India nominates SBI's Arundhati Bhattacharya as World Bank MD & COO

India has reportedly nominated State Bank of India chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya as the World Bank managing director and chief operating officer's position, but road to final selection may not be easy. India may need strong backing of US and other category 1 member countries, who have a large voting share.

The selection has to be cleared by the World Bank’s board of directors, which consist of country representatives.

The multilateral lender is led by a Board of Governors, made up of a representative for each of the 189 shareholder countries of the Bank, which serves as the policy-making body for the Bank. But since it only meets once a year, the Board of Governors elect a 24-person Board of Directors (also called Executive Directors) that meets bi-weekly.

Mukesh Nandan Prasad at the bank represents India, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh in the Board of Directors.

The international financial institution provides loans to developing countries for capital programs.

India has a small share of over 2% in voting rights at WB, compared to over 15% by US. It makes it pertinent to have American support to push through India's choice as the WB COO and MD position, considered the third most important position at the bank.

Former chief economic adviser of India, Kaushik Basu was appointed the chief economist of WB in 2012 for four years. He has been succeeded by Paul Romer of US.

In 2001 former deputy chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia was appointed as first director of the independent evaluation office of the International Monetary Fund.

The post of MD & COO fell vacant after Indonesian economist Sri Mulyani Indrawati returned to her country as its finance minister in July 2016.

State Bank of India