Nirmala Sitharaman took over as Finance Minister for the second consecutive term today. Finance Secretary TV Somanathan and senior officials welcomed him to the North Block office of the Parliament to take charge. Finance Minister Pankaj Chaudhary was also present. Sitharaman will present his seventh budget and sixth full budget in a row. Yes.. The budget for the financial year 2024-25 will be tabled in the 18th Lok Sabha next month.
Nirmala was appointed as the Defense Minister by Modi in 2017. With this, she became the country’s first woman Defense Minister. Prior to that, he served as Minister of Industry and Commerce. Following Arun Jaitley’s ill health, she was given the finance portfolio for the first time in 2019, making her India’s first full-time woman finance minister.
During his tenure as finance minister, the basic corporate tax rate was reduced from 30% to 22%. During the Covid pandemic, he grabbed attention by announcing an economic package of Rs 20 lakh crore, equivalent to about 10% of India’s GDP. But many had to face the criticism that its benefits did not reach.
Nirmala has reduced the fiscal deficit to 5.6% from the previous estimate of 5.8% of our GDP. He introduced bag instead of briefcase in budget presentation. He changed the budget presentation date from the last working day of February to 1st February. All that is fine.. but it has not brought any change in the case of personal income tax. There were criticisms that it was enough to change the date and bag.
Born in Madurai on 18 August 1959 to Narayan Sitharaman and Savitri, Nirmala Sitharaman studied economics at Seethalakshmi Ramasamy College, Trichy. Studied Masters and M.Phil from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Before joining politics, she lived in England with her husband Parakala Prabhakar and had experience working in the corporate sector.
Sitharaman joined the BJP in 2008. She became the second woman spokesperson of the party after Sushma Swaraj. He began to become a familiar face on TV debates. He has also served as Deputy Director of the Center for Public Policy Studies, Hyderabad. From 2003 to 2005, she was a member of the National Commission for Women. But he never contested the Lok Sabha elections and was a Rajya Sabha MP. It is significant.
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