In early September, the World Bank announced the appointment of Kaushik Basu of India as its next chief economist from the beginning of October. Basu becomes the second chief economist from a developing country, following Chinese national Justin Lin, who just completed his term in the post. Basu most recently served as the chief economic advisor to the Indian finance ministry, while on leave from US-based Cornell University. He studied economics under Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and has produced work on rural economies, bribery and corruption, foreign exchange and international debt among other topics. His most recent work in India has focussed on restructuring the public food distribution system, advising the use of coupons or cash transfers.