Montek best candidate for IMF's top job: Kaushik Basu

Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia is the best candidate for the top job at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Chief Economic Adviser Kaushik Basu said today.

"In my view, Montek is the best name... Not only from India's point of view, but from the world's point of view also," Basu told reporters here at a function to mark the golden jubilee celebrations of the Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR).

Ahluwalia, among others, is being talked about as a possible successor to IMF's chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn who is locked up in a New York prison as he faces charges of sexual assault on a hotel maid.

John Lipsky, second-in-command of the IMF, has taken over as acting managing director after arrest of Strauss-Kahn by the US police.

Talking about the possibility of Ahluwalia taking over as the first non-US and non-European chief of the IMF, Basu said, "I don't know what the position Government of India is taking... 8 or 9 names that are going around. Combination of traits which he (Ahluwalia) would take to that job...I really don't think anyone else among the names would match up."

Besides Ahluwalia, the other candidates who are being talked about as the next IMF chief include Kemal Dervis of Turkey, Christine Lagarde of France, Trevor Manuel of South Africa and Britain’s Gordon Brown.

Ahluwalia has been working as the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission since 2004.

Ahluwalia, however, in recent interviews to media had said that he was not eyeing the job.