Nirmala Sitharaman was born in a Tamil Iyengar family[7] in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, to Savitri and Narayanan Sitharaman. She had her schooling from Sacred Heart Convent Anglo-Indian School,[8] Villupuram till primary level, and thereafter at Vidyodaya School in Chennai. She then studied at St. Philomena’s School, and at Holy Cross School in Tiruchirappalli.[9] She obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, Tiruchirapalli in 1980, Master of Arts degree in Economics and M.Phil. from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi in 1984.[10][11][12] She then enrolled for a Ph.D. program in Economics with a focus on Indo-Europe trade; but later left this program and moved to London (when her husband secured a scholarship in London School of Economics) because of which she was unable to complete her degree