bank President in an unwritten settlement with Europe since 1944, based on which Europe will get to pick the President of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), leaving the World Bank prime job for the US.

They nonetheless undergo the method of nomination and “choice”, which is known as a instrument to grant affirmation.

Banga would be the 14th President of the World Bank. He will take over from David Malpass, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump.

Banga was born in Pune, Maharashtra, and went to varsities in Shimla and Hyderabad. He graduated in economics from St Stephen’s College in Delhi and did his masters in enterprise administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

“Ajay Banga shall be a transformative chief, bringing experience, expertise, and innovation to the place of World Bank President,” Biden mentioned in an announcement.

“And along with World Bank management and shareholders, he’ll assist steer the establishment because it evolves and expands to handle world challenges that immediately have an effect on its core mission of poverty reductiona, together with local weather change. Ajay will even be integral in bringing collectively the private and non-private sectors, alongside philanthropies, to usher within the elementary adjustments in improvement finance that this second requires.”

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen mentioned in a separate assertion, “Ajay Banga will deliver to this vital function the appropriate management and administration abilities, expertise of dwelling and dealing in rising markets, and monetary experience to guide the World Bank at a vital second in its historical past. Ajay understands that the challenges we face – from combatting local weather change, pandemics, and fragility to eliminating excessive poverty and selling shared prosperity – are deeply intertwined. He has successfully constructed a broad world coalition round his imaginative and prescient for the World Bank over the course of his candidacy.”

Banga most not too long ago served as Vice Chairman at General Atlantic. He was beforehand the President and CEO of Mastercard. He has additionally served on a number of boards. He is a Co-founder of The Cyber Readiness Institute and was Vice Chair of the Economic Club of New York.

Banga was awarded the Foreign Policy Association Medal in 2012, the Padma Shri by the President of India in 2016, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor and the Business Council for International Understanding’s Global Leadership Award in 2019, and the Distinguished Friends of Singapore Public Service Star in 2021.

(With inputs from IANS)