Ramaswamy Venkataraman, Indian politician, government official, and lawyer and former president of India (1987 to 1992), whose birth anniversary is on December 4.

Venkataraman was born in Pattukottai, near Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu on December 4, 1910. He studied law at the University of Madras and commenced his legal practice in 1935.  Venkataraman was elected to independent India’s Provisional Parliament in 1950 as a member of the Indian National Congress party.

Going briefly through the political journey, Venkataraman was a member of the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) from 1952 to 1957 and from 1977 onward.   From 1957 to 1967 he was minister of industry and labour for the state of Tamil Nadu. Venkataraman eventually joined the central government, serving as minister of finance and industry (1980–82) and minister of defense (1982–84). After serving as vice president of India in 1984–87, he was elected to the largely ceremonial post of president in July 1987.

Venkataraman died at the Army Research and Referral Hospital, New Delhi on January 27, 2009  due to multiple organ failure at the age of 98.

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