New Delhi: Ajay Banga, former Mastercard CEO, is the latest India-origin person to occupy top echelon of a global body, thus joining the likes of Satya Nadella (Microsoft chief), Sundar Pichai (Google & Alphabet CEO) and many more distinguished Indians emerging as the driving force behind colossal transnational companies.
Ajay Banga is all set to become next World Bank President and that too unopposed, as no country chose to field a challenger, till the window of nomination closed yesterday.
Ajay Banga, a nominee by the US President Joe Biden, will replace incumbent chief David Malpass, who announced quitting the global body following some controversy. Malpass had also become the World Bank chief in 2019 unopposed and was nominated by then US President Donald Trump.
American citizen at helm of World Bank, always
Notably, the World Bank, since its foundation after the World War II, has always been led by an American. Ajay Banga, though a person of Indian origin, is now a US citizen.
Though nomination window was open and member nations had options to field their own nominees to challenge Ajay Banga’s candidacy but none chose to do so.
Banga enjoys support for taking over the top post of World Bank and his candidacy has been endorsed by many nations including Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea & many others.
Over past one month, Banga has been on a ‘global tour’, meeting government officials, business leaders & civil society groups across the world. He was also expected to meet PM Modi, FM Nirmala Sitharaman & Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar but he got Covid-19 last week.
Banga’s previous stints as CEOs
Banga is one of the highly distinguished business leaders and his business experience spans more than 3 decades. Having born in India, he went on to take leadership role at many multi-national companies & steered their successful journey. His most notable role was as Mastercard CEO and also at American Red Cross, Kraft Foods & Dow Inc.
Banga’s proposed elevation as the World Bank CEO comes amid clamour for reforms in the global body. The bank gives aout about $100 billion annually and there is a growing demand to reform its ‘handouts’ and rejig its focus – from country specific programs to global challenges like climate change & more.
