Here are 10 important things you should know about the new president:
1. Born on October 1, 1945, in Uttar Pradesh’s Kanpur Dehat, Ram Nath Kovind was the youngest among three brothers. After graduating in law from a Kanpur college, Kovind had gone to Delhi to prepare for the Indian Administrative Services. He failed to pass it twice but made it in third attempt. He, however, did not join as he was selected for the allied services and started practising the law.
2. He entered politics in 1994 when he became a member of Parliament in Rajya Sabha from Uttar Pradesh and served as an MP for two consecutive terms till 2006.
3. Married to Savita Kovind, Ram Nath Kovind has a son Prashant Kumar, and a daughter, Swati.
4. Kovind, an advocate by profession, used to practice in Supreme Court and Delhi High Court.
5. He had represented India in the United Nations in New York and addressed United Nations General Assembly in October 2002.
6. In 1977, Kovind had worked as the private secretary of then Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Later Kovind had also served as national spokesperson of BJP.
7 . On August 8, 2015, Kovind was appointed governor of Bihar.
8. He is a former President of the BJP Dalit Morcha (1998-2002) and President of the All-India Koli Samaj as well as the SC/ST representative at IIM-Calcutta.
9. Kovind served as a member of the Board of Management of Dr. BR Ambedkar University, Lucknow. He was also a member of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata.
10. He had donated his ancestral house in his native village in Kanpur as baraatghar or community house to the village.