WASHINGTON - India Saturday called for empowering the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with resources, better governance, greater accountability and a redefined mandate for orchestrating efforts to overcome the daunting challenge posed by the global economic crisis.

‘Much depends on a quick and internationally coordinated approach to a daunting, but not an insurmountable, challenge,’ Reserve Bank of India Governor Duvvuri Subbarao said as the Fund and World Bank begin their twice-yearly meetings here.

‘The IMF is central to this endeavour and all of us have a stake in the role of the Fund in orchestrating the road to recovery,’ he told the International Monetary and Financial Committee speaking for Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka.

Noting that the crisis has put to test the collective leadership of the world and the competence and relevance of multilateral institutions, Subbarao said: ‘We are grappling with a crisis that has afflicted the entire world whether at the core or in the periphery.’

But ‘the Fund’s capacity to deliver is ultimately connected to how much and how soon we empower it with resources, better governance, greater accountability and a redefined mandate that keeps pace with the requirements of the changing world,’ he said.

Within the IMF too, a radical shift in approach, culture and strategy is urgently warranted so that it divests itself of its past and much of the fallibility that goes with it, he said.

‘The world we will emerge into after the crisis will in all likelihood not be the same again, and the challenge is to re-fashion the IMF so that it becomes more relevant, useful and effective in the future,’ Subbarao said.

Ahead of the Fund-Bank meetings, the G7, which comprises the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, and the larger G20 group, including major emerging powers such as India, China, Russia, and Brazil, met separately Friday to follow up on the decisions taken at the London summit of advanced economies.