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9 Interesting Facts About India’s First Ever Full-Time Woman Defense Minister ‘Nirmala Sitharaman’

In a bid to attain more prosperous results and progress in terms of governance in every medium, BJP Govt has undergone some major changes in the Cabinet ministry. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has come up with reshuffling the whole ministers.

With the major changes being made in Railway and Power Ministries, appointing Nirmala Sitharaman as the new Defense Minister is happening that must be discussed. Yesterday, in the presence of all the honorable ministers, she swore as the cabinet minister, she is no India’s first ever full-time woman Defense Minister.

Earlier, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi handled the Defense ministry at times, when needed. Sitharaman is already well known for her oratory skills, as she is the spokesperson of BJP. With an impeccable brilliance in academics, and an impressive experience in the field of governance she is already favorite of many.

Let us now have a sneak peek into the personal and professional life of this minister who was born in Tamil Nadu.

1. Sitharaman belongs to a middle-class family, she’s born on August 18, 1959, in Madurai, Her father, Narayanan Sitharaman worked in the Railways while her mother, Savitri, was a homemaker and a great lover of books. She spent her childhood in different parts of Tamil Nadu because her father’s profession has demanded them to do so.

2. She is a graduate of Tiruchirappalli’s famous ‘Seethalakshmi Ramasamy College’, after graduation, she joined Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi from where she completed her masters in Economics.

3. Sitharaman chose ‘Indo-European textile trade’ for her Ph.D., a very rare subject people generally opt.

4. Married Parakala Prabhakar in 1986 and moved to London, where she worked at Pricewaterhouse Cooper as a Senior Manager. Dr Parakala Prabhakar is also an alumnus of Jawaharlal Nehru University and London School of Economics. The couple has a daughter.

5. Just before returning to India in 1991, she worked at the BBC World Service.

6. Soon after returning to India, she founded a school in Hyderabad, named ‘Pranava’, she is one among the founding directors.

7. Her membership in National Commission for Women (NCW) in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government was the stepping stone of her political journey that started in 2003. She remained an NCW member till 2005. A year later, in 2006, Nirmala joined the BJP.

8. After acknowledging her immense talent, she was made spokesperson of BJP in 2010, which actually is very quick for a person who joined the party just 7 years back.

9. It was on May 26, 2014, her political odyssey took its flight. She was made a Minister of State, Commerce, and Industry, with independent charge. She also handled the ministry of finance and corporate affairs prior to the reshuffle in the cabinet.

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