Abdul Kalam
Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam born 15 October 1931) usually referred to as A.
P. J. Abdul Kalam, is a renowned aerospace engineer, professor (of
Aerospace engineering), and first Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space
Science and Technology Thiruvananthapuram (IIST), who served as the 11th President
of India from 2002 to 2007. During his term as President, he was popularly
known as the People's President. He was awarded the Bharat Ratna India's
highest civilian honour in 1997. Before his term as India's
president, he worked as an aerospace engineer with Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
He is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the
development of ballistic missile and space rocket technology. Kalam 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. Kalam has even been circled with various controversies as many
scientific experts called him a man with no authority over "nuclear
physics" and a man who just carried the works of Homi Jahangir Bhabha and Vikram
Sarabhai. He is currently a visiting professor at Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad, Chancellor of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology
Thiruvananthapuram, a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Anna
University (Chennai), a visiting
professor at Indian Institute of Management Indore,
and an adjunct/visiting faculty at many other academic and research
institutions across India.
In May 2011, Kalam launched his mission for the youth of the nation called the What
Can I Give Movement. Kalam better known as a scientist, also has special
interest in the field of arts like writing Tamil poems, and also playing the
music instrument Veenai.Early life and education
Kalam spent most of his childhood running into
financial problems and started working at an early age to supplement his
family's income. Kalam was brought up in a multi-religious, tolerant society,
with Kalam strictly following his religious routine. Kalam, as a child, had a
tough routine – he would start his day by getting up at 4:00 am; study and review his homework before going to
school to attend the mathematics class as his first class of the day. After
completing school, Kalam along with his cousin Samsuddin Kalam distributed
papers in order to financially contribute to his father's income. In his school
years, Kalam was described as a mediocre student who had average grades in his
class, but a bright and hardworking student who had a strong desire to learn.
Kalam spent hours on his studies, especially in mathematics, and his teachers
always regarded him as a student who made an effort in his studies. After completing
his school education, Kalam went on to attend the Saint
Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli where he graduated
in Physics in 1954 but towards the end he was not enthusiastic about seeing
himself as a physicist. Kalam soon discovered aerospace engineering at Madras,
and he regretted the loss of the four years spent in physics. In 1955, Kalam
moved to Madras and began taking
courses on Aerospace engineering. While Kalam was working on a senior class
project, the Dean of the Engineering came by to see Kalam's progress. The Dean
was dissatisfied with Kalam's progress and said that his scholarship would be
revoked if the project wasn't finished within the next two days. Kalam worked
tirelessly on his project, and met the deadline. His tireless effort impressed
the Dean who said, "It was a test, and under extreme stress, Kalam met a
difficult deadline to complete the project".Career as scientist
After graduation from Madras Institute of
Technology (MIT – Chennai) in 1960, Kalam joined Aeronautical Development
Establishment of DRDO as a chief scientist. There, Kalam started his career by
designing a small helicopter for the Indian Army, but remained unconvinced with
the choice of his job. Kalam was also part of the INCOSPAR committee working
under Vikram Sarabhai. 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). 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. However, Kalam first started work on an
expandable rocket project independently at DRDO in 1965. In 1969, Kalam
received the government's approval and expanded the program to many engineers.
In 1979, the first maiden flight of this project was made and in 1980,
country's first satellite Rohini was launched with this rocket.
From 1970s and 1990s, Kalam made an effort to
develop the Polar SLV and SLV-III project which proved to be successful. In
1974, Kalam was shifted to the Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory (TBRL),
a subsidiary of DRDO. Kalam was invited to witnessed the country's first
nuclear test, Smiling Buddha as the representative of TBRL, even though he had
not participated in developing or even taken part in the test site preparations
or weapon designing. Kalam arrived at the test site on the invitation of Raja
Ramanna. In 1970s, a landmark was passed when ISRO first launched into space
the locally built Rohini-1, using the SLV rocket. In the 1970s, Kalam
also directed the Project Devil and Project Valiant to developed
the ballistic missiles from the technology of Kalam's successful SLV programme.
Despite the disapproval of Union Cabinet, Premier Indira Gandhi allotted secret
funds for these aerospace projects through her discretionary powers under
Kalam's directorship. Kalam played an integral role convincing the Union
Cabinet to conceal the true nature of these classified aerospace projects. 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. As Chief Executive of the Integrated Guided Missile
Development Program (I.G.M.D.P), he played a major part in developing many
missiles in India
including Agni and Prithvi although the entire project has been criticised for
being overrun and mismanaged. 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. The Pokhran-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. Photos and snapshots of him taken by the Media
elevated Kalam as the country's top nuclear scientist although Kalam was not
directly involved with the nuclear program at the time.
Criticisms and controversy
Main article: Pokhran-II -: The controversy
that surrounds Kalam's role as a nuclear scientist, is the lack of reliable and
factual reporting of the yield of Pokhran II tests. The director of the site test, K.
Santhanam, publicly admitted that the thermonuclear bomb was a "fizzle"
test, criticising Kalam for issuing the wrong report. However, Kalam dismissed
the claims, and R. Chidambaram, a key associated with Pokhran-II, had
also described these claims as incorrect. In spite of his leading role in the
development of Indian nuclear programme, Kalam has received rogue criticism
from many of his leading nuclear peers who claimed that Kalam had "no
authority" over nuclear science. Homi Sethna, a chemical engineer
criticised Kalam when Sethna claimed that Kalam had no background in publishing
articles in nuclear science, even in nuclear physics. Sethna maintained that
Kalam received his doctorate in Aerospace engineering which is a completely
different discipline from Nuclear engineering, and what various universities
awarded him for his achievements had nothing to do with nuclear physics.
Sethna, in his last interview, maintained that in 1950s Kalam had failed
advanced physics courses during his college life, and quoted "What does he
know (about [nuclear] physics)....?", on national television. Others felt
that Kalam had never worked in any of the Indian nuclear power plants and had
no role in developing the nuclear weapon which was completed under Raja Ramanna
Kalam worked as an aerospace engineer in a SLV project in 1970s and 1980s
onwards as a project director before he was shifted to Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO), Sethna concluded. In 2008, Indian media
questioned his claims over his inventions such as missiles, while working in a
classified missile programme. Kalam took the credit of inventing the Agni, Prithvi,
and Aakash missile system. All of these were developed, researched and designed
by other scientists whereas Kalam was involved in getting the funds and other
logistic tasks. As a director of DRDO, Kalam named all these missiles and got
all the fame. R. N. Agarwal, former director, Advanced System Laboratory and
former Program Director of Agni missile was considered to be the real architect
behind the successful design of Agni Missile. However it is apparent
that it was the Media Propaganda which portrayed Kalam as the developer of India's
most potent ballistic missile "Agni", in his own Biography Dr.Kalam
has given the credit of "Agni" development to Dr Ram Narayan Agarwal.
Dr Agarwal was an alumnus of MIT and Dr Kalam in his book gave the credit of
Agni development to Dr Agarwal. For the Prithvi Missile project he has named
Col VJ Sundaram as the brain behind this project, for Trishul Missile he gave
the credit to Cmdr SR Mohan. In 2006, senior media correspondent Praful Bidwai,
in the The Daily Star, wrote that two aerospace projects, Project
Valiant and Project Devil, which were authorised by former Premier Indira
Gandhi under the directorship of Abdul Kalam, resulted in "total
failure"; in 1980s, these projects were ultimately cancelled by the
government under pressure by the Indian Army. Kalam was also criticised by
civil groups over his stand on the Kudankulam nuclear plant, where he supported
setting up of the nuclear power plant and never spoke with the local people.
Issues with American security authorities :
Abdul Kalam was frisked at New York's
JFK Airport,
while boarding a plane in New York
on 29 September 2011. The
former President was on the plane when he was frisked again. He was separated
from his jacket and shoes for a while. The incident was not reported until 13
November that year. India
threatened retaliatory action as there was a "general sense of
outrage" around the country.
Issues held:
Future India: 2020
In his book India 2020, Kalam strongly
advocates an action plan to develop India
into a knowledge superpower and a developed nation by the year 2020. He regards
his work on India's
nuclear weapons program as a way to assert India's
place as a future superpower. It has been reported that there is a considerable
demand in South Korea
for translated versions of books authored by him. Kalam continues to take an
active interest in other developments in the field of science and technology.
He has proposed a research program for developing bio-implants. He is a
supporter of Open Source over proprietary solutions and believes that the use
of free software on a large scale will bring the benefits of information
technology to more people.
Awards and honors
2011 Doctor of Science (microbiology) S.Gujarati University
2011 IEEE Honorary Membership IEEE
2009 Doctor of Science (Honoris
Causa) Anna University of Technology
2009 Hoover Medal ASME Foundation, USA
2009 International von Kármán
Wings Award California Institute of
Technology, U.S.A
2008 Doctor of Engineering
(Honoris Causa) Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
2007 King Charles II Medal Royal Society, U.K
1997 Bharat Ratna Government
of India
1990 Padma Vibhushan Government of India
1981 Padma Bhushan Government
of India
Books and documentaries
Kalam's writings
- Wings of Fire: An Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam by A. P. J Abdul Kalam, Arun Tiwari; by K. Bhushan, G. Katyal; A. P. J. Pub. Corp, 2002.
- Scientist to President by Abdul A. P. J. Kalam; Gyan Publishing House, 2003.
- Ignited Minds: Unleashing the Power Within India by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam; Penguin Books, 2003.
- India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Y.S. Rajan; Penguin Books India, 2003.
- India-my-dream by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam; Excel Books, 2004.
- Envisioning an Empowered Nation: Technology for Societal Transformation by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam; TATA McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Ltd, 2004.
- Guiding Souls: Dialogues on the Purpose of Life by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Arun K Tiwari; Ocean Books, 2005.
- The Life Tree : Poems by A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, Paintings by Manav Gupta; Penguin Books India, 2005
- Children Ask Kalam by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam; Pearson Education, ISBN 81-7758-245-3
- Indomitable Spirit by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, 2006
- The Scientific Indian: A Twenty-first Century Guide to the World around Us by APJ Abdul Kalam and YS Rajan
- My Journey by APJ Abdul Kalam, Published By: V Suryanarayana Murthy
- Target 3 Billion PURA: Innovative Solutions towards Sustainable Development by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Srijan Pal Singh ISBN 978-0-143-41730-9
Biographies
- Eternal Quest: Life and Times of Dr. Kalam by S. Chandra; Pentagon Publishers, 2002.
- President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam by R. K. Pruthi; Anmol Publications, 2002.
- A. P. J. Abdul Kalam: The Visionary of India by K. Bhushan, G. Katyal; A.P.H. Pub. Corp, 2002.
- A Little Dream (documentary film) by P. Dhanapal; Minveli Media Works Private Limited, 2008.
- The Kalam Effect: My Years with the President by P.M. Nair; Harper Collins, 2008.
- My Days With Mahatma Abdul Kalam by Fr.A.K. George; ISBN No:978-8190452953; Publisher: Novel Corporation, 2009.
