Nirmala Sitharaman Biography: Birth, Age, Family, Education, Political Career, Recognitions, and More About Finance Minister of India

About Nirmala Sitharaman: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is an Indian economist, politician and senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She has been serving as Finance Minister and Corporate Affairs Minister in the Government of India since 2019. As a member of the upper house of the Indian Parliament, she has represented Karnataka since 2016, having previously represented Andhra Pradesh from 2014 to 2016.

Sitharaman served as India’s 28th defense minister from 2017 to 2019, making her the second woman to serve as defense minister and the second woman to serve as finance minister after Indira Gandhi. Notably, she was the first woman to hold both positions full-time. From 2014 to 2017, she served as deputy minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, holding an important position. Initially, she was appointed Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Affairs (May-November 2014). She subsequently served as Minister of State (Independent Charge) at the Department of Commerce and Industry from May 2014 to September 2017, before being promoted to senior cabinet posts.

Known globally for her influence, Sitharaman was ranked 36th on Forbes’ 2022 list of the world’s 100 most powerful women, rising to 32nd on the 2023 list. Fortune magazine also named her India’s most powerful woman.

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Nirmala Sitharaman Biography

born August 18, 1959
age 62 years old
family

Narayanan Sitharaman (father)

Savitri (mother)

educate

Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, Tiruchirappalli (Bachelor of Economics)

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) (M.A. Economics and M.Phil.)

Profession Politician (BJP)
husband Parakala Prabhakar
children Parakara Wanmayi (daughter)
twitter @nsitharaman

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The current Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is an Indian politician and the Minister of Corporate Affairs of India. Nirmala Sithraman has been a member of the Indian Rajya Sabha since 2014. Previously, she served as India’s Defense Minister, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs (Finance) and Minister of Commerce and Industry.

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Nirmala Sitharaman: Personal life, family and education

Nirmala Sitharaman was born in Madurai on August 18, 1959 to Savitri and Narayanan Sitharaman. Sitharaman’s father hails from Musiri in Tiruchirappalli and her mother’s family has roots in Tiruvankadu and the Thanjavur and Salem districts of Tamil Nadu. Nirmala Sitharaman was born into a Tamil Iyengar Brahmin family. Her father was an employee of the Indian Railways.

Nirmala Sitharaman completed her education in Madras and Tiruchirappalli. She received her BA in Economics from Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, Tiruchirappalli. In 1984, she moved to Delhi and completed her MA and MA in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).

Nirmala Sitharaman met her husband Parakala Prabhakar while studying at Jinan University. Despite their different political ideologies, the couple married in 1986 and had a daughter named Parakala Vangmayi. Parakala Prabhakar belongs to the Congress ideology, while Sitharaman leans towards the BJP. Her husband, Parakala Prabhakar, served as communications adviser to the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu.

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Nirmala Sitharaman: political career

political rise

In 2006, Nirmala Sitharaman joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and became the national spokesperson of the BJP in 2010. In 2014, after the BJP won the elections, Nirmala Sitharaman was appointed as a junior minister in Narendra Modi’s cabinet. In June 2014, Sitharaman was elected as a member of the Andhra Pradesh Federal Assembly. In May 2016, she contested and won the Karnataka seat in the federal assembly elections.

India’s first full-time defense minister

On September 3, 2017, Nirmala Sitharaman was appointed as Defense Minister. She was the second woman to hold this position after Indira Gandhi and the first to hold it full-time.

India’s first full-time finance minister

On May 31, 2019, Sitharaman joined the office as Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister, becoming India’s first full-time female Finance Minister. On July 5, Sitharaman presented her first budget in Parliament. On February 1, 2020, she presented the 2020-21 federal budget.

She was the second woman minister after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to present the budget for the financial year 1970-71. Sitharaman breaks the streak of predecessors Yashwant Sinha, Arun Jaitley, Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram She presented a record five budgets and became the first full-time female finance minister.

Relief plans during the COVID-19 pandemic

After the COVID-19 crisis, Sitharaman became the head of the COVID-19 Economic Response Task Force.

She announced the Rs 2,000-crore relief package of the ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ at a press conference at the National Media Centre. The Rs 2,000-crore relief package includes previously announced plans by the Indian government and central bank, known as the Reserve Bank of India, to deal with the coronavirus crisis.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced the plan to make India self-reliant in his fifth address to the nation since the nationwide lockdown and urged people to speak up for local products, namely using swadeshi. “This is not just a financial package but a reform stimulus, a change of thinking and a governance push,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Twitter.

Both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister said that this huge package will revive the Indian economy and provide support to people from all walks of life in coping with the epidemic.

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Nirmala Sitharaman: Career before politics

Nirmala Sitharaman worked as a salesperson at Habitat, a home improvement store in London. She also serves as Assistant Economist to the Institution of Agricultural Engineers. She has also worked as a senior manager (research and development) at PricewaterhouseCoopers and BBC World Service. She is also a member of the National Council of Women.

Nirmala Sitharaman: Approved

1- Nirmala Sitharaman won the 2019 Outstanding Alumni Award from Jinan University.

2- She was also named the 34th most powerful woman in the world in 2019 by Forbes magazine.

Nirmala Sitharaman is one of the most powerful women in India. From being the first full-time woman finance minister to holding multiple posts in the federal cabinet, Sitharaman is an inspiration to all women across the country.

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