Nirmala Sitharaman Sworn in as Minister for the Third Time in Modi’s Cabinet

Nirmala Sitharaman has been sworn in as a minister in the Narendra Modi-led government for the third consecutive time. She declined to contest in the Lok Sabha elections citing financial constraints but currently holds a position as a member of the Rajya Sabha. Before becoming the Finance Minister, from September 2017 to 2019, she held the post of Defence Minister.

She has been a member of the National Commission for Women from 2003 to 2005. She served as the spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and was appointed as the Minister of State for Commerce and Industry and Finance in India. In 2017, she was appointed as the Defence Minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. She became the second woman after erstwhile Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to head the Defence Ministry in independent India and the country’s first full-time female Finance Minister.

Nirmala Sitharaman was born on August 18, 1959, in a Tamil Iyengar family in Madurai, Tamil Nadu to Savitri and Narayanan Sitharaman. She completed her schooling at Sacred Heart Convent Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School in Villupuram and higher education in Economics from Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, Tiruchirappalli, and later in Delhi at Jawaharlal Nehru University where she received a master’s degree in Economics and an M.Phil.

In 2008, she joined the BJP and served as the party’s National Spokesperson until 2014. She was inducted into PM Modi’s cabinet in 2014 and later was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Andhra Pradesh. She played a key role as the Defence Minister of India and led the Indian Air Force’s successful Balakot air strike in 2019.

During her time in London, she worked as a salesperson at Habitat, a home décor store on Regent Street. She held positions as an assistant economist at the Agricultural Engineers Association in Britain and worked as a senior manager for the BBC World Service. She has also served as a member of the National Commission for Women. In 2019, she was honored as a Distinguished Alumnus by Jawaharlal Nehru University and ranked 34th in Forbes‘ list of the World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.