Hyderabad: Ms Nirmala Sitharaman broke through another glass ceiling when she was named Union finance minister on Friday. She is the second woman finance minister after the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi held the portfolio in 1970-71.
She will also head the corporate affairs ministry in the new Cabinet.
Ms Sitharaman, 60, ‘daughter-in-law of the Telugus’ and claimed by three southern states, was also the first woman to hold the defence portfolio in the first term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, after Mrs Gandhi.
She was at the helm when India conducted the Balakot air strike following the Pulwama terror attack by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed group. Incidentally, she took over the defence ministry from former finance minister Arun Jaitley, who was then holding additional charge.
Ms Sitharaman, who hails from Tamil Nadu and is elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka, stayed at Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, and ran a school for some time. She is the wife of Mr Parakala Prabhakar from Narasapuram, AP, former communications adviser to the previous Naidu government.
The portfolio has been previously held by former Presidents R. Venkataraman and Pranab Mukherjee and the Prime Ministers Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Morarji Desai, Rajiv Gandhi and V.P. Singh as well.
Ms Sitharaman is an alumnus of the Jawaharlal Nehru University and the London School of Economics. She worked as senior manager (research and analysis) with Price Waterhouse in London and with the BBC World Service. On her return to India, she served as deputy director of the Centre for Public Policy Studies at Hyderabad.
Ms Sitharaman joined the BJP in 2008 as a common worker and served many positions in the party including as one of the chief spokespersons.
She was inducted in the Union Cabinet on May 26, 2014 as minister of state (independent charge) for commerce and industry and later elevated to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.
Meanwhile, Mehbooba Mufti congratulated the new finance minister. “Congratulations to @nsitharaman on her new role as Finance Minister. As the first woman to helm this crucial portfolio full time, she’s shattered the glass ceiling by all means,” she tweeted.
