P Chidambaram, the Harvard educated lawyer has earned the reputation of being a good economic administrator capped by his image as a tough taskmaster during his short stint as home minister.

For Palaniappan Chidambaram, it is a long journey from a hardcore Leftist in 1960s to being India's liberal face and a bold reformer.

The 64-year-old Chidambaram, who hails from a small business community of prosperous Chettiars of Tamil Nadu, was a leading figure of economic reforms undertaken by P V Narasimha Rao government post 1991 and executed by Manmohan Singh as finance minister.

An MBA from Harvard, the eminent lawyer played a key role in that economic reforms team of Rao as minister of state for commerce with independent charge.

The experience gained during that period came to his help when he was made the finance minister in the United Front government in 1996 under H D Deve Gowda.

He presented a Budget that vastly slashed tax rates and contained a number of sops for the corporate sector which was hailed as a "Dream Budget". That the Budget could not have its full run due to unstable political situation and the fall of the government then, is a different matter.

Chidambaram again made his entry into the finance ministry after the UPA was voted to power in 2004 beating many other claimants to the post.

Acknowledging his ability to handle any job being given to him efficiently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had shifted him to the home ministry following the Mumbai terror attack which led to the resignation of Shivraj Patil from the Union Cabinet.

It was a home-coming of sorts for Chidambaram in the home ministry, where he was the junior minister in charge of internal security in the Rajiv Gandhi government in late 1980s.

During his short tenure, Chidambaram has successfully strengthened the security apparatus across the country. He reorganising the intelligence network, tightened the provisions in the anti-terror laws and amended the CISF Act to enable the security force to guard vital private installations.

As the minister for personnel in the Rajiv government, he carried out a number of administrative reforms.

Beginning his political career as a Congressman, Chidambaram, a suave and articulate politician, was first elected to the Lok Sabha in 1984 from the Sivaganga constituency in south Tamil Nadu and was inducted into ministry by Rajiv Gandhi.

Chidambaram's hardwork and adeptness in handling the economic issues facing the country made him India's youngest finance minister under the Gowda government in 1996.

Chidambaram had then quit the Congress and joined the Tamil Maanila Congress of G K Moopanar, who had floated the regional outfit after falling out with the Congress over aligning with AIADMK.

As the then finance minister, he had strived to bring discipline in government spending and introduced an innovative tax reforms programme to tackle the growing fiscal deficit.

Chidambaram, who lost the Parliamentary elections only once in 1999, parted ways with Moopanar in 2001 when the veteran Congressman decided to align with Jayalalithaa's AIAMDK for the 2001 Assembly elections and floated his own outfit Congress Jananayaga Peravai.

In his early life, Chidambaram practiced as an advocate in the Madras High Court and later in the Supreme Court, and was an adviser to several multi-national companies.

Since 1984, he was re-elected to the Lok Sabha from the same constituency in 1989, 1991, 1996, 1998, 2004 and in the just concluded Parliamentary elections. He lost only in 1999 on a TMC ticket.