Nirmala Sitharaman, who became India’s first full-time woman Finance Minister in nearly five decades, is not a novice at the job.

She had a brief stint as a junior minister in the Finance Ministry in 2014, while handling the trade portfolio. She subsequently moved on to a full-time role as defence minister, but that did not stop her from keeping track of the economy’s performance.

Here are some of Sitharaman’s Twitter posts, which give a peek into her understanding of the ministry she will helm and her personality.

Automobile sales -- which are indeed a key indicator of demand in both rural and urban India -- have been declining for months now, and dropped 16 per cent in April from a year ago, according to data from the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers. The slump is not restricted to car sales. Demand for everything from air travel to consumer staples have taken a knock. That’s threatening growth in what has been the worlds fastest-growing major economy. This tweet was made last year when growth breached the eight per cent mark. The pace has since cooled for three straight quarters and probably slowed to 6.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year that ended in March.

She later went on to comment about robust manufacturing growth in August. Factory output has since slowed and contracted 0.1 per cent in March from a year ago.

Sitharaman is known to frequently tweet about the books she’s reading, including the one on former United States (US) Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

Here’s one more:

The finance minister also has another hobby close to her heart: making pickles. So much so that she calls it a sacred ritual.

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