Finance Minister Jaswant Singh will not attend the spring meeting of International Monetary Fund and World Bank, starting in Washington on March 20.
The Reserve Bank of India Governor Y V Reddy will lead the Indian delegation to the five-day IMF-WB meet that would review the progress of the two multilateral funding institutions, a finance ministry official said on Wednesday.
Singh will be busy with the campaign for the Lok Sabha election during this period.
The Indian delegation, headed by Reddy, would comprise Finance Secretary D C Gupta, Chief Economic Advisor Ashok Lahiri, Additional Secretary S Mankad, and Joint Secretary (IMF-WB) R Banerjee, official sources said.
Reddy, along with former Finance Minister Manmohan Singh, are front-runners to the coveted post of IMF chief.