Oxford chancellor for Montek as IMF head

From Prasun Sonwalkar
Oxford, Jun 4 (PTI) The chancellor of the University
of Oxford, Lord Chris Patten, wants India's Planning
Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to be the
next managing director of the International Monetary Fund
(IMF).
Speaking at the launch event of the Sanjaya Lall
Visiting Professorship of Business and Development at the Said
Business School Friday evening, Patten said he had "nothing
against Christine Lagarde" – the French finance minister
currently in the running for the job – but wished Ahluwalia to
be the next IMF managing director.
During the recent visit to Africa, Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh mooted the idea that the next head of
IMF should be from the non-western world, an idea that found
support from China and other countries.
Recalling long-standing ties between the University of
Oxford and India, Patten said the university was proud to have
produced two leading economists who had steered India’s
economy in recent decades: Singh and Ahluwalia.
It was a "source of great pride," he said, that the
study of Indian history and economic was an important field of
scholarship at Oxford.
After studying at Oxford, many Indians had returned to
build the "greatest democracy", he added.
The university has organised its first Oxford-India
Day on June 17.
The event will bring together Oxford scholars with a
select group of Indian business, academic, and policy leaders
for a day of discussions and celebration here at the
University.