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 ofballistic 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 J. Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai.
He is currently a visiting
professor at Indian
Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Chancellor ofIndian 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.
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Early life and
education
Born on 15th October, 1931, at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, 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[11]in 1954 but towards the end he was not
enthusiastic about seeing himself as a physicist.[12] Kalam
soon discovered Aerospace
Engineeringat 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 ofDRDO 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 witness 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 Deviland 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.[14] 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
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 engineercriticised 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.[17] Others
felt that Kalam had never worked in any of the Indian nuclear
power plantsand 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 honours
|
Year of Award or Honor
|
Name of Award or Honor
|
Awarding Organization
|
|
2011
|
S.Gujarati
University
|
|
|
2011
|
||
|
2009
|
Anna University
of Technology
|
|
|
2009
|
ASME Foundation,
USA
|
|
|
2009
|
International von
Kármán Wings Award
|
|
|
2008
|
Doctor of
Engineering (Honoris Causa)
|
Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore
|
|
2007
|
King Charles II
Medal
|
Royal Society, U.K
|
|
1997
|
||
|
1990
|
Government of
India
|
|
|
1981
|
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.
§ India 2020: A Vision for the New Millennium by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Y.S. Rajan; Penguin Books India,
2003.[2]
§ 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
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.
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