Governors are appointed by the President of India and are vested with somewhat similar powers at the state level as the President at the Central level. Governors are the nominal head of the state they are appointed in and also act as the representative of the Union Government in that state. The Constitution grants them executive, legislative and judicial powers, such as signing state laws, granting pardons or commuting sentences. They summon the sessions of state legislatures and play an important role at the time of state government formation. They can call on the President of India to impose constitutional emergency provisions, such as President’s rule. 

The Governors of India Dataset (TCPD-GID) contains information on all Governors (or equivalent administrative heads) and acting governors appointed in all the states and union territories of India since 1947. The released dataset contains data on governors’ tenure as well as on their socio-demographic profile. The data have been carefully extracted and verified from various official government sources, which document their names and tenure dates. Where official government sources proved insufficient, data was extracted from credible and verifiable news sources published by reputed and trustworthy media organisations. 

Each governor has also been assigned a unique person identifier (ID) using our tool, Surf. This helps track individuals who may have been governors across states for different tenures, or held additional charge for another state, and so on.

In this column, we provide a short overview of the dataset’s content to encourage its use by journalists, scholars or students. 

Governors’ Profile 

As of July 2021, 503 unique individuals have been appointed governors (or equivalent). 

The dataset however contains a total of 830 entries, since many individuals have been nominated multiple times. Out of them, only 28 unique individuals have been women, that is less than 6%

Figure 1: Gender-wise Nominated Governors 

Table 1: List of All 28 Female Governors (Or Equivalent)

Name	State	Tenure
PADMAJA NAIDU	West Bengal	1956-1967
VIJAYALAKSHMI PANDIT	Maharashtra	1962-1964
JOTHI VENKATACHELLUM	Kerala	1977-1982
SHARADA MUKHERJEE	Andhra Pradesh	1977-1978
	Gujarat	1978-1983
KUMUDBEN MANISHANKAR JOSHI	Andhra Pradesh	1985-1990
RAMDULARI SINHA	Kerala	1988-1990
SARLA GREWAL	Madhya Pradesh	1989-1990
CHANDRAVATHI	Puducherry	1990-1990
SHEILA KAUL	Himachal Pradesh	1995-1996
RAJENDRA KUMARI BAJPAI	Puducherry	1995-1998
M.FATHIMA BEEVI	Tamil Nadu	1997-2001
V S RAMA DEVI	Himachal Pradesh	1997-1999
	Karnataka	1999-2002
RAJANI RAI	Puducherry	1998-2002
PRATIBHA PATIL	Rajasthan	2004-2007
PRABHA RAU	Himachal Pradesh	2008-2010
	Rajasthan (additional charge)	2009-2010
	Rajasthan	2010-2010
MARGARET ALVA	Uttarakhand	2009-2012
	Rajasthan	2012-2014
	Goa	2014-2014
	Gujarat (additional charge)	2014-2014
KAMLA BENIWAL	Tripura	2009-2009
	Gujarat	2009-2014
	Mizoram	2014-2014
URMILA SINGH	Himachal Pradesh	2010-2015
SHEILA DIKSHIT	Kerala	2014-2014
MRIDULA SINHA	Goa	2014-2019
DROUPADI MURMU	Jharkhand	2015-2021
NAJMA HEPTULLA	Manipur	2016-2021
KIRAN BEDI	Puducherry	2016-2021
ANANDIBEN PATEL	Madhya Pradesh	2018-2019
	Uttar Pradesh	2019-2021
	Madhya Pradesh (additional charge)	2020-2021
BABY RANI MAURYA	Uttarakhand	2018-2021
TAMILISAI SOUNDARARAJAN	Telangana	2019-2021
	Puducherry (additional charge)	2021-2021

The average tenure of governors is rather short: 806 days (~2.2 years). There are considerable variations from state to state. Telangana has seen the lowest average tenure of governors, at 363 days, that is roughly a year. Governors in Jammu & Kashmir have had the longest average tenure (1317 days, or 3.6 years). 

Figure 2: Average Days in Office

*Excluding data on A&N Islands, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu

The count of governors by state varies according to their tenure length but also according to the year of creation of states. The recently created U.T. of Ladakh got its first governor only in 2019. Rajasthan is the state that has had the largest number of governors (44), the first one having been appointed in 1949.  

Figure 2: Count of Governors (or Equivalent) by State

*Excluding data on A&N Islands, and Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu

**Before 2019, the Governor of Andhra Pradesh continued as Governor of Telangana when the state was split

Prior experience

Some governors are former politicians. Others come from the bureaucracy or have a liberal profession background. A break-up of prior professions shows that at least 37 governors come from public service (IAS, IFS and so forth), at least 40 come from the judiciary, and at least 32 come from the military (with the suffix Gen. or Maj. Gen. attached to their name). 

Figure 4: Titles (Prefix and Suffix)

Governors’ Multi-Term Experience

Many governors have been appointed for more than one term and even more than one state. Some can also be appointed to more than one state at the same time, though the official position is that of an “additional charge” or “acting governor”. For example, Smt. Tamilisai Soundararajan is currently serving as the 2nd Governor of Telangana and 25th Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry (additional charge) concurrently.  

Of the 503 unique individuals in the dataset, 181 have held the position for more than one term or Union Territory. B.K. Nehru holds the record of the highest number of governorships, having been appointed 8 times (Gujarat, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Meghalaya, Jammu & Kashmir, and twice in Assam). 21 people have held the position for 5 or more terms, while 76 have done so for 3 or more terms.

Figure 5: Multi-Term Experience of Governors

Brief Overview of Serving Governors

There are 35 governors, Administrators, or Lieutenant Governors currently serving. Only five of them are women. 15 of these 35 governors have previously served as governors. 

Table 2: Current Women Governors

Name	State_or_UT	Start_Date	Designation
ANANDIBEN PATEL	Uttar Pradesh	29-07-2019	Governor
BABY RANI MAURYA	Uttarakhand	26-08-2018	Governor
NAJMA HEPTULLA	Manipur	27-07-2019	Governor
TAMILISAI SOUNDARARAJAN	Telangana	08-09-2019	Governor
	Puducherry (Additional Charge)	18-02-2021	Lieutenant Governor

Figure 5: Overview of Incumbents

Of the 35 incumbents, at least 2 of them are from a military background (A&N Islands, Arunachal), 3 have the title of Doctor (Arunachal, Manipur, Telangana), and 2 have the title of Professor (Assam, Odisha).

Figure 6:  Serving Governors’ Titles

Note: Some states had Acting Governors’ tenures overlapping with the tenures of the Governors on leave, while other states had these tenures separately noted. For consistency, the Governors’ tenures were accordingly disaggregated around the respective acting governors’ tenures.

Acknowledgments: We thank Gilles Verniers for his comments and suggestions.

About the Authors:

Ananay Agarwal is currently working as a Junior Research Fellow at TCPD. He graduated from Sciences Po with an M.Res in Economics. His research interests lie in Political Economy, Development, and Information.

Neelesh Agrawal is currently working as a Research Engineer at TCPD. He graduated from IIIT Hyderabad with a B.Tech (Hons) in Computer Science and MS in Computational Social Science. His research interests lie in using data science to study the modern social and political landscape.

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