Margaret Alva

Margaret Alva is an Indian politician who was the governor of Rajasthan, Gujarath, Goa and Uttarakhand state. She was a senior member in the Indian national congress and was Joint Secretary of All India Congress Committee. She was born on 14-04-1942 in a christian family in Mangalore. P.A.Nazret and E.LNazret were her parents. She obtained her degree BA, LLB in Bangalore.

Career
Margaret worked as an advocate with involvement in welfare organisations. She was president of Young Women’s Christian Association. She was also involved with Karuna NGO. She served as Joint Secretary of the All India Congress Committee between 1975-77 and as General Secretary of the Karnataka Pradesha Congress Committee between 1978-80. From 1974, for 4 terms She served as a Rajya Sabha member as a representative of Congress. During that time she served terms as union Minister of State in the Ministries for parliamentry Affairs (1991 & 1993-96) and for Youth and Sports, women and Child Development, an arm of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. She was elected to the 13th Lok Sabha as a member of Parliament in 1999 from Uttara Kannada Constituency. In 2009 She became first female Governor of Uttarakhand and in 2012 appointed as Governor of Rajasthan.

Honours
Margaret was honoured with honorary doctorate by Mysore University. She received Rajeev Gandhi Excellency Award (1991), Mahila Shiromani (1991), Outstanding Konkani Personality Award from Dr. T.M.A. Pai Foundation, International Nelson Mandela Award 2006.