Washington, Aug 11 - The US senate has confirmed India-born lawyer Preet Bharara as Manhattan's next US attorney who will oversee some of the most prominent cases like the prosecution of Bernard L. Madoff for his multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

'As a naturalised American citizen from India, Bharara also brings a diversity of background to the post,' said the New York Times noting that for this nominee of President Barack Obama 'politics and prosecution don't mix.'

And while recent United States attorneys in Manhattan have come directly from prosecutors' jobs, Bharara's background on Capitol Hill will serve him well, it said citing Daniel C. Richman, a law professor at Columbia University and a former Southern District prosecutor.

'He contributes things that we've not seen before,' Professor Richman was quoted as saying. 'He's thought hard about what a US attorney's place should be within a broader federal enforcement system and the train wrecks that can develop when unthinking or ill-thinking bureaucrats tamper with that.'

Preetinder S. Bharara, 40, was born in Ferozepur, India, and he was an infant when his parents immigrated to the United States in 1970.