At the World Economic Forum in Delhi, 2008.

P. Chidambaram was also 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-party governments, holding other portfolios. He hails from the royal family of Nagarathar or Nattukotai Chettiars of Tamil Nadu.

Chidambaram, a former staunch socialist, ushered in full-on market reforms and liberalisation. He has been fully supportive of the calibrated economic reforms, ushered in since 1991. He was a trade union activist in his early years. He was a critic of Friedrich Hayek and the free-market. Chidambaram was also instrumental in implementing the ideas of Friedrich Engels by banning futures trades in wheat and rice. As an ideologue opposed to the free-market and as a firm believer of the planned economy, he forced the steel industry to cut its exports and threatened the cement manufacturers to cut prices or face punitive action. Chidambaram, as finance minister under Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Deputy Chairman of India's Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia is a part of the Planning Commission of India.