Nirmala Sitharaman is back in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Union Cabinet as he takes office for the second-term.- Sitharaman, who previously held the Ministry of Defence, has been given the
Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
Sitharaman who took oath in the 6th position, was given the Finance Ministry in the Modi cabinet. She has also been given the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. She will be taking over Arun Jaitley, who served as the Finance Minister, in Modi's first term and had written a letter to the PM asking to be excused from ministerial duty this time due to health issues.
Sitharaman is one of the three women in PM Modi’s 25-member cabinet.
Sitharaman made history when she was announced to be India’s first full-time Defence Minister in 2017. Now, with the position of Finance Minister she becomes India’s second female finance minister, after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
She held the position of Defence Minister as tensions escalated between India and Pakistan during the Pulwama terror attack.
She has been a member of the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka since 2016 and from Andhra Pradesh from 2014-2016. She was also the spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party from 2010-2014.
A graduate from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, when Sitharaman lived in London she also worked as saleswoman before going on to join PriceWaterhouseCooper before finally joining politics in India.