Nirmala Sitharaman

Nirmala Sitharaman was born on August 18, 1959, to Savitri and Narayanan Sitharaman in Madurai. Her father hailed from Musiri, Tiruchirappalli, and her mother's family had its roots in Thiruvenkadu, the Thanjavur and Salem districts of Tamil Nadu. She was born into a Tamil Iyengar Brahmin family, and her father was an Indian Railways employee.

Before venturing into politics, Sitharaman worked as a salesperson at Habitat, a home decor store in London. She also served as an assistant to an Economist at the Agricultural Engineers Association (UK). She has worked as a Senior Manager in the Research and Development department for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and at the BBC World Service. Additionally, she was a member of the National Commission for Women.

Sitharaman entered politics in 2006 as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and served as a spokesperson for the party until she was inducted into Narendra Modi's cabinet in 2014. In June 2014, Sitharaman was elected as a Rajya Sabha MP from Andhra Pradesh. In May 2016, she contested and won the Karnataka seat in the Rajya Sabha elections.

She has served as the Minister of Corporate Affairs. On September 3, 2017, Nirmala Sitharaman was appointed as the Minister of Defence. On May 31, 2019, she took office as the Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister, becoming India's first full-time female Finance Minister, and Minister for Commerce and Industry.

She secured another victory in the 2022 Rajya Sabha elections, representing Karnataka. Following the 2024 general elections, her tenure as a Finance Minister was extended. She was appointed to the Modi 3.0 cabinet and is currently holding the position of Minister of State, overseeing both the Finance and Corporate Affairs ministries.

On a personal front, Sitharaman met her husband, Parakala Prabhakar, while studying at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Despite having different political ideologies, the couple married in 1986 and have a daughter named Parakala Vangmayi. Parakala Prabhakar was of Congress ideology, while Sitharaman leaned towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Her husband served as a communications advisor to the then-Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu.

Beyond this, she is a simple woman who finds solace in travelling, trekking, listening to music, and cooking. Her net worth stands at Rs. 2,63,77,861.