Washington: The World Bank on Wednesday appointed Kaushik
Basu its Chief Economist and Senior Vice President.
Basu, an Indian national, most recently served as chief
economic adviser of the India's Ministry of Finance while on leave from Cornell, where he was an
economics professor and the C. Marks Professor of International Studies.
Basu, who was most recently chief economic adviser to the
government of India, is the World Bank's second chief economist from a
developing country.
Basu, who holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics,
is on leave from his position as a professor of economics and international
studies at Cornell University in New York. He previously founded the Centre for
Development Economics at the Delhi School of Economics.
Emerging market countries have long pushed for more clout at
the poverty-fighting World Bank and its sister institution, the International
Monetary Fund.
Starting from October, Basu will serve under new World Bank
President Jim Yong Kim, a Korean-American and who took the helm of the World
Bank two months ago.
