Facts On Interim FM Piyush Goyal

Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Railways and Coal was given additional responsibility of serving as the interim finance minister in January 2019 in the absence of Arun Jaitley who is away for medical treatment.

Here are some facts to know about the present finance minister who will be presenting the budget at 11 am today:

• This is Goyal's first time presenting the national budget. He is also the youngest finance minister to present the budget.
• Goyal's father, Late Shri Ved Prakash Goyal was also with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and served as the Union Minister for Shipping in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee cabinet.
• His mother Chandrakanta Goel remained three-time MLA from Maharashtra.
• Piyush Goyal has a strong academic record: all-India second rank Chartered Accountant and second rank in Law in Mumbai University. He had participated in Leadership Programs at prestigious international universities like Yale University (2011), Oxford University (2012) and Princeton University (2013). Both of his two children studied at Harvard University.
• He was on the board of public sector banks SBI (2001-04) and Bank of Baroda (2002-04) as a government nominee.
• He was elected as the BJP candidate from Maharashtra for the Rajya Sabha on 3 June 2016. He has held several positions of significance with the BJP.
• Earlier, between May to August 2018 as well, replaced Arun Jaitley (who was undergoing a kidney transplant procedure) as the Finance Minister of India.