New Delhi: Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman will assume charge as the Defence Minister on September 07, 2017 in South Block, New Delhi. She will assume the charge from Shri Arun Jaitley who was holding the additional charge of the Ministry of Defence since March 14, 2017. Smt. Sitharaman will become the first full time woman Defence Minister of India.
A Profile:
Smt Nirmala Sitharaman was born on 18th August 1959 in the temple town of Madurai, Tamil Nadu. She did her schooling and her graduation in Economics, from Seethalakshmi Ramaswamy College in Tiruchirapalli. She went on to do her Masters in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Indo-European Textile Trade was the focus of her draft Ph.D thesis.
Smt Sitharaman served as an assistant to Economist in the Agricultural Engineers Association, UK in London. She subsequently worked as Senior Manager (Research and Analysis) with Price Waterhouse, London. During this time she also briefly worked with BBC World Service.
On her return to India, she served as Deputy Director of the Centre for Public Policy Studies at Hyderabad. Her interest in education led her to lay the foundation of ‘Parnava’, a reputed school in Hyderabad. She was a member of the National Commission for Women from 2003-2005 and instrumental in voicing various issues of women empowerment.
Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2008, and was made a member of the National Executive. She was nominated as party spokesperson in March 2010, from when she has been a full time party worker.
Smt Sitharaman was inducted in the Union of India’s Cabinet in a Government led by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 26 May 2014 as the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce and Industry.
She is married to Dr. Parakala Prabhakar, alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University and London School of Economics and they have one daughter. She is an avid reader and maintains a personal twitter handle @nsitharaman, and can be reached at nsitharaman@nic.in.
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