India, the largest democracy in the world, has recently presented its budget for the financial year 2024-2025. This time the budget was presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and with this she set a new record. Sitharaman has become the first Finance Minister to present the budget for the 7th consecutive time, breaking the record of Morarji Desai. Apart from this, she has also been the second woman Defense Minister of India after Indira Gandhi.

This is how her career started

Coming from a non-political family of Chennai, Nirmala Sitharaman did her early education from Sacred Heart Convent Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School, Villupuram. After this she also received education from Madras and Tiruchirappalli. She obtained a BA Economics degree in Economics from Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, Tiruchirappalli. She came to Delhi for higher education and did her M.Phil in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University in 1984. After this, she enrolled for PhD, but due to family reasons, she had to leave it midway. Her husband Parakala Prabhakar went to London to do PhD from London School of Economics and Sitharaman also went to London with him.

When she had to work as a sales girl

In London, she worked as a sales girl in a home decor store, and made good profits for the company during Christmas, for which she was gifted a bottle of champagne by the company. After this, she also worked with BBC World Service and audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Nirmala Sitharaman's in-laws have been associated with the Congress party. Her mother-in-law Parakala Kalikamba has been a Congress MLA from Andhra Pradesh, and her father-in-law, Parakala Sheshavataram has been a minister in Andhra Pradesh. Today Nirmala Sitharaman is the Finance Minister in the BJP government.