Ram Nath Kovind, sworn as President of India on Tuesday. He is the 14th President of India.

10 Things to know about our new President Ram Nath Kovind:

1. Kovind was born on 1 October 1945 in Paraukh village in the Kanpur Dehat district, Uttar Pradesh.
2. He served as the 35th Governor of Bihar from 2015 to 2017 and was a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha from 1994 to 2006. He was a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Kovind was nominated as a presidential candidate by the ruling NDA coalition and won the 2017 presidential election.
3. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in commerce and a LLB from DAV College. Kovind enrolled as an advocate in 1971 with the bar council of Delhi. He was Central Government Advocate in the Delhi High Court from 1977 to 1979. Between 1977 & 1978, he also served as the personal assistant of Prime Minister of India Morarji Desai. In 1978, he became an advocate-on-record of the Supreme Court of India and served as a Central Government standing counsel in the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India from 1980 to 1993.
4. In 1997, Kovind joined the protest against certain orders from the Central government that had adverse effects on the SC/ST workers. Later 3 amendments were made to the Constitution that revoked the orders, by the NDA government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
5. He was elected and became a Rajya Sabha MP from the state of Uttar Pradesh in April 1994. He served a total of twelve years, two consecutive terms, until March 2006. As a member of parliament, he served on the Parliamentary Committee for Welfare of Scheduled Castes/Tribes, Home Affairs, Petroleum and Natural Gas, Social Justice and Empowerment, Law and Justice. He also served as the chairman of the Rajya Sabha House Committee. During his career as a parliamentarian, under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme, he focused on education in rural areas by helping in construction of school buildings in Uttar Pradesh and Uttrakhand. As a member of parliament, he visited Thailand, Nepal, Pakistan, Singapore, Germany, Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom and the United States on study tours.
6. He has served on the Board of management of Dr. B.R Ambedkar University, Lucknow, and as on the Board of Governors of IIM Calcutta. He has also represented India at the UN and addressed the United Nations General Assembly in October 2002.
7. On 8 August 2015, the President of India appointed Kovind as Governor of Bihar. On 16 August 2015, the acting Chief Justice of Patna High Court, Iqbal Ahmad Ansari, administered the oath to Kovind as the 35th Governor of Bihar. The function took place at Raj Bhawan, Patna.
8. Kovind’s appointment was criticized by then Chief Minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar as it came months before State Assembly elections and the appointment made without consulting State Government as recommended by Sarkaria Commission. However, Kovind’s term as Governor, was praised for constituting a judicial commission to investigate irregularities in promotion of undeserving teachers, mis-management of funds and appointment of undeserving candidates in universities.
9. Ram Nath Kovind received 65.6% of the valid votes, against former Speaker of the Lok Sabha- Meira Kumar, the presidential candidate of the Opposition who received 34.35% of the total votes. Kovind received 2,930 votes (From MPs and MLAs) amounting to Electoral College votes of 7,02,044 (65.65%) as compared to 1,844 votes with a value of 3,67,314 (34.35%) votes for Meira Kumar lagging far behind with 367,314 votes, and 77 votes were invalid. He became only the 2nd Dalit representative to become President after K. R. Narayanan, and also is the first BJP candidate to be elected to the post.
10. Kovind married Savita Kovind on 30 May 1974. They have a son, Prashant Kumar, and a daughter, Swati