Following the oath-taking ceremony of Modi Government 3.0 on Sunday, ministerial portfolios were allocated on Monday. In the third term of Modi's government, several ministers have retained their departments.
Nirmala Sitharaman will once again be at the helm of the Finance Ministry
, continuing her impressive tenure. She took her oath of office on Sunday and is now preparing for the upcoming interim budget.
First-time Finance Minister in 2019
Looking back at Nirmala Sitharaman’s political journey, she was sworn in on May 31, 2019, as the Minister of Corporate Affairs and India's 28th Finance Minister. She has also served as India's second female Defense Minister.
Sitharaman joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2006 and was appointed as the national spokesperson for the party in 2010. In the Modi cabinet of 2014, Sitharaman was introduced as a junior minister from Andhra Pradesh and was elected as a Rajya Sabha member from the same state.
Education of Nirmala Sitharaman
Born on August 18, 1959, in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, Sitharaman hails from a Tamil Brahmin family. She pursued her primary education in Madras and Tiruchirappalli. After graduating in Economics from Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College in 1980, she continued her studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and is also an alumna of the London School of Economics.
Presented First Budget in 2019
During her effective tenure as India's Finance Minister, she presented her first budget to the Indian Parliament in 2019, becoming the second woman in independent India's history to present the Union budget. On September 12, 1986, she married Parakala Prabhakar, a political commentator and economist. The couple has a daughter, Parakala Vangmayi.
Included in Forbes’ 100 Most Powerful Women
Sitharaman was ranked 39th in Forbes magazine's 2020 list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women. She has also been honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Before entering politics, Sitharaman worked for the BBC World Service and was designated as a senior manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
