Droupadi Murmu

President of India — Republic of India

About Droupadi Murmu

Key facts Role: President of India Organisation: Republic of India Country: India Sector: Politics & Government (head of state) Headline figures: Sworn in as 15th President on 25 July 2022; five-year term ends in July 2027 Droupadi Murmu is India's head of state, and in the past year she has shown that a largely ceremonial office can still change the constitutional weather. In 2025 she used her rarely invoked power under Article 143 of the Constitution to ask the Supreme Court whether courts could impose deadlines on the President and state Governors to act on bills passed by state legislatures. On 20 November 2025 a five-judge Constitution Bench answered in terms that broadly backed her office. It said the judiciary could not impose "one-size-fits-all" timetables or assume "deemed assent", but warned against "prolonged and evasive inaction" (The Hindu, 20 November 2025). The role As President of India, Murmu is head of state and supreme commander of the armed forces. As the BBC has noted, the President does not exercise executive powers, which rest with the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers. The office still carries real formal functions: every central law needs her assent, she summons and prorogues Parliament, and she appoints the Prime Minister, judges of the higher courts and state Governors. Bills reserved by Governors for presidential consideration also land on her desk, which is why the Article 143 reference mattered so much to relations between the Centre and opposition-ruled states. The Hindu described it as only the 16th Presidential Reference in the Republic's history. Background Murmu was sworn in as India's 15th President on 25 July 2022, the first person from a tribal community and the second woman to hold the office. She is also the first President born after Independence. "It is a tribute to the power of our democracy that a daughter born in a poor house in a remote tribal area can reach the highest constitutional position in India," she said in her inaugural address (The Hindu, 25 July 2022). She belongs to the Santhal community and was born in 1958 in Mayurbhanj district, Odisha. According to the BBC, she began her career as a junior assistant in the Odisha government's irrigation and energy department between 1979 and 1983, then taught at a school in Rairangpur. She moved into politics, and before becoming President she served as Governor of Jharkhand. International role Her international role has grown. In July 2026 she became the first Indian head of state to visit Moldova, where she held talks with President Maia Sandu in Chisinau on 20 July. She went on to North Macedonia, also a first for an Indian President, and then Romania, on a tour aimed at trade, technology and tourism ties (PIB; The Hindu, 20 July 2026). At home, her calendar mixes ceremonial and symbolic duties. On 22 September 2026 she presented the 72nd National Film Awards at Ekta Nagar in Gujarat (All India Radio). “It is a tribute to the power of our democracy that a daughter born in a poor house in a remote tribal area can reach the highest constitutional position in India,” — Murmu, in her inaugural address (The Hindu, 25 July 2022) Symbolic weight Her symbolic weight is considerable. As the first tribal President, she carries particular meaning for India's more than 100 million Adivasi citizens, and she frequently frames her office around the poor and marginalised. In a country of about 1.4 billion people, her speeches, assents and constitutional references shape the terms within which the elected government operates. What to watch: her five-year term ends in July 2027, so the next presidential election, and whether she is renominated, will be one of 2027's main political events. Also watch how state Governors and her office apply the Supreme Court's guidance on bills. She ranks 14th because she holds the highest constitutional office in the region's largest democracy. Her formal powers are limited but real, and she is the most senior woman in Indian public life. Sources The Hindu, Judiciary cannot tie President, Governor to timelines, says Supreme Court , 20 Nov 2025 BBC News, Droupadi Murmu: India's first tribal president takes oath , Jul 2022 The Hindu, Droupadi Murmu takes oath as 15th President of India , 25 Jul 2022 PIB (President's Secretariat), President of India in Moldova; holds bilateral meeting with President of Moldova , 20 Jul 2026 The Hindu (PTI), President Murmu arrives in Moldova; first by any Indian head of State , 20 Jul 2026 All India Radio / News On AIR, President Droupadi Murmu to embark on 3-day visit to Gujarat , 21 Sep 2026

Why this entry is on the list

She ranks 14th because she holds the highest constitutional office in the region's largest democracy. Her formal powers are limited but real, and she is the most senior woman in Indian public life. In 2025 she used her rarely invoked power under Article 143 to ask the Supreme Court whether courts could impose deadlines on the President and state Governors to act on bills.