Know your Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

Arun Jaitley: Minister of Finance and Defence

Date of birth: Dec 28, 1952

Term: Appointed May 2014

A leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a member of the Rajya Sabha since 2000, Jaitley has held several ministerial posts since 1999.

This is Jaitley's first stint as Finance Minister. He had served as Trade Minister and Law Minister more than a decade ago under the National Democratic Alliance government led by the BJP.

Jaitley has set out his stall as an advocate of fiscal prudence and growth-friendly policies. He has called for faster approvals for infrastructure projects and criticised arbitrary tax rulings under the previous government for stifling investment.

As the minister in charge of trade, he led India in talks at the World Trade Organization, blocking attempts by developed countries to gain greater access to emerging markets without reducing agricultural subsidies. Since 2002, he has emerged as a leading party strategist, scripting several of its victories in state elections.

A patrician figure who would not be out of place in London's High Court, Jaitley is the son of a successful lawyer. He was educated in an elite New Delhi school and at the prestigious Delhi University, where he was a students union leader in the youth wing of the BJP. He is married and has a son and a daughter.