The first woman Governor of Karnataka was administered the oath in Kannada by Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court Y Bhaskar Rao.

Besides a considerable number of her family members and friends, judges of the High Court, Chief Minister S M Krishna and his ministerial colleagues, senior military officers, senior civil servants and police officers were present.

Ramadevi's husband V S Ramavtar, who is recovering from a slip disc, was also present on a wheel-chair.

Addressing media persons, the new Governor said she was interested in social work, and, if the State Government was willing, she was ready to set up orphanages next to old-age homes.

``As Chairperson of the Red Cross Society I want to make the activities of the society a movement,'' she said.

When media persons congratulated her for her fluent Kannada while taking the oath, the Governor said, ``It was not difficult for me because the script of Kannada and Telugu are more or less similar.'' She said she would perfect her Kannada during her interaction with the Raj Bhavan staff.

About the changes that she proposed to bring in the Raj Bhavan, Ramadevi said there was no need for any change since the Raj Bhavan in Bangalore was an established one. ``But I want to leave my mark in this Raj Bhavan,'' she added.

A native of Eluru in West Godavari, in the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, Ramadevi was the first lady of that State to secure a post-graduate degree in law. A social worker and announcer with the All India Radio for a while, the Governor was also the Acting Chief Election Commissioner of India, a member-secretary of the Law Commission and the Secretary-General of the Rajya Sabha before being appointed Governor of Himachal Pradesh.

Ramadevi has two daughters, a son and six grandchildren. Her husband, V S Ramavatar, is a retired Chief Engineer of the state-owned Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) of India. He was responsible for the creation of the regional office of the REC in Bangalore and was in charge of the rural electrification in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

Talking to media persons, Ramavatar said he was familiar with most Karnataka districts as he had visited the State more than 20 times.

Ramadevi's predecessors include ---- Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar (1956-64), S M Sriganesh (1964-65), V V Giri (1965-67), G S Pathak (1967-69), Dharmaveera (1969-72), Mohanlal Sukhadia (1972-76), Umashankar Dixit (1976-77), Govinda Narayan (1977-83), Ashoknath Banerji (1983-88), P Venkatasubbaiah (1988-90), Banu Pratap Singh (1990-91) and Khurshed Alam Khan (1990-99).