Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (

i
/bdl klm/; born 15 October 1931) usually referred
to as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, is an Indian scientist and administrator who served as
the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007. Kalam was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil
Nadu, studied physics at the St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli, and aerospace engineering at
the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT),Chennai.Before his term as President, he worked as an
Aerospace engineer with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
[1]
Kalam is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his
work on the development of ballistic missileand launch vehicle technology.
[2]
He played a pivotal
organizational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, the first since
the original nuclear test by India in 1974. Some scientific experts have however called Kalam a man
with no authority over nuclear physics but who just carried on the works of Homi J.
Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai.
[3]

Kalam was elected the President of India in 2002, defeating Lakshmi Sahgal and was supported by
both the Indian National Congress and theBharatiya Janata Party, the major political parties of India.
He is currently a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management Shillong, Indian Institute of
Management Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Management Indore, honorary fellow of Indian
Institute of Science, Bangalore,
[4]
Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology
Thiruvananthapuram, a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Anna University (Chennai), JSS
University (Mysore) and an adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research institutions
across India.Kalam advocated plans to develop India into a developed nation by 2020 in his
book India 2020. He has received several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's
highest civilian honour. Kalam is known for his motivational speeches and interaction with the
student community in India.
[5]
He launched his mission for the youth of the nation in 2011 called
the What Can I Give Movement with a central theme to defeat corruption in India.
Early life and education[edit]
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 in a Tamil Muslim family to Jainulabdeen, a boat
owner and Ashiamma, a housewife, atRameswaram, located in the Indian state of Tamil
Nadu.
[6][7][8][9]
He came from a poor background and started working at an early age to supplement
his family's income.
[10]
After completing school, Kalam distributed newspapers to financially
contribute to his father's income.
[10][11]
In his school years, he had average grades, but was
described as a bright and hardworking student who had a strong desire to learn and spend hours on
his studies, especially mathematics.
[11]

"I inherited honesty and self-discipline from my father; from my mother, I inherited faith in goodness
and deep kindness as did my three brothers and sisters."
A quote from Kalam's autobiography
[8]
After completing his school education at the
Ramanathapuram Schwartz Matriculation School, Kalam went on to attend Saint Joseph's College,
Tiruchirappalli, then affiliated with the University of Madras, from where he graduated in physics in
1954.
[12]
Towards the end of the course, he was not enthusiastic about the subject and would later
regret the four years he studied it. He then moved to Madras in 1955 to
study aerospace engineering.
[9]
While Kalam was working on a senior class project, the Dean was
dissatisfied with the lack of progress and threatened revoking his scholarship unless the project was
finished within the next three days. He worked tirelessly on his project and met the deadline,
impressing the Dean who later said, "I [Dean] was putting you [Kalam] under stress and asking you
to meet a difficult deadline".
[13]
He narrowly missed achieving his dream of becoming a fighter pilot,
as he placed ninth in qualifiers, and only eight positions were available in the IAF.
[14]

Career as scientist[edit]
After graduating from Madras Institute of Technology (MIT Chennai) in 1960, Kalam
joined Aeronautical Development Establishment ofDefense Research and Development
Organization (DRDO) as a scientist. Kalam started his career by designing a small helicopter for
theIndian Army, but remained unconvinced with the choice of his job at DRDO.
[16]
Kalam was also
part of the INCOSPAR committee working under Vikram Sarabhai, the renowned space
scientist.
[9]
In 1969, Kalam was transferred to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)where
he was the project director of India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III) which
successfully deployed the Rohini satellite in near earth's orbit in July 1980. Joining ISRO was one of
Kalam's biggest achievements in life and he is said to have found himself when he started to work
on the SLV project. Kalam first started work on an expandable rocket project independently at
DRDO in 1965.
[1]
In 1969, Kalam received the government's approval and expanded the program to
include more engineers.
[15]
In 196364, he visited NASA's Langley Research
Center in Hampton Virginia, Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and Wallops Flight
Facility situated at Eastern Shore of Virginia.
[7][17]
During the period between the 1970s and 1990s,
Kalam made an effort to develop the Polar SLVand SLV-III projects, both of which proved to be
success.Kalam was invited by Raja Ramanna to witness the country's first nuclear test Smiling
Buddha as the representative of TBRL, even though he had not participated in the development, test
site preparation and weapon designing. In the 1970s, a landmark was achieved by ISRO when the
locally builtRohini-1 was launched into space, using the SLV rocket.
[18]
In the 1970s, Kalam also
directed two projects, namely, Project Devil and Project Valiant , which sought to develop ballistic
missiles from the technology of the successful SLV programme.
[18]
Despite the disapproval of Union
Cabinet, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi allotted secret funds for these aerospace projects through her
discretionary powers under Kalam's directorship.
[18]
Kalam played an integral role convincing the
Union Cabinet to conceal the true nature of these classified aerospace projects.
[18]
His research and
educational leadership brought him great laurels and prestige in 1980s, which prompted the
government to initiate an advanced missile program under his directorship.
[18]
Kalam and Dr. V. S.
Arunachalam, metallurgist and scientific adviser to the Defense Minister, worked on the suggestion
by the then Defense Minister, R. Venkataraman on a proposal for simultaneous development of a
quiver of missiles instead of taking planned missiles one by one.
[19]
R Venkatraman was instrumental
in getting the cabinet approval for allocating 3.88 billion rupees for the mission, named Integrated
Guided Missile Development Program (I.G.M.D.P) and appointed Kalam as the chief
executive.
[19]
Kalam played a major part in developing many missiles under the mission
including Agni, an intermediate range ballistic missile and Prithvi, the tactical surface-to-surface
missile, although the projects have been criticised for mismanagement and cost and time
overruns.
[19][20]
He was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister and the Secretary
of Defence Research and Development Organisation from July 1992 to December 1999.
ThePokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted during this period where he played an intensive political
and technological role. Kalam served as the Chief Project Coordinator, along with R.
Chidambaram during the testing phase.
[7][21]
Photos and snapshots of him taken by the media
elevated Kalam as the country's top nuclear scientist.
[22]
In 1998, along with cardiologist Dr.Soma Raju, Kalam
developed a low cost Coronary stent. It was named as "Kalam-Raju Stent" honouring them.
[23][24]
In 2012, the duo,
designed a rugged tablet PC for health care in rural areas, which was named as "Kalam-Raju Tablet".
[25]