DR APJ ABDUL KALAM

Bharat Ratna Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam born 15 October 1931) usually referred to as
Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, is an Indian scientist and administrator who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007.
 

Kalam was born and raised in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, studied physics at the St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli, and
aerospace engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), Chennai.

Before his term as President, he worked as an aerospace engineer with Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Kalam is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on the development of ballistic
missile and launch vehicle technology. He played a pivotal organizational, technical and political role in India's Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, t
he first since the original nuclear test by India in 1974. Some scientific experts have however called Kalam a man with no authority over nuclear physics
but who just carried on the works of Homi J. Bhabha and Vikram Sarabhai.

Kalam was elected the President of India in 2002, defeating Lakshmi Sahgal and was supported by both the Indian National Congress and the
Bharatiya Janata Party, the major political parties of India. He is currently a visiting professor at
Indian Institute of Management Shillong, Indian Institute of Management Ahmadabad and Indian Institute of Management Indore,
honorary fellow of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology
Thiruvananthapuram, a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Anna University (Chennai), JSS University (Mysore) and an adjunct/visiting faculty
at many other academic and research institutions across India.

Kalam advocated plans to develop India into a developed nation by 2020 in his book India 2020. Books authored
by him have received considerable demands in South Korea for the translated versions.
 He has received several prestigious awards, including the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian honor.
Kalam is known for his motivational speeches and interaction with the student community in India.
He launched his mission for the youth of the nation in 2011 called the What Can I Give Movement
with a central theme to defeat corruption in India.