Nirmala Sitharaman is an Indian economist and politician serving as theMinister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs of the Government of India since 2019. She is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, representing Karnataka since 2016 and previously represented Andhra Pradesh from 2014 to 2016. Sitharaman previously served as the 28th Defence Minister from 2017 to 2019, thereby becoming India's second female defence minister and the second female finance minister after Indira Gandhi, and the first full-time female minister to hold each of those portfolios. She served as junior minister in the Modi ministry between 2014 and 2017, holding successive positions, first for her dual appointment as the 10th Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and the 1st Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs from May to November 2014, and then as the 6th Minister of State for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry from May 2014 to September 2017, before being elevated to senior posts within the Union Cabinet. She joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2006 and rose to the post of BJP's national spokesperson in 2010, which she held until her election to parliament.

Sitharaman featured in the Forbes 2022 list of World's 100 most powerful women and was ranked 36. Fortune named her the most powerful woman in India.

Early life

Nirmala Sitharaman was born in a Tamil Iyengar family in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, to Savitri and Narayanan Sitharaman. She had her schooling from Sacred Heart Convent Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School Villupuram till primary level and also from Madras and Tiruchirappalli. She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics at the Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, Tiruchirapalli in 1980, Master of Arts degree in economics and M.Phil. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi in 1984. She then enrolled for a Ph.D. program in Economics with a focus on Indo-Europe trade; but later left this program and moved to London because of which she was unable to complete her degree.

Political career

Sitharaman joined the BJP in 2006 and was appointed in 2010 as a spokesperson for the party. In 2014, she was inducted into Narendra Modi's cabinet as a junior minister and was elected in June of that year as a Rajya Sabha Member from Andhra Pradesh.

In May 2016, she was one of the 12 candidates nominated by the BJP to contest the Rajya Sabha elections due on 11 June. She successfully contested her seat from Karnataka.

She has served as the Defence Minister of India and headed the Balakot Air Strike carried out by the Indian Air Force in 2019. She is currently serving as the Minister of Finance and Corporate affairs of India and has presented five annual budgets of India (as of 2023). India reached the mark of a $3.1 trillion economy under her leadership.

Union Cabinet Minister

Union Defence Minister

Sitharaman taking charge as the Union Minister of Defence in New Delhi, 7 September 2017

Sitharaman presiding over India's display of Naval might, January 2018
On 3 September 2017, she was appointed as Minister of Defence, being only the second woman after Indira Gandhi to hold the post, but the first full-time female defence minister.[16][17]

Union Finance Minister

Sitharaman taking charge as Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs in New Delhi, 31 May 2019
On 31 May 2019, Nirmala Sitharaman was appointed as the finance and corporate affairs minister. She is India's first full-time female finance minister. She presented her maiden budget in the Indian parliament on 5 July 2019. Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2020–21 on 1 February 2020. During the COVID-19 pandemic in India she was made in-charge of the COVID-19 Economic Response Task Force.

Non-political career

Nirmala Sitharaman worked as a salesperson at Habitat, a home decor store in London's Regent Street.[24] She has served as an assistant to Economist in the Agricultural Engineers Association in the UK. During her stay in the UK, she has also served as a Senior Manager (R&D) for PWC and briefly at the BBC World Service.

She has also served as a member of National Commission for Women. In 2017, she was one of the founding directors of Pranava in Hyderabad.

Non-political career

Nirmala Sitharaman worked as a salesperson at Habitat, a home decor store in London's Regent Street. She has served as an assistant to Economist in the Agricultural Engineers Association in the UK. During her stay in the UK, she has also served as a Senior Manager (R&D) for PWC and briefly at the BBC World Service.

She has also served as a member of National Commission for Women. In 2017, she was one of the founding directors of Pranava in Hyderabad.

Awards and honors

The Jawaharlal Nehru University conferred her the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2019. Forbes Magazine has ranked her 34th among the 100 most powerful women in the world in 2019.

Personal life

Sitharaman met her husband Parakala Prabhakar who is from Narsapuram, Andhra Pradesh, while studying at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. While Nirmala leaned towards the BJP, her husband was from a Congress family. They married in 1986, and have a daughter. Prabhakar served as a communications advisor to the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.