Kaushik Basu is appointed Chief Economist at the World Bank - The World Bank has appointed Mr Kaushik Basu as its Chief Economist and Senior Vice President from October 1, 2012.

Mr Basu was Chief Economic Adviser of the Government of India, Ministry of Finance, till July 2012, while on leave from his position as Professor of Economics and the C. Marks Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. Raghuram Rajan, Chief Economist of IMF, has replaced Basu as India's Chief Economic Adviser.

"Having worked in a Ministry of Finance, in addition to his impressive academic achievements, Kaushik is uniquely suited to help us offer evidence-based solutions and advice to client countries and provide innovative excellence in leading our development research,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim. “Kaushik brings first-hand experience from a developing country and will be a terrific asset to the institution.”

Basu, who holds a PhD from the London School of Economics, founded the Centre for Development Economics at the Delhi School of Economics in 1992 and is a founding member of the Madras School of Economics. He has held visiting professorial positions at Harvard University, the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, the London School of Economics, and M.I.T.

Basu has published widely and his contributions to the field span development economics, welfare economics, industrial organization, and public economics. His books include Analytical Development Economics (1997, MIT Press), Prelude to Political Economy: a Study of the Social and Political Foundations of Economics (2000, Oxford University Press), and Of People, Of Places: Sketches from an Economist’s Notebook (1994, Oxford University Press) and Beyond the Invisible Hand: Groundwork for a New Economics (2011, Princeton University Press and Penguin).

Basu is a fellow of the Econometric Society and has been awarded India’s National Mahalanobis Memorial Award. In May 2008 the president of India awarded Basu one of the country’s highest civilian awards, the Padma Bhushan, for “distinguished service of high order.”

Montek Singh Ahluwalia was also associated with the World Bank. Kalpana Kochhar, the chief economist for the South Asia Region, is another Indian holding a top position in the World Bank.

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