Nirmala Sitharaman

Nirmala Sitharaman Biography

Nirmala Sitharaman is a prominent lady politician of BJP from Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu. She is currently serving as the Defence Minister of India. Sitharaman has formerly served as the Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs under the Ministry of Finance and the Minister for Commerce and Industry with independent charge. Prior to that she has served as a national spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party. She is also a member of the Rajya Sabha for Karnataka. She has been a stern communicator during TV debates and known for her sensible replies. She is also a former member of National Commission for Women and one of the founding directors of Pranava School in Hyderabad.

Nirmala was born in Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu in 1959. She graduated from Seetalakshmi Ramaswamy College of her hometown. She also completed M Phil in International studies at JNU. It was during this time when she met her future husband, who was a fellow of JNU. She worked as a salesgirl for a brief period and later joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as an analyst. She was married into an Andhra family. Her husband Dr. Parakala Prabhakar is a political commentator and television anchor. The couple got relocated to India after the birth of their daughter.

Though her husband’s family had an association with Congress, she joined BJP. She began her political career quite late and was considered less-experienced by many members belonging to the party. She was appointed as the National Commission for Women which proved to be the real turning point of her political career, when she got actively associated with politics. She was a member from 2003 to 2005 when women’s reservation was adopted by the party. Later she was invited to join the National Executive Council and was made national spokesperson for the party in the year 2010.

Published: N/A

Updated: September 15, 2017