Palaniappan Chidambaram (Tamil Nadu INC Lok Sabha Sivaganga) 63 was a Cabinet Minister with the finance portfolio for a brief period in the United Front coalition government from 1996 to 1998. Prior to this, he was Minister of State (Deputy Minister) in the Rajiv Gandhi and Narasimha Rao-led Congress governments. After graduating with a B.Sc. degree in Statistics from The Presidency College, Chennai, he completed his Bachelor of Law (B.L.) from the Madras Law College, and his Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School, Harvard University.