Hinduism: Details about 'Apj Abdul Kalam'
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Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (Tamil: அ.ப.ஜ. அப்துல் கலாம்; Hindi: अवुल् फ़किर् ज़य्नुल् अबिदीन् अब्दुल् क़लाम; Urdu: ابو الفقیر زین العبدین ابدل کلام), born October 15, 1931, Tamil Nadu, India, usually referred to as Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, is the President of India. He is also a notable scientist and an engineer. He is often referred to as the Missile Man of India.
CareerAbdul Kalam was born at Rameswaram in Dhanushkodi, Tamil Nadu, to a working class Tamil Muslim family. He received his degree in aeronautical engineering from the Madras Institute of Technology in 1958. He joined India's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) upon graduation to work on a hovercraft project. In 1962, Kalam moved to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), where his team successfully launched several satellites. He made a significant contribution as Project Director to develop India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III) which successfully placed the Rohini satellite into the near earth orbit in July 1980. In 1982, Kalam returned to the DRDO as director, focusing on Indigenous guided missiles. He was responsible for the development and operationalisation of the AGNI and PRITHVI missiles. This earned him the sobriquet "India's missile-man". In July 1992, Kalam became scientific advisor to India's defence minister. As the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Indian government, he held the rank of a Cabinet Minister. His work led to the successful Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, which reiterated India's position as a nuclear weapon state. Dr. Kalam was also the Chairman, Ex-officio, of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet (SAC-C) and piloted India Millennium Mission 2020. Dr. Kalam took up academic pursuit as Professor, Technology & Societal Transformation at Anna University, Chennai from November 2001 and was involved in teaching and research tasks. Above all, he took up a mission to ignite the young minds for national development by meeting high school students across the country. Kalam was elected the 11th President of India and took office on July 25, 2002. HonoursDr. Kalam has the unique distinction of having received doctorates from at least thirty universities, as also India's three highest civilian honours - the Padma Bhushan in 1981; the Padma Vibhushan in 1990; and the Bharat Ratna in 1997. He has recently refused a honourary doctorate from a University, claiming he is satisfied with the ones he has earned with his hardwork and determination. Political viewsSomething of Kalam's probable views on certain issues can be surmised from positions espoused by him in the past. His book "India 2020" strongly advocates an action plan to develop India into a knowledge superpower and into a developed nation by the year 2020. Kalam is credited with the view that India ought to take a more assertive stance in international relations; he apparently regards his work on India's nuclear weapons program as a way to assert India's place as a future superpower. Kalam continues to take an active interest in other developments in the field of science and technology as well. He has proposed a research programme to increase intelligence using bio-implants. He is a supporter of Open source software over proprietary solutions and believes that the use of open source software on a large scale will bring more people the benefits of information technology. Personal lifeKalam observes strict personal discipline, practicing vegetarianism, teetotalism and celibacy. Kalam is a scholar of Tirukkural; in most of his speeches, he quotes at least one kural.It is believed that he reads both the Qur'an (the main holy text of his family's faith, Islam) regularly and also the Bhagavad Gita at times. Kalam has written several inspirational books, most notably his autobiography Wings of Fire, aimed at motivating Indian youth. Another of his books, ''Guiding Souls: Dialogues on the Purpose of Life reveals his spiritual side. Kalam, the author catching on in South KoreaBooks written by President A P J Abdul Kalam have captured the interest of the South Korean youth, if an offer made by a professor of this country to translate his latest book "Guiding Souls" into Korean is any indication. Dr Ok Jung Lee, the 51-year-old professor of Sociology in the Catholic University at Daegu, met Kalam and the book's co-author Prof Arun K Tiwari on Tuesday night and offered to translate "Guiding Souls", just a year after she had translated Kalam's previous book "Wings of Fire". Kalam, whose power point presentations on impact of science on a nation's life, has charmed South Koreans, has consented to the offer by Dr Lee. Asked what special traits she found in the Indian President to translate two books in as many years, Lee said Kalam has emerged as "the guiding soul of Korean youth" and "Wings of Fire" made a "profound impact" since its publication which is reflected in its good sale in the areas around Universities." When Kalam asked Lee what could be the reason behind the popularity of "Wings of Fire" in Korea, she replied "Your book has provided a new perspective of patience and generosity to Korean youth growing in a highly competitive society. Your love for your parents and teachers, particularly to your mother, has welled many Korean eyes." "We are keen to present your latest book to our students in their language," the author said. Kalam presented Lee a signed copy of "Guiding Souls". (Pallab Bhattacharya in Seoul, FEB 9 for PTI) Submarine JourneyAPJ Abdul Kalam on Tuesday, 14th February 2006 created history by becoming the country's first President to undertake an undersea journey. Kalam boarded the INS Sindhurakshak, a Russian-origin kilo class submarine, from the Vishakapattanam Naval dockyard. The duration of the journey was around three-and-half hours during which Kalam had lunch with the crewmembers. Dr Kalam’s silent work to make healthcare affordable
For the past several years, the humanist in Dr Kalam has been silently working towards achieving his goal of taking quality healthcare to the rural areas by establishing a link between doctors and technocrats so that the spin-offs of defence technology benefit the common man. Mr Arun Tiwari, former DRDO missile scientist and co-author of Dr Kalam’s autobiography "wings of fire" told UNI that a fire at thumba during Dr Kalam’s stint with the ISRO in the early 80s set him thinking about the irony of india possessing the most sophisticated, hi-tech space and defence technologies while lagging behind in providing basic medical needs. One of Dr Kalam’s colleagues working in hi-tech payload preparation laboratory suffered severe burns following a violent explosion and was rushed to a hospital at Trivandrum. However, the hospital did not have a separate burns ward or facilities to treat patients suffering burns. Similarly, during his tenure as DRDO chief, Dr Kalam saw from close quarters how expensive imported medicines saved some of his colleagues who suffered life-threatening ailments. Not only that, he went out of his way and flew one of the scientists to london for a liver transplant. When another scientist suffered a heart attack and had to be administered an imported drug within 24 hours, Dr Kalam spoke to the then military attache, Brigadier Karai, in the Indian Embassy at london and networked through Air India and Indian Airlines and ensured that the drug reached the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) here within the stipulated time. Recently, Dr Kalam described a group of sceptic neurosurgeons at a city hospital here as "doubting thomases" after they did not warm up to his idea of looking at the feasibility of designing a bio-chip for mentally challenged children. However, an optimistic Kalam reminded them that technology "progresses by chasing the impossible." "He wants to do something concrete for mentally challenged children," Mr Tiwari added. The genial missile technologist’s burning desire to make available affordable healthcare by utilising defence technology spin-offs saw him establish the Society for Biomedical Technology (SBMT) in 1993 by bringing together defence scientists and medical experts to produce state-of-the-art indigenous medical equipment, devices and high-cost consumables which were being imported at steep rates. The SBMT was entrusted to make an external cardiac pacemaker, a cytoscan for early detection of cervical cancer (in view of its high incidence among rural indian women), stress test system, an ophthalmic laser, a coronary stent, floor reaction orthosis and other prosthetic devices for disabled children and a haemodialysis machine. However, only three projects — an indigenously developed coronary stent christened ‘Kalam-Raju Stent’, an ophthalmic laser and calipers — saw the light of the day. The other projects did not take off due to official apathy and lack of coordination among the diverse agencies involved in executing them. Dr Kalam also played a leading role in the recent launch of telemedicine projects connecting remote rural-based hospitals to the care super-speciality hospital here, so that the expertise of top doctors was made available to the rural people. The care foundation headed by eminent cardiologist B Soma Raju, who is closely associated with Dr Kalam, has linked Mahbubnagar District Hospital (in Andhra Pradesh) and another hospital in Puri (Orissa) to the super-speciality hospital. Another hospital in Assam is in the process of being linked. Mr Tiwari, now Director, Care Foundation, said: "Dr Kalam asked us to go to those remote areas which are contributing significantly to the GDP such as oilfields and coal mines but do not have adequate medical facilities". At the instance of Dr Kalam, defence and civil laboratories are in the process of developing an indigenous cathlab. "Seven technologies have been distributed among the laboratories to integrate the system, which would cost around Rs 50 lakh as against Rs two crore for an imported one," Mr Tiwari added. A cathlab is essential to carry out life-saving cardiac intervention procedures. At present, they are restricted to major cities - there are 250 cathlabs in 11 cities in the country. "People have to travel great distances even to get an angiogram done," he said, adding that the indigenous cathlab would be ready for clinical trials in about three months. (UNI) Books
Abdul Kalam Abdul Kalam Abdul Kalam - ஏ. பி. ஜே. அப்துல் கலாம अब्दुल कलाम Abdul Kalammr:ए. पी. जे. अब्दुल कलाम Abdul Kalam アブドゥル・カラーム Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalamsa:अब्दुल कलाम A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Abdul Kalamta:ஏ. பி. ஜே. அப்துல் கலாம்te:ఏ.పి.జె.అబ్దుల్ కలామ్ 阿卜杜尔·卡拉姆
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