"Portrait of a lady" - V S Ramadevi, the First Lady Governor of Karnataka.

V. S. Ramadevi was sworn in as the 13th Governor and the first lady Governer of Karnataka by the Chief Justice of the High Court, Y. Bhaskara Rao in December 2000. She won the hearts of the people immediately when she decided to take the oath in Kannada - and flawless Kannada too. Her term will last till July 2002.

Ramadevi, native of Eluru in West Godavari in Andhra Pradesh and the daughter of V.V Subbaiah and Venkataratnamma, was also the first lady of the State to secure a post-graduate degree in Law. After her post graduation, she enrolled as an advocate in Andhra Pradesh High court. She joined the Central Government Service as an Officer in the Class-I/Group-A Service and after working in various capacities as a Member of the Indian Legal Service in the Legislative Department, served as special Secretary in the Legislative Department and was Member-Secretary of the Law Commission. She served as Honorary Advisor to the National Commission for Women.

An eminent social worker and announcer with the All India Radio for a while, the Governor was also the Acting Chief Election Commissioner of India and the Secretary-General of the Rajya Sabha from July 1, 1993, to July 25, 1997. She was appointed as the Governor of Himachal Pradesh in 1997.

She is the third Governor of the State to hail from Andhra Pradesh. The others were V V Giri and P Venkatasubbaiah. The new Governor takes keen interest in social work. She offered to set up orphanages next to old-age homes if the State Government was willing ``As Chairperson of the Red Cross Society I want to make the activities of the society a movement,'' she said.

Her husband, late Shri Ramavathar was not an unknown person to Karnataka. He was responsible for opening an office of the Rural Electrification Corporation in Bangalore.