A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who passed away on 27 July 2015, aged 83, was an Indian scientist and politician who played a leading role
in the development of India’s missile and nuclear weapons programs. He was
president of India from 2002 to 2007.
Kalam earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from
the Madras Institute of Technology and in 1958 joined the Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO). In 1969 he moved to the Indian Space Research
Organisation, where he was project director of the SLV-III, the first satellite
launch vehicle that was both designed and produced in India. Rejoining DRDO in
1982, Kalam planned the program that produced a number of successful missiles,
which helped earn him the nickname “Missile Man.” Among those successes was
Agni, India’s first intermediate-range ballistic missile, which
incorporated aspects of the SLV-III and was launched in 1989.
From
1992 to 1997 Kalam was scientific adviser to the defence minister, and he later
served as principal scientific adviser (1999–2001) to the government with the
rank of cabinet minister. His prominent role in the country’s 1998 nuclear weapons tests solidified
India as a nuclear power and established Kalam as a national hero, although the
tests caused great concern in the international community. In 1998
Kalam put forward a countrywide plan called Technology Vision 2020, which he described as a
road map for transforming India from a less-developed to a developed society in
20 years. The plan called for, among other measures, increasing agricultural
productivity, emphasizing technology as a vehicle for economic
growth, and widening access to health care and education.
In 2002 India’s ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) put forward Kalam to
succeed outgoing President Kocheril Raman Narayanan. Kalam was nominated by the
Hindu nationalist (Hindutva) NDA even though he was Muslim, and his stature and
popular appeal were such that even the main opposition party, the Indian
National Congress, also proposed his candidacy. Kalam easily won the election
and was sworn in as India’s 11th president, a largely ceremonial post, in
July 2002. He left office at the end of his term in 2007 and was succeeded by
Pratibha Patil, the country’s first woman president.
Upon returning to civilian life, Kalam remained
committed to using science and technology to transform India into a
developed country and served as a lecturer at several universities. On 27 July
2015, he collapsed while delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of
Management Shillong and was pronounced dead from cardiac arrest soon
afterward.
Kalam
wrote several books, including an autobiography, Wings
of Fire (1999). Among his numerous awards were two
of the country’s highest honours, the Padma Vibhushan (1990) and the Bharat
Ratna (1997).
