Nirmala Sitharaman

Nirmala Sitharaman (born 18 August 1959)^[1] is an Indian economist and politician. A senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) serving as the Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs of the Government of India since 2019. She is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian Parliament, representing Karnataka since 2016 and previously represented Andhra Pradesh from 2014 to 2016. Sitaraman presented the union budget 8 times, making her second only to Morarji Desai to present the most number of budgets.^[2] In 2025, she created history by becoming the first person to table the union budget 8 consecutive times.^[3]

She served as junior minister in the Modi ministry between 2014 and 2017, holding successive positions, first for her dual appointment as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance and the Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs from May to November 2014, and then as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for the Ministry of Commerce and Industry from May 2014 to September 2017, before being elevated to senior posts within the Union Cabinet. ^[4] In July 2025, she became the longest continuous serving finance minister in Indian history, by surpassing C.D. Deshmukh. Sitharaman previously served as the 28th Defence Minister from 2017 to 2019, thereby becoming India's second female defence minister and the second female finance minister after Indira Gandhi, and the first full-time female minister to hold each of those portfolios.