List of Finance Ministers of India from 1947 to 2024

Who is the Finance Minister?

The Finance Minister is the head of the Finance Ministry of the Government of India. The Finance Minister is responsible for the fiscal policy of the government. The Finance Minister presents the annual Union Budget (Article 112) in the Parliament and is the main operator of the country's economy. Since India's independence (15 August 1947), so far 26 ministers have held the post of Finance Minister in the country.

Morarji Desai holds the record for presenting the maximum number of budgets, he has presented the annual Union Budget in the Parliament 10 times. Of these, 8 are full and 2 are interim budgets. After him comes the name of P. Chidambaram, who has presented the Parliament budget 09 times.

Current Finance Minister of India 2024:

The current Finance Minister of India is Nirmala Sitharaman. She assumed office as the Finance Minister on 30 May 2019. She has been a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India since 2014. Sitharaman formerly served as the Defense Minister of India, making her the second woman Defense Minister of India and the second woman Finance Minister after Indira Gandhi and the first full-time woman Finance Minister before Nirmala Sitharaman Arun Jaitley from 26 May 2014 Was working on this post till 30 May 2019. The First finance minister of independent India, R. Of. Shanmukham Chetty, who presented the country's first budget. He served on his post from 15 August 1947 to 1949.

List of Finance Minister of India (1946 - 2024):

Name of the Finance Minister	Office Term	Political parties (coalitions)
Liaquat Ali Khan	29 October 1946 to 14 August 1947	All India Muslim League
R. K. Shanmukham Chetty	15 August 1947 to 1949	Indian National Congress
John Mathai	From 1949 to 1950
C. D. Deshmukh	May 29 1950 to 1957
T. T. Krishnamachari	1957 to 13 February 1958
Jawahar Lal Nehru	13 February 1958 to 13 March 1958
Morarji Desai	13 March 1958 to 29 August 1963
T. T. Krishnamachari	29 August 1963 to 1965
Sachindra Chowdhary	1965 to March 13, 1967
Morarji Desai	13 March 1967 to 16 July 1969
Indira Gandhi	From 1970 to 1971
Yashwantrao Chauhan	1971 to 1975
Chidambaram Subramaniam	From 1975 to 1977
Haribhai M. Patel	24 March 1977 to 24 January 1979	Janata Party
Chowdhary Charan Singh	24 January 1979 to 28 July 1979	Janata Party
Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna	28 July 1979 to 14 January 1980	Janata Party (Secular)
R. Venkataraman	14 January 1980 to 15 January 1982	Indian National Congress
Pranab Mukherjee	15 January 1982 to 31 December 1984
V. P. Singh	31 December 1984 to 24 January 1987
Rajiv Gandhi	24 January 1987 to 25 July 1987
N. D. Tiwari	25 July 1987 to 25 June 1988
Shankar Rao Chauhan	25 June 1988 to 02 December 1989
Madhu Dandavate	From 02 December 1989 to 10 November 1990	Janata Dal (National Front)
Yashwant Sinha	10 November 1990 to 21 June 1991	Samajwadi Janata Party (National Front)
Manmohan Singh	21 June 1991 to 16 May 1996	Indian National Congress
Jaswant Singh	16 May 1996 to 01 June 1996	Bharatiya Janata Party
P. Chidambaram	01 June 1996 to 21 April 1997	Tamil Manila Congress (United Front)
I. K. Gujral	21 April 1997 to 01 May 1997	Janata Dal (United Front)
P. Chidambaram	01 May 1997 to 19 March 1998	Tamil Manila Congress (United Front)
Yashwant Sinha	19 March 1998 to 01 July 2002	Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA)
Jaswant Singh	July 01, 2002 to May 22, 2004	Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA)
P. Chidambaram	May 22, 2004 to November 30, 2008	Indian National Congress (UPA)
Manmohan Singh	30 November 2008 to 24 January 2009
Pranab Mukherjee	24 January 2009 to 26 June 2012
Manmohan Singh	26 June 2012 to 31 July 2012
P. Chidambaram	31 July 2012 to 26 May 2014
Arun Jaitley	26 May 2014 to 30 May 2019	Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA)
Nirmala Sitharaman	May 30, 2019 to date	Bharatiya Janata Party (NDA)

Ministry of Finance (India):

The Ministry of Finance is an important ministry of the Government of India. The economy of the entire country is managed by the Ministry of Finance only. The Ministry of Finance of India is made up of various departments which include: the Department of Economic Affairs, Department of Expenditure, Department of Revenue, Department of Financial Services and Department of Disinvestment etc.

What is the financial system?

Financial system refers to the system that enables the transaction of money between investors and borrowers. The term "system" in "financial system" refers to a complex set and closely related set of institutions, agents, processes, markets, transactions, and claims within the economy. The following are the main components of the financial system: