HPS alumnus Ajay Banga becomes World Bank head

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet, more renowned as HPS, reacted to the news of its alumnus and former Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga’s elevation to the presidency of World Bank with great joy and pride. Treating this yet as another red cherry on top, the school reminisced a few other moments from the past when its former students like Satya Nadella (CEO, Microsoft) and Shantanu Narayan (CEO, Adobe) besides many celebrities from films and sports put the school on the global map of fame.

In a press release, the HPS, which is celebrating its centenary year in 2023, said that the three alumni of the school, were together placed in the Harvard Business Review in 2019 among the ‘Top 10’ best-performing CEOs globally.

Ajay Banga, nominated by the US President to succeed David Malpass as the President of World Bank, is from its Batch of 1976, the school said.

It also listed out the school’s other famous alumni who scaled greater heights in corporate, performing arts, public service, entrepreneurship, sports and other fields. They include Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, IFS, Former India’s Permanent Representative to UN; Syed Basharat Ali, Co-Founder, Cavium, Inc.; C. V. Anand, Commissioner of Police; Hyderabad; Talat Aziz, Renowned Singer; Ajay Banga, Vice-Chairman, General Atlantic; Harsha Bhogle, Cricket Commentator and Journalist; Lord Karan Bilimoria, Member of the House of Lords, UK; Air Marshal Jonnalagedda Chalapaty, AVSM, ASM, AOC-in-C, Southern Air Command; Rana Daggubati, actor; Akkineni Nagarjuna, actor and film producer; Akbaruddin Owaisi, Member of Legislative Assembly of Telangana; Asaduddin Owaisi, Member of Parliament; Kiran Kumar Reddy, former Chief Minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh; Menaka Guruswamy, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court; Ashok Gajapatihi Raju, former Union Minister; M. M. Pallam Raju, former Union Minister; Shailesh Jejurikar, COO, P&G; Satya Nadella, Executive Chairman and CEO, Microsoft; Satish Reddy, Chief Engineer, NASA Johnson Space Center; Shantanu Narayen, CEO, Adobe, Inc; Sriram Panchu, Senior Advocate and Founder, Concord Mediation; Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh; Ram Charan Tej, actor; Ambassador D. Bala Venkatesh Varma, IFS, Former India’s Ambassador to Russian Federation; and V. Prem Watsa, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Fairfax Holdings, among many others.

Gusti J. Noria, President of The HPS Society said, “It is a moment of immense pride for our school as yet another member of our alumni fraternity ascends to the top post of a global organisation. We are extremely proud of Ajay’s distinction and as we continue the tradition of producing world leaders, we wish him all the best and look forward to having him join in the centennial celebrations through the year.”

US President Joe Biden picks Ajay Banga for World Bank presidency

Indian-origin corporate honcho Ajay Banga is making waves across the globe ever since US President Joe Biden, in a stunning move, nominated him as the next President of World Bank on Thursday. While Indians world over are rejoicing the news, it comes with a special tinge of happiness for the Hyderabadis, more so, the members of the Hyderabad Public School (Begumpet) fraternity.

Ajay Banga, currently the Vice-Chairman of General Atlantic, turns out to be an alumnus of the premium educational institution of Hyderabad. He did a few years of his schooling here, far before scaling up the corporate ladder for global recognition. His anointment in the most coveted seat of the World Bank is only a mere formality now. A nominee, picked by the POTUS (President of the United States), is traditionally appointed as the World Bank head. As part of the same practice, Europe gets to nominate the president for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank sibling, so to say.

Once appointed so, Ajay Banga, the former CEO of Mastercard, will be the new entrant into the elite league of Indians holding the reins of top-notch global MNCs, IT giants and financial institutions. He will have a five-year term to function in his new assignment.

Named Ajaypal Singh Banga by his parents and more popular as Ajay Banga, the 63-year-old corporate boss is known as a competent economic executive in the US besides being a torch-bearer of the Indian American community and a key, influencing figure in the US India Business Council.

Interestingly, his success story in the corporate realm is a ‘class-apart’ given the fact that he hails from a family, full of army officers. His father Harbhajan Singh Banga served as an army lieutenant in Pune. He spent his schooling years in Hyderabad, having studied at Hyderabad Public School, renowned with its acronym ‘HPS’ in Begumpet.

He later moved over to Delhi where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from St Stephens College before acquiring his MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad.

Critical issues await Ajay Banga in the saddle

Ajay’s nomination to the World Bank top position comes under most dramatic circumstances as his predecessor David Malpass is exiting the chair, a price he is paying for his controversial overtures on climate change funding. A Trump-era appointee, Malpass ruffled a few feathers in the Joe Biden administration by taking an extremely opposite view on the sensitive issue. He has recently commented that there was no scientific basis for climate change funding and his imminent stepping down is being seen as a direct fallout of this.

Now that he is picked by the US President as per the tradition, Ajay Banga’s appointment is most certain and the board of directors of the 189-nations World Bank is expected to formally ratify the same in the last week of March, 2023. Given the background to his elevation, Ajay Banga will most definitely keep the World Bank’s focus on climate change funding to the developing and under-developed countries. This will particularly be a heartening piece of news for India at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi is spearheading the global dialogue on climate change as the head of G-20 this year. And Ajay Banga is all likely to hobnob with the Indian Prime Minister on a few occasions, looking to untie the critical aspects of climate change.

Ajay’s elevation to the World Bank top seat comes at the back of his association with the Democrats. He had earlier worked with the Barack Obama administration before his stint with US Vice-President Kamala Harris until recently. Needless to say that his tenures at Mastercard and now at General Atlantic will be quite handy during his all-crucial World Bank assignment.