Nirmala Sitharaman - report

Indian economist and politician (born 1959)

Nirmala Sitharaman is an Indian economist and politician serving as the Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs of the Government of India since 2019. She is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, representing Karnataka since 2016 and previously represented Andhra Pradesh from 2014 to 2016. Sitharaman previously served as the 28th Defence Minister from 2017 to 2019, thereby becoming India's second female defence minister and the second female finance minister after Indira Gandhi, and the first full-time female minister to hold each of those portfolios. She served as junior minister in the Modi ministry between 2014 and 2017, holding successive positions, first for her dual appointment as the 10th Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and the 1st Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs from May to November 2014, and then as the 6th Minister of State for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry from May 2014 to September 2017, before being elevated to senior posts within the Union Cabinet. She joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2006 and rose to the post of BJP's national spokesperson in 2010, which she held until her election to parliament.