Who is the first finance minister of India?

Answer 1

Sir R. K. Shanmukham Chetty

Answer 2

Shri R. K.Shanmukham Chetty was the first Finance Minister of India in the Jawaharlal Nehru Cabinet.

Answer 3

Sir R. K.Shanmukham Chetty was the first Finance Minster of independent India.

Answer 4

I wonder how many younger than 70 will recall that Sir R. K. Shanmukham Chetty was the first Finance Minster of independent India. One of the few South Indians in Nehru's first Cabinet, the invitation to Sir Shanmukham followed the role he had played as India's representative of non-official opinion at the international monetary conference. The conference was held in July, 1944, and over 40 countries, deemed to be opponents of the Axis powers, met in Bretton Woods in the U.S. to discuss finance, trade and economics in the post-War world. Out of those deliberations were born the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank that same year. Celebrating its diamond jubilee in the same year as those two major international financial institutions is The Tamil Chamber of Commerce over whose founding Sir Shanmukham had presided shortly before he left for Bretton Woods. At a time when an Indian presence, leave alone a Tamil one, in industry and major commerce was minimal, Sir Shanmukham was far-seeing enough to realise that it wouldn't be too long in the future when that presence would be all-dominant, but the seeds of that growth needed to be sown even before the ruling power quit the scene. It was to prepare for that future that he felt a chamber was necessary for small businessmen to prepare themselves for the growth that would be theirs in the not-too-distant future.

Returning from Bretton Woods, Sir Shanmukham, however, was uncertain of what the future held. While seeing hope in the two institutions that would emerge from the conference, he was at the same time not too certain that the U.S. would help India in her march to freedom nor help a free India get on its feet when independence came. It was in this context that he felt organisations like the Tamil Chamber had a major role to play. Perceptive about what the world would look like after World War II, Sir Shanmukham predicted soon after his return from the U.S. that if China held together after the Japanese were defeated and did not fragment, she would be one of the biggest influences in world affairs of the future. He also felt that India would have to face the consequences of Britain having got her (India) to bear a larger share of the war burden than she could manage; certainly Britain would do nothing to redress the situation after the War.

This disregard of Indian interests by both the Home and British Indian Governments would leave India financially endangered after the War, he feared. And that threat is exactly what he had to first tackle when he became India's first Finance Minister. The high office was the culmination of a brilliant career.

In 1940, Sir Shanmukham had been appointed Head of the British Indian Government's Defence Purchase Commission in the U.S., operating out of New York. While there, he met President Roosevelt who told him that the Atlantic Charter applied to India too. But that interpretation was never publicly made by either of them, enabling Churchill to continue to treat India as a subject nation. Sir Shanmukham, however, was more forthcoming when, as early as May 1942, shortly after America had entered the War, he presciently forecast that America's `great production programme' would make a big difference to the fortunes of North America and Britain in a war they were badly losing at the time.

Sir Shanmukham, who in the 1930s was Dewan of Cochin, was responsible for persuading the Maharaja to introduce reforms in the State through a `constitution' that neatly balanced paramountcy and democracy. He later represented India in the League of Nations. He almost succeeded in getting Hindi made an optional subject in the Madras curriculum with Government encouraging voluntary study. The compromise had been suggested by K. Srinivasan of The Hindu and was backed by T. T. Krishnamachari, Sir Shanmukham, constitutional expert N. D. Varadachariar and others, but it was Sir Shanmukham who had persuaded Periyar to accept the suggestion and call off his anti-Hindi agitation if Government made the offer. Sadly, his efforts proved in vain when the Rajaji Government at the last minute got cold feet.

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Answer 5

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Answer 6

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._Chidambaram is the answer.