Nobel Laureate Michael Kremer Appointed World Bank Chief Economist

16 September 2026National

The World Bank Group announced on 16 September 2026 the appointment of Michael Kremer as its Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Development Economics, effective 1 October 2026. Aged 61, Kremer succeeds Indermit Gill, who retired last month. Kremer shared the 2019 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences with Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty, which popularised randomised controlled trials in development economics. He is currently University Professor at the University of Chicago and Director of its Development Innovation Lab, which works on scaling evidence-based interventions in health, education and agriculture.

Static GK

The World Bank Group was established at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 and is headquartered in Washington, D.C. | The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was instituted by Sveriges Riksbank in 1968 and first awarded in 1969 | Abhijit Banerjee is the second India-born economist to win the economics Nobel, after Amartya Sen in 1998

ShareWhatsApp Telegram

More Awards Current Affairs

Government Reconstitutes FSIB; Former MSME Secretary SCL Das Appointed Chairman

The Union government has reconstituted the Financial Services Institutions Bureau (FSIB) and appointed S. C. L. Das, a retired 1992-batch IAS officer and former Secretary in the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, as its Chairman for a three-year term, alongside six part-time members drawn from former regulators and banking chiefs. Set up in 2022 as successor to the Banks Board Bureau, the FSIB recommends candidates for whole-time directors and non-executive chairpersons at public sector banks, public sector insurers and financial institutions. It functions under the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance, and also advises on their performance appraisal.

GK ByteThe Financial Services Institutions Bureau was constituted in 2022, replacing the Banks Board Bureau which had been set up in 2016 following the P. J. Nayak Committee's recommendation | FSIB functions under the Department of Financial Services, Ministry of Finance | India has 12 public sector banks after the mega-merger that took effect on 1 April 2020

📅 16 Oct 2026AwardsRead complete →

Dr Sudha Yadav Sworn in as Governor of Karnataka

Dr Sudha Yadav was sworn in as the Governor of Karnataka on 16 October 2026 at the Glass House in Lok Bhavan, Bengaluru, with Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru administering the oath. She succeeds Thaawarchand Gehlot. A former Lok Sabha member from Mahendragarh, Haryana and a prominent OBC leader, she holds an M.Sc and a PhD in Chemistry from IIT Roorkee and served on the National Commission for Backward Classes from 2019 to 2022. She is the widow of BSF Deputy Commandant Sukhbir Singh Yadav, killed in the Kargil War. Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar attended the ceremony.

GK ByteGovernors are appointed by the President under Article 155 and hold office during the President's pleasure under Article 156, normally for a five-year term | Article 153 provides a Governor for each State, and the same person may be appointed Governor of two or more States | The National Commission for Backward Classes was given constitutional status by the 102nd Constitutional Amendment Act, 2018, under Article 338B

📅 16 Oct 2026AwardsRead complete →

INCOIS Director T. M. Balakrishnan Nair Elected Chair of UNESCO's IOCINDIO

Dr T. M. Balakrishnan Nair, Director of the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), has been elected Chair of IOCINDIO, the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission's Sub-Commission for the Central Indian Ocean. The election took place at the Sub-Commission's second intergovernmental session in Bali, Indonesia, held from 12 to 14 October 2026. Dr Turki Al-Saeed of Kuwait and Dr Rezah M. Badal of Mauritius were named Vice-Chairs, pending formal confirmation. A founding member of INCOIS with over 25 years in operational oceanography and a National Geoscience Award winner, Nair will steer regional cooperation on marine research, ocean observations and information services.

GK ByteINCOIS, established in 1999 and headquartered at Hyderabad, functions under the Ministry of Earth Sciences and runs India's Tsunami Early Warning Centre | The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission was set up in 1960 as a body of UNESCO, which is headquartered in Paris | The UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development runs from 2021 to 2030 and is coordinated by the IOC

📅 14 Oct 2026AwardsRead complete →

Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit to Take Over as the 29th Chief of the Air Staff on 31 October

Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, currently Vice Chief of the Air Staff, will take charge as the 29th Chief of the Air Staff on the afternoon of 31 October 2026, succeeding Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, who retires the same day. Commissioned into the fighter stream on 6 December 1986, Dixit is an experimental test pilot with over 3,500 flying hours on the Mirage 2000, MiG variants, Jaguar, LCA Tejas, Hawk, Kiran and IL-78. He has served in Operation Safed Sagar, Operation Rakshak and Operation Sindoor, and previously as Chief of Integrated Defence Staff. His honours include the PVSM (2026), AVSM, VM and VSM.

GK ByteThe Indian Air Force was raised on 8 October 1932 as the Royal Indian Air Force; its motto is 'Nabha Sparsham Deeptam' and its headquarters is Vayu Bhawan, New Delhi | Air Marshal Subroto Mukerjee was the first Indian Chief of the Air Staff (1954); Arjan Singh is the only IAF officer promoted to Marshal of the Air Force | Operation Safed Sagar was the IAF's component of the 1999 Kargil conflict

📅 8 Oct 2026AwardsRead complete →

See all Appointments →All Current Affairs