Presidents of India - List of Indian Presidents

President of India is referred to as the first citizen of India. The Indian President is elected by an electoral college composed of the elected members of the Parliament, Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and Vidhan Sabha.

There have been 15 personalities who served as Indian Presidents since the adoption of the Indian Constitution in 1950 and there have been tenures when the country was headed by an acting President. In this article, you will get to know about all the Presidents of India from 1950 to 2022.

This is an important topic for UPSC, Bank and other Government exams.

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List of Indian Presidents (1950-2022)

The Constitution of India was adopted on 26th November 1949 (It came into force on 26th January 1950) and Dr Rajendra Prasad was elected as the first constitutional head of the state, the President of India.

Ram Nath Kovind, the 14th President of India, completed his term in July 2022. Though he was eligible, he did not contest for re-election. As a result, Draupadi Murmu in July 2022, became the 15th Indian President, appointed by the electoral college.

• He was elected twice as the president
• He was also the president of the constituent assembly before being elected for this post.

• Radhakrishnan was a prominent philosopher and writer.
• He also held the position of vice-chancellor of the Andhra University and Banaras Hindu University.

• He was the recipient of Padma Vibhushan and Bharat Ratna.
• He was the shortest-serving president and passed away in office.

• He was elected Vice President of India in 1967.
• He served as the president for a short term due to the sudden death of Zakir Hussain in office.

• He was the president during Emergency.
• He was the second president who died in office.

• He was the first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
• He became the youngest President who occupied Rashtrapati Bhavan and contested twice for the post of president.

• He was the Chief Minister of Punjab and the Union Home Minister

• He is a receiver of “Tamra Patra” for his contributions to India’s freedom struggle.

• He was Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and the Indian Minister for Communications.

• He served as India’s ambassador to Thailand, Turkey, China and the United States of America.

• He played a leading role in the development of India’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.
• He was also a Bharat Ratna recipient.

• She was the first woman president of India.

• He was awarded the best Parliamentary Award in 1997.
• He also received Padma Vibhushan in 2008

• He served as the Governor of Bihar.

• She has served as the governor of Jharkhand previously.

Qualification of Indian President

President is elected by the process of proportional representation with means of a single transferable vote. President can be removed by the process of impeachment.

The qualification for the post of the President of India is given below:

1. He should be an Indian Citizen
2. His age should be a minimum of 35 years
3. He should qualify the conditions to be elected as a member of the Lok Sabha
4. He should not hold any office of profit under the central government, state government, or any public authority.

List of Presidents of India- Download PDF Here

Facts about the President of India

Given below are a few facts related to the President of India and the past Presidents which have served the country. Questions based on these facts are commonly asked in the major competitive exams conducted in the country.

• Dr. Rajendra Prasad was the longest-serving Indian President. He completed two tenures as the President of the country
• The shortest-serving President was the third Indian President, Zakir Hussain. He passed away while he was in his office
• Apart from the full-time Presidents mentioned in the table above, there were three interim Presidents. The three of them were: Varahagiri Venkata Giri, Mohammad Hidayatullah and Basappa Danappa Jatti
• Neelam Sanjiva Reddy was not just the youngest President of the country but was also the first Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh
• Pratibha Patil was the first and the only women President of India
• If the President of India intents to resign from his post, he/she needs to do it in accordance with the procedure prescribed in Article 61 of the Indian Constitution. The President needs to give a hand-written letter to the Vice President, in case of resignation
• The President is elected by the members of both the House of Parliament and the elected members of the legislative assembly of States and Union Territories

Aspirants of UPSC exam, Bank exam, SSC exam or other prominent competitive exam are advised to stay abreast with Current Affair and GK topics as approximately 20% of questions are based on general awareness in any exam.

List of Indian Presidents is an important static GK topic. For more articles on Static GK topics, check the page linked here.

Aspirants of various competitive exams can test their learning of Presidents of India pre and post-independence by giving free Online Quizzes.

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