Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs
PROFESSION- Economist and Politician and Social Worker
BORN – 18 August 1959 ( Age 61 )
PLACE OF BIRTH – Madurai ( Tamil Nadu )
FATHER’S NAME – Shri. Narayanan Sitharaman
MOTHER’S NAME – Shrimati Savitri
SPOUSE – Dr. Parakala Prabhakar
SIBLINGS – One sister
CHILDREN – One daughter ( Vangamayi Parakala )
EDUCATION – MA & M.Phil in Economics. Educated at Seethalaxmi Ramasway College, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS/PARTY- Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP)
REMARKABLE ACHIEVEMENT- Nirmala Sitharaman is the second woman to be the Defense Minister after Indira Gandhi. She is also the first full time woman finance minister of India.
AWARDS – The Jawaharlal Nehru University conferred her with the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2019. The Forbes magazine ranked her 34th among the 100 most powerful women in the world.
Nirmala Sitharaman is a member of the Rajya Sabha; the Upper house of the Parliament. She joined politics in 2008 before which she served at various positions. She is the current Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs and belongs to the Bharatiya Janta Party.
UPBRINGING & EDUCATION – Nirmala Sitharaman was born into a Tamil family. She had her schooling from Madurai and Tiruchirapalli. She obtained a Bachelors of Arts degree in economics in the Seethalaxmi Ramaswami College in 1980.
She then obtained her Masters of Arts in economics and M.Phil from Jawaharlal Nehru College, Delhi in 1984. She then enrolled or a Ph.D in economics with a focus on Indo-European Trade; but a move to London with her husband secured a scholarship in London School of Economics left her unable to complete the degree.
WALK OF LIFE- Nirmala Sitharaman forayed into politics in 2008 as a member of Bjp and spent the remnants of her time as a spokesperson of the party until she was inducted into Narendra Modi’s Cabinet in 2014. She was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2014 and subsequently in 2016. In 2017, she served as Minister of defence.She was the second woman to hold the post of Defense Minister after Indira Gandhi. She is currently serving as tha Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs.
MAJOR INITIATIVES TAKEN-
Unveiled the third tranche of the 20 lakh crore covid economic package as part of the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan.’
Announced that rs. 1 lakh crore worth of agricultural infrastructure will be set up for farm gate infrastructure and a Rs.10000 crore scheme for the formalization of micro food enterprises.
Government amended the stringent Essential Commodities Act to remove cereals, edible oils, pulses, onions and potato from its purview.
With an aim to plug critical gaps in the fisheries value chain, a Rs.20000 crore fund has been allocated through the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana.
Rs.11000 has been allocated for activities in the Marine, Inland Fisheries and Aquaculture
CAREER TIMELINE/POSITION HELD-
2003-2005 Member of the National Commission for Women
May 2014-Nov 2014 Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance & Corporate Affairs
May 2014-Sept 2014 Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Commerce & Industry
June 2014 Elected to Rajya Sabha (resigned w.e.f 17 June 2016)
July 2016 Elected to the Rajya Sabha
Sept 2017-May 2019 Minister of Defence
May 2019 onwards Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs