Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam is not planning to walk into the sunset after he steps down from the country’s highest constitutional post next month.
President’s post-retirement schedule is packed with plans to meet children and to set up a space university in Kerala
NEW DELHI: Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam is not planning to walk into the sunset after he steps down from the country’s highest constitutional post next month.
Ceaseless travel, interactions with kids, teaching, and close involvement with the setting up of India’s first space university in Thiruvananthapuram are at the top of his post-retirement agenda.
According to people who have interacted closely with the president, Kalam plans to travel the length and breadth of the country, meeting all kinds of people, and especially children, rural people and social workers. He wants to popularise his Pura concept. Pura stands for Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas. According to Kalam, it can be achieved by providing rural areas with connectivity in four areas: (1) transport and power, (2) electronics — IT and telecom, (3) education, and (4) market.
Sources indicate that Kalam has expressed a desire to travel continuously even while being based in Delhi. India’s first bachelor president, Kalam will take up an official accommodation in Lutyen’s Delhi, but may not be around most of the time.
His friends believe that his prime focus in the immediate future will be the space university. He will in all probability be a visitor there and efforts are on to get him to become a patron.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is setting up the university to meet the increasing demand for highly qualified space professionals as India becomes a leading global player in this sophisticated field. India is gradually becoming a favourite launch destination, and it is working on marketing small satellites globally. Isro has a marketing tieup with the European Aeronautic Defence & Space Company (EADS) to achieve this potential.
Sources say Kalam has assured Isro that he will assist in shaping the university. There are emotional reasons, too. Kalam’s formative years as a scientist were spent at Isro, where he was project director for the country’s first indigenous satellite launch vehicle programme — the SLV-III. It injected the Rohini satellite into a near-earth orbit in 1980, propelling India into the exclusive space club.
During nearly two decades with Isro, Kalam played a crucial role in the evolution of the launch vehicle programme, especially the Polar SLV configuration. Later, he moved to the Defence Research & Development Organisation, and was involved with the indigenous guided missile development project.
The President will also be involved in shaping a modern Nalanda University, which is being built on his suggestion by the Bihar government.
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