Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman is the Cabinet Finance Minister and Minister of Corporate Affairs in the Government of India. She has held the positions of Minister of Defence (3 Sep 2017 to 30 May 2019), Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (26 May 2014 to 3 Sep 2017) and Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. She is a member of the Rajya Sabha, upper house of the Indian Parliament, since 2014. Prior to that she served as National Spokesperson, Bharatiya Janata Party.

She holds a M.A. (Economics), M.Phil, and has received her education from the Seethalakshmi Ramaswamy College, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu and Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.