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Nirmala Sitharaman (born 18 August 1959) is an Indian economist, politician and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) serving as the Minister 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 Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and the Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs from May to November 2014, and then as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry from May 2014 to September 2017, before being elevated to senior posts within the Union Cabinet.
Nirmala Sitharaman joined BJP in 2008. She was a national spokesperson of the party till 2014. 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.
Sitharaman as the Union Minister of Defence in New Delhi, 7 September 2017Sitharaman pictured during her tenure as Union Minister of Defence, 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.
Sitharaman 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.
Under her tenure as the finance minister in 2022, India became the Fifth largest Economy in the world, and the GDP of the country was said to have seen massive growth positively with historical context.
In February 2024, she presented the Union budget for the record 6th time and matched it with Morarji Desai. She also became the first minister to present the budget in the New Parliament building of India.
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.
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. Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister wins the Business Reformer of the year award at The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence 2021. In 2023, ranked at number 32, Sitharaman has made it to the list of Forbes Magazine's 100 most powerful women in the world for the fifth time in a row. In 2022, the minister was ranked at number 36 in the list, while she was in the 37th spot in 2021 and 41st in 2020 respectively.
Personal life
Sitharaman met her husband, economist and commentator Parakala Prabhakar, who is from Narsapuram, Andhra Pradesh, while studying at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. While Nirmala leaned towards the BJP, her husband is from a Congress family. They married in 1986, and have a daughter who previously worked for the The Hindu and the Mint. Prabhakar served as a communications advisor to the former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
^"Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman"(PDF). Department of Defence Production. p. 1. Archived(PDF) from the original on 25 March 2023. Retrieved 23 September 2023.