New Delhi:
Two-time Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman has been included in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet in his third consecutive term, creating a record of sorts for a woman minister. In PM Modi’s last term, Ms Sitharaman had handled the finance portfolio and is credited with carrying forward second-generation economic reforms.
The 64-year-old was inducted into PM Modi’s cabinet in 2014 as the industry and commerce minister and was handed the defence portfolio in 2017.
When then finance minster Arun Jaitley was taken ill after the 2019 general elections, Ms Sitharaman became the country’s first woman to be given charge of the finance portfolio for a full term. Earlier, Indira Gandhi had held finance as an additional portfolio for a short duration when she was the Prime Minister of India.
Ms Sitharaman’s first major reform as the finance minister was a cut in base corporate tax to 22 per cent — down from 30 per cent — to prop up the economy hit by notes ban and the implementation of the Goods and Services tax.
The following year, the country battled the Covid-19 pandemic with an array of policy measures announced for the poor. The government announced a special economic package worth Rs 20 lakh crore equivalent to roughly 10 per cent of India’s GDP.
The minister still steered the economy from nearly 24 per cent contraction in the first quarter of FY21 to the fastest growing world economy.
Despite fiscal expansion, she continued to follow the path of fiscal consolidation and was successful in bringing down the fiscal deficit to 5.6 per cent of GDP from the earlier estimate of 5.8 per cent in FY24.
She also set a record by presenting the sixth Budget in a row — five annual Budgets and one interim — a feat achieved so far only by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai.
(With inputs from PTI)