Obit: Dr APJ Abdul Kalam -- India's missile man, an indomitable spirit

New Delhi An enthusiast till the last for sharing ideas with students and youth it was not surprising that former president APJ Abdul Kalam was delivering a lecture at the IIMShillong when he collapsed and died in a hospital shortly afterwardsHis last tweet on Monday sounded enthusiastic Going to Shillong to take course on Livable Planet earth at IIM His handle APJAbdulKalam described him as Scientist teacher learner and writer Served as the 11th President of India 200207 Working for an economically developed nation by 2020Popularly known as Indias Missile Man Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam crowned a illustrious scientific career with a term as Indias first citizen after the then Atal Bihari Vajpayeeled National Democratic Alliance NDA government put forward his name as KR Narayanans successor He was recipient of Indias highest civilian honour the Bharat Ratna in 1997Former president APJ Abdul Kalam in Srinagar in June 2003 PicPTIOne of Indias best known scientists Kalam was full of ideas on how to solve Indias problems on bridging the ruralurban divide through his pet concept of PURA or Providing Urban amenities in Rural Areasa for empowering villages and also to use solar power in a big way to tide over Indias energy needsPURA Kalam said was about giving a cluster of villages physical electronic and knowledge connectivity and he had in mind creating about 7000 PURAs across the countryI believe that connectivity is the key to bridging the ruralurban divide The corecompetence of the village will enable the production of competitive products for national and international markets This will lead to rural enterprises which will create jobs in villages and lead to a vibrant economy in Indias hinterland That is how prosperity will emerge in the rural environment he said in an interview to Wharton in 2008He enumerated five traits that a leader especially the president of India must have The leader must have vision Without vision you cannot be a leader Second the leader must be able to travel into an unexplored path Normally the tendency is for people to travel along welllaid out ways Third the leader must know how to manage success and even more importantly failureThe fourth trait is that the leader should have the courage to make decisions Fifth the leader should have nobility in management Every action of the leader should be transparent And finally the leader should work with integrity and succeed with integrity he said in the same interviewKalam had also drawn up an elaborate plan to power Rashtrapati Bhavan with solar power but his term ended before he could implement it He believed that besides solar India should also go in for nuclear energy and also bio fuels from jatropha plant and algaeBorn on October 15 1931 at the Hindu pilgrim town of Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu Kalam specialized in aeronautical engineering from Madras Institute of Technology and in 1958 joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation DRDOHe moved to the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO where he was project director of Indias first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle SLVIII which successfully injected the Rohini satellite in the near earth orbit in July 1980 and made India a member of the exclusive Space ClubIn his twodecade stint in the space agency he was responsible for the evolution of ISROs launch vehicle programme particularly the PSLV configurationHe rejoined DRDO in 1982 and planned the programme that produced a number of successful missiles earning him the Missile Man nickname He took up the responsibility of developing indigenous weapons as the chief executive of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme IGMDP He was responsible for the development and operationalisation of Agni and Prithvi missilesFrom 1992 to 1997 Kalam was scientific adviser to the defence minister and later served as principal scientific adviser 19992001 to the government with the rank of cabinet ministerHe played a prominent role in the countrys 1998 nuclear weapons tests PokhranII which established Kalam as a national heroHe also gave thrust to selfreliance in defence systems by progressing multiple development tasks and mission projects such as Light Combat AircraftIn 1998 Kalam put forward a countrywide plan called Technology Vision 2020 which he described as a road map for transforming India from a lessdeveloped to a developed society in 20 years and called for among other measures increasing agricultural productivity technology as a vehicle for economic growth and widening access to health care and educationFrom November 2001 Kalam was professor technology and societal transformation at Anna University ChennaiHe wrote four books Wings of Fire India 2020 A Vision for the New Millennium My Journey and Ignited Minds Unleashing the power within IndiaOne of the most distinguished scientists of India with the unique honour of receiving honorary doctorates from 30 universities and institutions he was was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1981 and Padma Vibhushan in 1990 before the Bharat RatnaNot many known that he was a poet too His favourite poem was The Vision which he also recited in parliamentI climbed and climbedWhere is the peak my LordI ploughed and ploughedWhere is the knowledge treasure my LordI sailed and sailedWhere is the island of peace my LordAlmighty bless my nationWith vision and sweat resulting into happinessOn July 22 Kalam tweeted An indomitable spirit stands on two feet vision and firm thought It could serve as an apt description for him