In yet another proud moment for India, US President Joe Biden on Thursday nominated Ajay Banga to head the World Bank. It means Ajay Banga will succeed its current chief David Malpass after he announced his plans to step down early. Notably, the World Bank has just started accepting candidate nominations in a process set to run until March 29, with the bank saying that women candidates would be "strongly" encouraged. It is pertinent to mention here that the president of the World Bank is typically American now, while the leader of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is customarily European. Notably, as soon as Ajay Banga's name was nominated by US President Joe Biden, he started trending on social media as well as Google. In fact, people around the world started to query about him by writing Who is Ajay Banga? To know about Ajay Banga, continue reading below-
Who is Ajay Banga?
63-year-old Ajay Banga is an Indian-American and currently serving as vice chairman at equity firm General Atlantic. Banga was previously chief executive at Mastercard. Notably, Biden's statement says, Banga has 'critical experience mobilizing public-private resources to tackle the most urgent challenges of our time, including climate change.' For the unversed, last week current World Bank President Malpass who was nominated to the post by Biden's predecessor and former US President Donald Trump in 2019 said he would step down nearly a year early, ending a tenure that was clouded by questions over his climate stance. Otherwise, Malpass's term as World Bank President would have ended in 2024.
Coming back to the question who is Ajay Banga- he was born in Pune, and received B.A. in economics from St. Stephen's College, Delhi University. He is also an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. Banga joined MasterCard as president and chief operating officer in August 2009 and was named its CEO in April 2010. Furthermore, he worked for 13 years with Nestle India and also spent two years at Pepsico, before joining Citigroup in 1996 where he served in a variety of positions of increasing responsibility, including as CEO of its Asia-Pacific region.
He was also a member of Citi's senior leadership and executive committees.
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It is pertinent to mention here that the World Bank is all set to undergo a series of reforms. And Banga's nomination comes amid a push for World Bank to revamp and address global problems like environmental issues more effectively. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen earlier was quoted saying that lenders' core models, where countries borrow to make specific investments addressing developmental constraints, is "insufficient to meet the moment."