President APJ Abdul Kalam, who left a deep mark on the post after spending an eventful five years in office, will always be remembered as the people's President.
NEW DELHI: President APJ Abdul Kalam, who left a deep mark on the post after spending an eventful five years in office, will always be remembered as the people's President.
The life of Kalam, who strongly believes that technology can take the country to the top, is a vindication of what a determined person can achieve against heavy odds.
Kalam not only breathed life into the ballistic missiles programme, but also made it a point to meet school students during his many tours of the country to "ignite young minds".
He was the first supreme commander of the armed forces to visit troops in Siachen, make a submarine sortie and fly in a supersonic Sukhoi 30 combat jet.
He made efforts to bridge the digital divide with his ambitious TURA programme. He also tried to provide a human face to technology.
His famous lines for children -- "To dream, dream and dream and to think big" -- could well describe his vision for India.
Born October 15, 1931 at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, he received many honourary doctorates and was also awarded the Bharat Ratna in 1997, besides the Padma Bhushan 1981 and Padma Vibhushan 1991. In 1998, he bagged the prestigious Indira Gandhi award for national integration.
Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, who took over as President on July 25, 2005, was not just an aeronautical engineer, a distinguished scientist, an author -- but there was also a gardener in him -- the luscious herbal garden spread across 10 acres at Rashtrapati Bahawan is ample evidence.
Kalam specialised in aeronautical engineering from Madras Institute of Technology, and made significant contributions as project director in developing India's first indigenous satelite launch vehicle (SLV-III) which successfully injected Rohini satellite into orbit in July
1980 and made India an exclusive member of the space club.
Kalam was also responsible for the evolution of ISRO's launch vehicle programme, particularly the PSLV rocket.
Kalam was scientific advisor to the defence ministry and secretary, DRDO from July 1992 to December 1999.
During this period he contributed to the Pokhran-II nuclear test that made India a nuclear-weapon state.
The First Citizen's residence at Raisina Hills gained the "must see" status for tourists visiting the capital during his time.
To quote Kalam "we have acres of unutilised land in Rashtrapati Bhawan. We discussed how to utilise this land and after a brainstorming session it was decided that it could be as extended flower garden or make it people centric through other beneficial plantations".
Practicing vegetarianism and teetotalism, he had spent the past few years developing the concept of India Millennium Mission 2020 - a blueprint for transforming India into a developed nation. He calls it the second vision of nation and says he wants to focus on the children of India to ignite their minds.
A strong supporter of "open source software" over propriety solutions he believes that on a large scale it will bring more people the benefits of information technology. He has proposed a research programme for developing bioimplants.
His political views are espoused in his book "India 2020" where he strongly advocates an action plan to develop India into a knowledge superpower and into a developed nation by the year 2020.
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