The appointment of Nirmala Sitharaman as India’s defence minister is being hailed as a great move. She’s also one of the four ministers of state to be promoted to the Cabinet rank.

Here are some things about our new defence minister that you should know.  

1. Nirmala Sitharaman was born to a middle-class family in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, on August 18, 1959. 

2. Since her father had a transferable job, she spent her childhood in various parts of Tamil Nadu.

3. She completed her graduation from Seethalakshmi Ramasamy College, Tiruchirappalli, and did her MA in Economics & MPhil from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.

4. Sitharaman then worked at Pricewaterhouse Coopers as a Senior Manager, and later for BBC World Service.

5. She married Parakala Prabhakar in 1986, whom she had met while studying in JNU. The couple moved to London but came back to India in 1991. They have a daughter together.  

6. While Nirmala supports BJP, her husband comes from a pro-Congress family. 

Her mother-in-law was a Congress MLA in Andhra Pradesh and her father-in-law served as a Minister in the Andhra Pradesh Congress Govt in the 1970s.

7. She is one of the founding directors of Pranava School in Hyderabad.

8. Nirmala Sitharaman has previously served as a member of the National Commission for Women.

9. She also served as a Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs under the Ministry of Finance and the Minister of Commerce and Industry holding independent charge.

10. When BJP came to power in 2014, she was allotted a Rajya Sabha seat from Andhra Pradesh. Presently, she is elected to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.

 It’s so good to see women take charge in the new cabinet.