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Know your Finance Minister

Budget 2014 will be a testing time for the new Finance Minister and it will show what he has in store for the people of the country.

Rd. Alexander

With Arun Jaitley at the helm, it's a change of guard at the Finance Ministry at a time when the economy of the country is in shambles fueled by muted investors' confidence, high inflation and poor fiscal management.

As the Finance Minister of India, Arun Jaitley is indeed facing challenges to revive the economy that has stopped short of 5 percent in the last fiscal (2013-14). Jaitley also has a huge burden of living up to the expectations and faith shown by people of the country to the NDA-led BJP Government.

Budget 2014 will be a testing time for the new Finance Minister and it will show what he has in store for the people of the country.

Before that, let us take a look at some of the important events in the life of FM Arun Jaitley that have made him what he is today.

- Arun Jaitley, born on December 28, 1952, is the Union Cabinet Minister for Finance in the 16th Lok Sabha.

- Born into a Punjabi Hindu Brahmin family, Jaitley studied at St. Xavier's School, Delhi (1959-67), graduated in Commerce from SRCC in 1973 and obtained his law degree from University of Delhi in 1977.

- By profession, he is a Senior Advocate with the Supreme Court of India.

- As a student, he was an active member and leader of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in the seventies before he became the president of the Students' Union of Delhi University in 1974.

- He was appointed Additional Solicitor General in 1989 by the V. P. Singh government.

- He has been the Executive member of the Bharatya Janata Party (BJP) since 1991 and he is the Leader of the House of Rajya Sabha under the Narendra Modi-led NDA government.

- Besides working on the paper for the investigation into the Bofors scandal, he has authored several publications on current and legal affairs.

- As a Senior Advocate, some of his renowned clients include Sharad Yadav of Janata Dal, (Late) Madhavrao Scindia of INC, LK Advani of BJP, Birla family, noted film maker Ram Gopal Verma and MNCs such as PepsiCo India.

- He became an executive member of BJP in 1991.

- He has his own website www.arunjaitley.com

- He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank.