New Delhi: Indermit Gill will be the second Indian after Kaushik Basu to become the Chief Economist of the World Bank, the international financial institution that provides loans to middle and low-income countries. .
Basu headed the World Bank’s premier post between 2012 and 2016. Two other prominent Indian economists – Raghuram Rajan and Gita Gopinath – have served as chief economists of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), an entity closely linked to the world.
The World Bank said in a press release issued on July 21 that Gill’s term would start from September 1, 2022.
World Bank President David Malpass had said, “Indramit Gill brings leadership, invaluable expertise and practical experience working with country governments on macroeconomic imbalances, development, poverty, institutions, conflict and climate change to this role. “
Gill is currently Vice President of Equal Development, Finance and Institutions of the World Bank, where he led work on macroeconomics, credit, trade, poverty and governance. Between 2016 and 2021, he was a professor of public policy at Duke University and a non-resident senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution.
Gill led the influential 2009 World Development Report on “Economic Geography”. His pioneering work includes introducing the concept of a “middle-income trap” to describe how developing countries become stable once they reach a certain level of income.
He has published extensively on policy issues facing developing countries, sovereign debt, green development, labor markets, poverty and inequality, and the management of natural resource wealth.
Gill has also taught at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago. A student of Nobel Prize winners Gary Baker and Robert E. Lucas Jr., Gill earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago.
(with agency input)