Nirmala Sitharaman
| Nirmala Sitharaman | |
|---|---|
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Minister of State for Commerce and Industry (Independent Charge) |
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Assumed office May 26, 2014 |
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| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Anand Sharma |
| Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs | |
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In office May 26, 2014 – November 9, 2014 |
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| Prime Minister | Narendra Modi |
| Preceded by | Jayant Sinha |
| Spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party | |
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In office 2010–2014 |
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| Succeeded by | Shaina NC |
| MP of Rajya Sabha for Andhra Pradesh | |
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In office 26 June 2014 – 21 June 2016 |
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| MP of Rajya Sabha for Karnataka | |
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Assumed office 1 July 2016 |
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| Preceded by | Venkaiah Naidu, BJP |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
18 August 1959 Madurai, Madras State (now Tamil Nadu), India |
| Political party | Bharatiya Janata Party |
| Spouse(s) | Parakala Prabhakar |
| Children | 1 |
| Residence | Hyderabad, Telangana, India |
| Alma mater | Seethalakshmi Ramaswamy College, Tiruchirapalli Jawaharlal Nehru University |
| Religion | Hinduism |
Nirmala Sitharaman (born 18 August 1959) is an Indian politician from the state of Tamil Nadu presently serving as Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, as well as a Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs under the Ministry of Finance headed by Arun Jaitley. Until recently, she served as a national spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party (called Bharatha Makkal Kazhagam in Tamil). Currently, she has been allotted the MP seat in the Rajya Sabha representing the state of Karnataka
Nirmala Sitharaman was born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu in Southern India to Shri Narayanan Sitaraman and Savitri in a Tamil Iyer Brahmin family. She obtained a B.A. degree from Seethalakshmi Ramaswamy College, Tiruchirappalli and an MA degree in economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1980 followed by a Ph.D in the Indo-European textile trade within the GATT framework and MPhil. Sitharaman then served at Pricewaterhouse Coopers as a Senior Manager and later for the BBC World Service. She is one of the founding directors of Pranava school in Hyderabad. She was formerly a member of the National Commission for Women.
Nirmala Sitharaman joined Narendra Modi's ministry in May 2014. Until then, she was working as a part of a team of six spokespersons headed by Ravi Shankar Prasad, for Bharatiya Janata Party congress .
She joined the BJP in 2006 even as her husband Dr. Parakala Prabhakar joined the Prajarajyam party floated by filmstar Chiranjeevi in 2007. While her husband grew disillusioned with Chiranjeevi's party and felt the need to quit the PRP that spoke of social justice. In the early 2000s, Dr Prabhakar was the spokesperson of the Andhra Pradesh unit of the BJP. Meanwhile, Nirmala was slowly gaining in popularity in the BJP. It was during Nitin Gadkari's tenure as BJP president that Nirmala Sitharaman was enlisted as one of the six party spokespersons in March 2010.
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