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Nirmala Sitharaman | |
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_(cropped).jpg) Sitharaman in 2025 | |
| 30thMinister of Finance | |
| Assumed office 30 May 2019 | |
| President | Ramnath Kovind Droupadi Murmu |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Arun Jaitley |
| 32ndMinister of Corporate Affairs | |
| Assumed office 30 May 2019 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Arun Jaitley |
| Union Defence Minister | |
| In office 3 September 2017 – 30 May 2019 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Arun Jaitley |
| Succeeded by | Rajnath Singh |
| Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge) | |
| In office 26 May 2014 – 3 September 2017 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Anand Sharma |
| Succeeded by | Suresh Prabhu |
| Union Minister of State forFinance andCorporate Affairs | |
| In office 26 May 2014 – 9 November 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Shripad Naik (Finance) Office established (Corporate Affairs) |
| Succeeded by | Jayant Sinha (Finance) Arjun Ram Meghwal (Corporate Affairs) |
| Member of Parliament,Rajya Sabha | |
| Assumed office 1 July 2016 | |
| Preceded by | M. Venkaiah Naidu (BJP) |
| Constituency | Karnataka |
| In office 26 June 2014 – 21 June 2016 | |
| Preceded by | N. Janardhana Reddy (INC) |
| Succeeded by | Suresh Prabhu (BJP) |
| Constituency | Andhra Pradesh |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1959-08-18)18 August 1959 (age 66) |
| Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Alma mater | Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College (BA) Jawaharlal Nehru University (MA,MPhil) |
Nirmala Sitharaman (born 18 August 1959) is an Indian economist and politician who is serving as the 30thMinister of Finance and 32ndMinister of Corporate Affairs since 2019. A senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She has represented Karnataka as amember of theRajya Sabha, the upper house of theIndian Parliament, since 2016, prior to representingAndhra Pradesh from 2014 to 2016. Sitharaman presented theUnion Budget 8 times, the second most afterMorarji Desai. In 2025, she became the first person to table the Union Budget 8 consecutive times. She is second only toMorarji Desai to present the most number of budgets.
She served as a junior minister in theFirst Modi ministry between 2014 and 2017, holding successive positions, first for her dual appointment as the Minister of State in theMinistry of Finance and the Minister of State in theMinistry of Corporate Affairs from May to November 2014, and then as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for theMinistry of Commerce and Industry from May 2014 to September 2017, before being elevated to senior posts within theUnion Cabinet. Sitharaman previously served as the 28thDefence Minister from 2017 to 2019, becoming India's second female defence minister and the second female finance minister afterIndira Gandhi, and the first full-time female minister to hold each of those portfolios. In July 2025, she became the longest continuous serving finance minister in Indian history, by surpassingC.D. Deshmukh.
Nirmala Sitharaman was born on 18 August 1959 inMadurai, Tamil Nadu.[1][2] She was born in aTamilIyengar family to Savitri and Narayanan Sitharaman.[3] She had her schooling at Sacred Heart Convent Anglo-Indian School,Villupuram, till primary level and thereafter at Vidyodaya School inChennai.[4] She then studied at St. Philomena’s School and at Holy Cross School inTiruchirappalli.[5]
In 1980, Sitharaman obtained aBachelor of Arts degree in Economics fromSeethalakshmi Ramaswami College,Tiruchirapalli, and aMaster of Arts degree in Economics andM.Phil. fromJawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, in 1984.[6][7] She then enrolled in aPh.D. program in Economics with a focus on Indo-European trade but later left this program and moved toLondon when her husband secured a scholarship at theLondon School of Economics.[8][9]
Nirmala Sitharaman worked as a salesperson at Habitat, a home decor store in London'sRegent Street.[10] She has served as an assistant to Economist in theAgricultural Engineers Association in the UK. During her stay in the UK, she has also served as a Senior Manager (R&D) forPwC and briefly at theBBC World Service.[11][12] In 2017, she was one of the founding directors of Pranava The School, a privateco-educational school inHyderabad.[13][14]
Nirmala Sitharaman served as a member of theNational Commission for Women from 2003 to 2005.[15] She then joined theBharatiya Janata Party in 2008 as a national spokesperson until 2014. In 2014, she was inducted intoNarendra Modi's first cabinet as theUnion Minister of State forCommerce and Industry and was elected in June of that year as a Rajya Sabha Member from Andhra Pradesh.[16] In May 2016, she was one of the 12 candidates nominated by the BJP to contest theRajya Sabha elections due on 11 June.[17] She successfully contested her seat fromKarnataka.[18]
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On 3 September 2017, she was appointed asMinister of Defence, being only the second woman afterIndira Gandhi to hold the post, but the first full-time female defence minister.[19] Under her tenure, the army conducted theBalakot airstrike in retaliation to the2019 Pulwama attack.[20] The Government of India did not give a figure of the number of deaths caused by the strikes.[21]
On 31 May 2019, Nirmala Sitharaman was appointed as thefinance andcorporate affairs minister.[23] She is India's first full-time female finance minister.[24] She presented hermaiden budget in the Indian parliament on 5 July 2019.[25][26] During theCOVID-19 pandemic in India she was made in-charge of theCOVID-19 Economic Response Task Force.[27][28] Under her tenure as the finance minister in 2022, India became thefifth largest economy in the world, and the GDP of the country was said to have seen massive growth positively with historical context.[29][30]
She was given the same cabinet posts after theIndian general election in June 2024.[31][32] In February 2025, she introduced the Union Budget for the eighth consecutive year, becoming the first person to do so. Overall, she has presented the budget the second-most times afterMorarji Desai, who delivered it ten times across different time periods.[33][34] She also became the first minister to present the budget in theNew Parliament building of India.[35]
| Position | Party | Constituency | From | To | Tenure | Ref. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (1st Term) | BJP | Andhra Pradesh | 26 June 2014 | 17 June 2016 | 1 year, 357 days | [16] | |
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (2nd Term) | Karnataka | 1 July 2016 | 30 June 2022 | 9 years, 147 days | [18] | ||
| Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha (3rd Term) | 1 July 2022 | 30 June 2028 | |||||
The Jawaharlal Nehru University conferred her the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2019.[36] Forbes Magazine has ranked her 28th among the100 most powerful women in the world in 2024.[37] This was her sixth consecutive time on the list. She came in at number 34 in 2019, 41st in 2020, 37th on the list in 2021, 36th in 2022, and 32nd in 2023.[38][39] She was also awarded the Business Reformer of the Year 2021 at theEconomic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence.[40]
In June 2025, a Delhi court issued a notice to her in connection with a criminal defamation plea filed by Lipika Mitra, the wife of formerAAP ministerSomnath Bharti.[41]
Sitharaman met her husband, economist and commentatorParakala Prabhakar, who is fromNarsapuram,Andhra Pradesh, while studying at theJawaharlal Nehru University.[42][8] They married in 1986 and have a daughter who previously worked forThe Hindu and currently works forMint Lounge.[43][44] Prabhakar served as the communications advisor to theGovernment of Andhra Pradesh from 2014 to 2018.[45]
{{cite news}}:|last= has generic name (help)| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Minister of Commerce and Industry 2014–2017 As Minister of State (Independent Charge) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Defence 2017–2019 | Succeeded by |
| Minister of Finance 31 May 2019 – present | Incumbent | |
| Minister of Corporate Affairs 31 May 2019 – present | ||
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