Who is P. Chidambaram?

Palaniappan Chidambaram (born 16 September 1945) is an Indian politician and former attorney who currently serves as a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He recently served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs (2017-18). Chidambaram has served as the Union Minister of Finance four times. Most recently, he held the role for the entirety of the United Progressive Alliance government from 2004 to 2014, except for three years as Minister of Home Affairs, during which he oversaw India's domestic security response to the 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai. Chidambaram returned as Finance Minister in July 2012, succeeding Pranab Mukherjee, who resigned to become the President of India.

Chidambaram was born to Kandanur L. Ct. L. Palaniappa Chettiar and Lakshmi Achi in Kanadukathan in the Sivaganga district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. His maternal grandfather was Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar, a wealthy merchant, and banker from Chettinad. Chidambaram did his schooling at the Madras Christian College Higher Secondary School, Chennai he passed the one-year pre-University course from Loyola College, Chennai. After graduating with a BSc degree in statistics from the Presidency College, Chennai, he completed his Bachelor of Laws from the Madras Law College (now Dr. Ambedkar Government Law College) and his MBA from Harvard Business School in the class of 1968. He also holds a master's degree from Loyola College, Chennai.

During this time his politics inclined to the left and in 1969 he joined N. Ram, later editor of The Hindu, and the women's activist Mythili Sivaraman in starting a journal called the Radical Review. Chidambaram has two brothers and one sister. His father's business interests covered textiles, trading, and plantations in India. He chose to concentrate on his legal practice and stayed away from the family business.
He enrolled as a lawyer in the Madras High Court, becoming a senior advocate in 1984. He had offices in Delhi and Chennai and practiced in the Supreme Court and various high courts of India.