Newsmakers 2017: Nirmala Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman Defence Minister

In September, Nirmala Sitharaman becomes the first full fledged woman defence minister of India,

Sitharaman, who was born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu's temple city, is now heading world's third-largest defence force, which has 1.4 million personnel.

Sitharaman has served as a Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs under the Ministry of Finance headed by Arun Jaitley and the Minister of Commerce and Industry with independent charge. She is a Rajya Sabha member and represents Karnataka in the Parliament.

In 2008, Nirmala joined the BJP and by 2010 became the party's second woman spokesperson after Sushma Swaraj. When the BJP came to power in 2014, she was made the minister of state for commerce.

OneIndia News