Washington, Oct. 6: Neel Kashkari? Who? Four weeks before America elects a new President, political talk in Washington is not about candidates Barack Obama or John McCain. And titillating gossip is no more about Sarah Palin.

At least for today, the man of the moment is an Indian American, Neel Kashkari, who may be given the awesome job by President George W. Bush of overseeing this country’s $700 billion financial bailout, the biggest economic stabilisation programme in history.

Kashkari (in picture) is only 35. He is a protege of treasury secretary Henry Paulson, who brought him into the Bush administration as “senior adviser” as soon as Paulson took charge of the treasury in July 2006.

Paulson put him in charge of engagement with India, particularly on infrastructure development, according to Kashkari’s official biography made available by the treasury department.

Paulson and Kashkari had worked together at the investment firm Goldman Sachs, where the former was chairman and CEO for seven years until Bush persuaded him to join his cabinet as the economy was showing signs of trouble over bad housing mortgages.

Kashkari served under Paulson at Goldman Sachs as vice-president, leading its security investment banking practice and advising public and private companies on mergers and acquisitions.

Later today, Paulson is expected to create a new “office of financial stability” in the treasury and put Kashkari as its head. This office will have up to 10 asset managers who will buy assets from troubled financial institutions with the $700 billion sanctioned by the US Congress last week.

Already, there is speculation here whether Congress will confirm Kashkari, who may be considered too young and inexperienced for the huge responsibility that Paulson is willing to give the Indian American.

For this reason, Kashkari may be named interim head so that he can start work on the bailout right away without having to await Congressional hearings and confirmation. It is likely that after judging the mood on Capitol Hill, a permanent nominee for the job, acceptable to both Democrats and Republicans, may be sent to the Congress so that he can continue under the next administration irrespective of who is elected president in November.Paulson had used the same tactic in 2006 to get Kashkari to work with him in the treasury rightaway without Congressional nod. He appointed Kashkari as a 'senior adviser', a post which does not need confirmation by the Congress.

Slightly more than a year later, the Indian American was nominated by Bush to be assistant secretary of the treasury for international economics and development, a post he holds now.

But by then Washington had descended deep into partisan rancour and a hugely unpopular Bush had exhausted much of his political capital. Kashkari's confirmation by Congress took more than seven months.

In his prospective new job to be announced today, there is the additional difficulty that the Senate may not meet to confirm Kashkari until after the Congressional elections.

If Barack Obama is elected president and a new Congress with a bigger Democratic majority is elected next month, Democrats may want one of their men in charge of what will be one of the most powerful jobs in the US.

Although Kashkari is a protege of Paulson, he contributed $2000 to Bush's re-election campaign in 2003, according to the Federal Election Commission data.

Kashkari was born in Stow, Ohio after his father Chaman and mother Sheila moved there from their native Kashmir.

Kashkari is an engineer by profession, having graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with both a Bachelor’s and a Master's degree in Engineering. It was later that he developed an interest in finance and opted to do an MBA in finance from the Wharton School of Business.

Between his engineering degrees and work at Goldman Sachs, Kashkari was a research and development principal investigator at what is now Northrop Grumman, where he developed technology for America’s space science missions.