Pratibha Patil became the first female president of India today, the July 25, 2007,  being sworn in at the ceremony in Parliament. She was administered the oath of office by Chief Justice of India K.G. Balkrishnan, began her five-year tenure by making an appeal, for socially inclusive economic growth and the need to forge unity to fight divisive and destructive forces, such as communalism and terrorism.   MPs elected the 72-year-old lawyer by a landslide over the 84-year-old vice- president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat for the largely ceremonial post of head of state. Sonia Gandhi, the president of the ruling Congress party, said  "In the 60th year of our independence, for the first time, we have a woman president and I want to thank our alliance partners and all those who voted for her."    Pratibha Patil, a native of  a town of Jalgaon in western Maharashtra state, defeated Shekhawat by a large margin, securing 66 per cent of the votes cast by an electoral college of federal and state MPs.  "I am grateful to the voters... I am grateful to the people of India, the men and women of India," Patil said outside her New Delhi home, as supporters danced in the streets and burst firecrackers in celebration. "This is the victory of the principles which our Indian people uphold," she told reporters. Flashing a victory sign, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called Patil's win a vote against "the politics of divisiveness ... a vote in favour of unity and for strengthening the foundation of our democracy".

Pratibha Patil      India's first women President

Profile:     Pratibha Patil was born 0n DEcember 19, 1934 in India's western state of Maharashtra, in a small town of Jalgaon district. She  was married to Devisingh Shekhwat of Choti Losal village in Sikar district of Rajasthan. She practised in Maharastra as a lawyer before joining politics. She joined Congress in the early 1960s before spending some two decades in Maharashtra's state legislature. Mrs Patil  has been a staunch ally of Sonia Gandhi  She moved into national politics, sitting in both the lower and upper chambers of India's national parliament before leaving the political stage in the late 1990s. She appointed as governor of Rajasthan in 2004 and become the first woman governor in the north- western state.   She came in for heavy criticism from opposition figures and in the Indian media after emerging as a candidate for president. Some criticised Mrs Patil's character; others highlighted her time away from high-level politics. But the reports were dismissed as "mud-slinging", and as the vote approached Mrs Patil stridently rejected the criticism, insisting all accusations against her were politically-motivated. Instead her supporters suggested Mrs Patil's election would prove to be a landmark for women in a country where millions routinely face violence, discrimination and poverty.     Pratibha Patil will be the country's 13th and first women President after 60 years of independence.

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