Dr. Avual Pakir Jainulabeen Abdul Kalam, the missile magician
has become a name synonymous with India’s technological development in
satellite launch vehicles, main battle tank and light combat aircraft.
Dr.
Kalam was born on 15th October, 1931 in Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu.
He graduated from St. Joseph in Trichy and later specialized in
aero-engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology. His only stint abroad
was a four month visit to NASA in the United States. In 1958 he joined the
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and five years later
joined the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The
genius of Dr. Kalam was gradually recognized. He had core competence from the
start and was interested in rockets even though it was not his specific area of
work. In ISRO, as a project director for SLV III, Dr. Kalam contributed to the
design, development and management of India’s first indigenous satellite launch
vehicle to inject the Rohini satellite in the near earth orbit in 1980. It took
about 10 years from conception to the launch of SLV III, but it faced failure
for the first time. Dr. Kalam owned all the responsibility and his dedication
and motivation achieved success the next time.
Dr. Kalam left the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in 1982 and
joined the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), Hyderabad, as
Director. It was here that he conceived the futuristic Integrated Guided
Missile Development Programme (IGMDP) and laid a solid foundation for
indigenous design development of critical technology projects. In 1986 the
Guided Missile Board took the decision to take up the Missile Technology
Control Regime (MTRC). From then on the short range anti-tank Nag, surface to
air Trishul and Akash, 250 Km range Prithvi and Intermediate Range Ballistic
Missile (IRBM) Agni came in existence.
In
early 1980, Dr. Abdul Kalam was inducted to steer the missile programme which
by then was acquiring a certain strategic relevance. At that time it seem
improbable that a nation that could not design its own scooter, let alone a
major defence item, could actually design and build a missile. Also an
ambitious missile programme for a nation that could not feed and educate most
of its people was regarded as an absurd act and that also led by an unlikely
leader, Dr. Abdul Kalam, who was a mere diploma holder, seemed ridiculous. Yet
Dr. Kalam with his intelligence, dedication and determination conducted the first
successful test of the Agni in 1989. Over the last 15 years, the Kalam team have
delivered five missiles to the nation of gradually improved efficacy and this
was primarily due to the kind of leadership and vision that Kalam provided.
India’s
missile man, Dr. Abdul Kalam is basically a man of peace. He loves classical
music, writes poems in Tamil, plays the Veena and is a voracious leader. A
bachelor, he leads a strict life, occupying two rooms at the Asiad Village
Complex in Delhi. Public recognition came to him in November 1997, when he was
awarded the the Bharat Ratna, the nation’s highest civilian award. He served as
the President of India from 2002 to 2007.
Dr. Kalam is a man of war who is at peace with himself. He
chases the dream of India becoming a superpower by 2020. Already his weapons of
war have taken India into the rarefied heights of being a missile power. The
nuclear bomb underground tests conducted on May 11 and 13, 1998 by the joint
efforts of DRDO team led by Dr. Abdul Kalam and the atomic energy team had made
India the 6th nuclear power in the world. Indeed Dr. Kalam has made
India proud and we are certainly proud of him. Really he is an illustrious son
of India.
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