Nirmala Sitharaman

Nirmala Sitharaman (born 18 August 1959) is an Indian economist and politician serving as the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of India since 2019. She is a member of the Rajya Sabha, upper house of the Indian Parliament, since 2014. Sitharaman formerly served as the Defence Minister of India, thereby becoming India's second female defence minister and also the second female finance minister after Indira Gandhi and first full-time female Finance Minister. She has served as the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs under the Ministry of Finance and the Minister for Commerce and Industry with independent charge. Prior to that, she served as a national spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party.[1]

Nirmala Sitharaman
Minister of Finance
Incumbent
Assumed office
30 May 2019
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi
Preceded byArun Jaitley
Minister of Corporate Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office
30 May 2019
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi
Preceded byArun Jaitley
Minister of Defence
In office
3 September 2017 – 30 May 2019
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi
Preceded byArun Jaitley
Succeeded byRajnath Singh
Minister of Commerce and Industry
In office
26 May 2014 – 3 September 2017
Prime MinisterNarendra Modi
Preceded byAnand Sharma
Succeeded bySuresh Prabhu
Member of the Rajya Sabha
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 July 2016
Preceded byM. Venkaiah Naidu (BJP)
ConstituencyKarnataka
In office
26 June 2014 – 21 June 2016
Preceded byN. Janardhana Reddy (INC)
Succeeded bySuresh Prabhu (BJP)
ConstituencyAndhra Pradesh
Personal details
Born (1959-08-18) 18 August 1959
Madurai, Madras State, India (present-day Tamil Nadu)
Political partyBharatiya Janata Party
Spouse
Parakala Prabhakar
​
(m. 1986)​
Children1
EducationSeethalakshmi Ramaswami College (BA)
Jawaharlal Nehru University (MA, MPhil)

Sitharaman featured in the Forbes 2021 list of World's 100 most powerful women and was ranked 37.[2] Fortune ranked Nirmala Sitharaman as the most powerful woman in India.[3]

Early life

Nirmala Sitharaman was born in a Tamil Iyengar family[4] in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, to Savitri and Narayanan Sitharaman. She had her schooling from Madras and Tiruchirappalli.[5] 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.[6][7][8] 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 (when her husband secured a scholarship in London School of Economics) because of which she was unable to complete her degree.[9]

Political career

Sitharaman joined the BJP in 2006 and was appointed as a spokesperson for the party in 2010. In 2014, she was inducted into Narendra Modi's cabinet as a junior minister and in June 2014, she was elected as a Rajya Sabha Member from Andhra Pradesh.[10][11][12]

In May 2016, she was one of the 12 candidates nominated by the BJP to contest the Rajya Sabha elections due on 11 June 2016. She successfully contested her seat from Karnataka.[13]

She has served as the Defence Minister of India and headed the Balakot Air Strike carried out by the Indian Air Force in the year 2019. She is currently serving as the Minister of Finance and Corporate affairs of India and has presented 4 annual budgets of India as of the year 2022. India reached the mark of a $3.1 Trillion economy under her leadership.[14]

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.[15][16]

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.[17] She is India's first full-time female finance minister.[18] She presented her maiden budget in the Indian parliament on 5 July 2019.[19] Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2020–21 on 1 February 2020.[20] During the COVID-19 pandemic in India she was made in-charge of the COVID-19 Economic Response Task Force.[21][22]

Non-political career
Sitharaman meeting Sajid Javid in New Delhi, 8 July 2016

Nirmala Sitharaman worked as a salesperson at Habitat, a home decor store in London's Regent Street.[23] 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)[24] for PWC and briefly at the BBC World Service.[11]

She has also served as a member of National Commission for Women.[25] In 2017, she was one of the founding directors of Pranava in Hyderabad.[26][27][28]

Awards and honors

The Jawaharlal Nehru University conferred her the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2019.[29] Forbes Magazine has ranked her 34th among the 100 most powerful women in the world in 2019.[30]

Personal life

Sitharaman met her husband Parakala Prabhakar who is from Narsapuram, Andhra Pradesh, while studying at the Jawaharlal Nehru University.[31] While Nirmala leaned towards the BJP, her husband was from a Congress family.[32] They married in 1986, and have a daughter. Prabhakar served as a communications advisor to the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.[33][24][34]

See also
  • List of female defence ministers
  • List of female finance ministers

References
  1. "Deccan Chronicle: BJP leader Nirmala Sitharaman gets NJR Rajya Sabha seat". 4 June 2014. Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  2. "The World's 100 Most Powerful Women 2021". Forbes. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  3. "India's Most Powerful Business Women in 2021 - Fortune India". www.fortuneindia.com. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
  4. "A power couple whom AP looks up to". Times of India. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  5. Phadnis, Aditi (4 September 2017). "The rise and rise of Nirmala Sitharaman: From spokesperson to defence minister". Business Standard. Archived from the original on 6 September 2017. Retrieved 6 September 2017.
  6. Krishnamoorthy, R. (4 September 2017). "Nirmala Sitharaman, the pride of Tiruchi". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 2 December 2017. Retrieved 2 June 2019.
  7. Sitharaman, Nirmala (30 May 2016). "Rajya Sabha Affidavits" (PDF). p. 7.
  8. "Nirmala Sitharaman appointed Finance Minister in Modi govt 2.0 as Arun Jaitley retreats". The Financial Express. 31 May 2019. Archived from the original on 1 June 2019. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
  9. Phadnis, Aditi (4 September 2017). "The rise and rise of Nirmala Sitharaman: From spokesperson to defence minister". Business Standard. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  10. "Nirmala elected to Rajya Sabha". The Hindu. Special Correspondent. 27 June 2014. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 7 January 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  11. Mohua Chatterjee, TNN (21 March 2010). "BJP gets a JNU product as its woman spokesperson". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
  12. "Nirmala Sitharaman Wins Rajya Sabha Seat From Karnataka, Congress Gets 3". Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
  13. "Naidu, Naqvi, Goyal among 12 in BJP's RS list". ABP Live. 29 May 2016. Archived from the original on 30 May 2016. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  14. Surojit Gupta (7 January 2022). "India is now a $3.1 trillion economy - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 14 February 2022.
  15. "Nirmala Sitharaman Joins Cabinet: GST and Start-Up Success Pays Dividend". News18. Archived from the original on 3 September 2017. Retrieved 3 September 2017.
  16. "Modi Cabinet reshuffle: Full list of new council of ministers", The Times of India, 3 September 2017, archived from the original on 4 September 2017, retrieved 3 September 2017
  17. "PM Modi allocates portfolios. Full list of new ministers", Live Mint, 31 May 2019, archived from the original on 2 June 2019, retrieved 2 June 2019
  18. "Narendra Modi Cabinet: Amit Shah gets Home and Nirmala Sitharaman is India's first full-time woman Finance Minister". The Hindu. 31 May 2019. Archived from the original on 31 May 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2019.
  19. "Key Highlights of Union Budget 2019–20". PIB. 5 July 2019. Archived from the original on 5 July 2019. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
  20. "Summary of Union Budget 2020-21". pib.gov.in. Retrieved 1 February 2020.
  21. "Coronavirus in India: Economic task force yet to be formed; no decision on relief package". Business Today. 20 March 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  22. "Covid 19 Economic Task Force: Government forms Covid-19 economic response task force, says PM Modi". The Times of India. 19 March 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2020.
  23. Phadnis, Aditi (4 September 2017). "The rise and rise of Nirmala Sitharaman: From spokesperson to defence minister". Business Standard India. Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
  24. "In Nirmala Sitharaman, India Gets Its Second Woman Defence Minister After Indira Gandhi". Huffington Post India. 3 September 2017. Archived from the original on 13 September 2017. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
  25. "Who is Nirmala Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman Defence Minister". Financial Express. 3 September 2017. Archived from the original on 20 September 2017. Retrieved 20 September 2017.
  26. "Management | Pranava". Pranavatheschool.org. Archived from the original on 19 July 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
  27. "National Leadership from Andhra Pradesh – Official BJP site of Andhra Pradesh Nirmala sitharaman's address and contact information". Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  28. "Official BJP National website". Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  29. Staff Reporter (12 June 2019). "Nirmala Sitharaman, Jaishankar to get JNU's Distinguished Alumni Award". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  30. "Nirmala Sitharaman". Forbes. Archived from the original on 13 December 2019. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
  31. "Meet the Union Finance Minister/DEPARTMENT OF Expenditure | MoF |GoI". doe.gov.in. Archived from the original on 12 August 2019. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
  32. "BJP spokesperson finds her new role challenging". The Hindu. 3 April 2010. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 29 June 2013.
  33. "AP govt advisor and Nirmala Sitharaman's husband Parakala Prabhakar quits, blames Jagan". 19 June 2018. Archived from the original on 20 November 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2018.
  34. "12 Unknown Facts About Nirmala Sitharaman: The Sales Girl Bit Will Surprise You". The Hans India.
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