A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

President of India

 

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam or Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 in Rameswaram, India and died on 27 July 2015 in Shillong. He was an Indian scientist and politician who played a number one role within the development of India's missile and nuclear weapons programs. He was the President of India from 2002 to 2007.

 
Kalam earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology in 1958 and joined the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). In 1969 he moved to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) where he was the Project Director of SLV-III, the primary satellite launch vehicle that was both designed and inbuilt India. Joining DRDO in 1982, Kalam planned variety of successful missile-producing programs, helping him acquire the nickname "Missile Man". Among those successes was Agni, India's first intermediate-range missile, incorporating aspects of the SLV-III and it absolutely was launched in 1989.

 
From 1992 to 1997, Kalam was the Scientific Advisor to the Minister of Defense, and later served because the Government's Chief Scientific Advisor (1999–2001) with the rank of Cabinet Minister. His major role within the country's 1998 nuclear weapons test strengthened India as a nuclear energy and established Kalam as a national hero, although the tests made him of great concern within

the international community. In 1998, Kalam proposes a nationwide scheme called Technology Vision 2020, which he described as a road map to remodel India from a less developed to a developed society in 20 years. 

The plan includes increasing agricultural productivity, emphasizing technology as a vehicle for economic process, and broadening access to health care and education, among other measures.
In 2002, India's ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) advises Kalam to succeed outgoing President Kochril Raman Narayanan. Kalam was nominated by a Hindu nationalist despite being Muslim, and his stature and popular appeal was such the most opposition party, the Indian National Congress, also proposed his candidacy.

 Kalam easily won the election and was sworn in because the 11th President of India in July 2002, a largely ceremonial post. He stepped down at the top of his tenure in 2007 and was succeeded by Pratibha Patil. First woman president of India

 

Kalam wrote several books including an autobiography, Wings of fireside (1999). Two of his many awards were the country's highest honor, the Padma Vibhushan in 1990 and therefore the Bharat Ratna in 1997.

 
Returning to civilian life, Kalam remained committed to reworking India into a developed country using science and technology and served as a coach in several universities. On 27 July 2015, he collapsed while delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management, Shillong and was declared dead from pathology shortly thereafter.