Dr APJ Abdul Kalam (1931-2015): a look back at his life

A Bharat Ratna, Kalam played a key role in the development of missiles earning the title of 'India's Missile Man'.

Here is a quick look at some milestones from his life.

In remembrance

• Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on 15 October 1931 at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu. He specialised in Aero Engineering at Madras Institute of Technology.
• Before his term as India's president from 2002 to 2007, he worked as an aeronautical engineer with DRDO and ISRO.
• He was popularly known as India's Missile Man because of his work on the development of ballistic missiles (including Agni and Prithvi) and space rocket technology.

• As the Project Director, he was heavily involved in the development of India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III).
• He used the lightweight carbon-compound material designed for Agni to make callipers for the polio-affected. This reduced the weight of the callipers to 400 grams from its original weight of 4 kilos.
• Kalam became the first president and the oldest Indian to fly in the Sukhoi-30 MKI, the Indian Air Force's state-of-the-art supersonic fighter aircraft. "I am a contented man. My childhood dream has been fulfilled," he said after his 30-minute joy ride.

• In 2004, Abdul Kalam become the first President to visit Siachen, the world's highest battle ground.
• In his biography, Kalam said he worked as a newspaper vendor to support his studies.
• The Government of India awarded him with the nation's three highest civilian honours: the Padma Bhushan in 1981; Padma Vibhushan in 1990; and the Bharat Ratna in 1997 for his work with ISRO and DRDO and his role as a scientific advisor to the Indian government.

• He was the first scientist and the first bachelor to occupy Rashtrapati Bhavan.
• Kalam acted on only one mercy plea in his tenure as president of India, rejecting the plea from rapist Dhananjoy Chatterjee, who was hanged thereafter.
• It was Kalam, who on 28 March 2006 proposed the idea of revival of Nalanda university.

• A P J Abdul Kalam's 79th birthday was recognised as World Student's Day by the United Nations.
• In his book India 2020, Kalam strongly advocated an action plan to develop India into a knowledge superpower and a developed nation by the year 2020. He regarded his work on India's nuclear weapons programme as a way to assert India's place as a future superpower.
• He was a vegetarian and a teetotaller.

• In 1998, he developed a low-cost coronary stent together with cardiologist Dr Soma Raju. It was later named the 'Kalam-Raju Stent'. In 2012, Kalam and Raju designed a rugged tablet PC for healthcare in rural areas, which was named the 'Kalam-Raju Tablet'.
• In 2003 and in 2006 he was nominated for the MTV Youth Icon of the Year award.