Indian school children piece together an image of former Indian president, APJ Kalam during a remembrance event on his 85th birth anniversary at a school in Chennai on October 15, 2016. Photo Courtesy: AFP
Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was born on Pamban Island in Tamil Nadu’s Rameswaram island on October 15, 1931. His father was owned a boat and was the imam of a local mosque, while his mother was a housewife. He was the youngest among his three brothers and a sister. In this photo, Indian school boys gather to make a portrait of the late former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam to mark his 86th birth anniversary in Chennai on October 13, 2017. Photo: AFP
Kalam is also known to have played a major role in the success of Pokhran-II nuclear bomb tests conducted at the Pokhran test range in 1998. Being the chief scientific advisor to the Prime Minister and director of the Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), he was the chief coordinator of the project along with Dr R Chidambaram, who was also the director of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE). He was also responsible for spearheading the mission to build the Agni and Prithvi missiles. In this photo, Indian devotees look at a missile model in tribute to the late former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam, known in India as "Missile Man", during the Hindu festival Durga Puja in Allahabad on October 21, 2015. Photo: AFP
The aerospace scientist became only the third president after Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Zakir Hussain to receive the Bharat Ratna award before they became presidents of India. Kalam received the Bharat Ratna in 1997, five years before he occupied the Rashtrapati Bhavan in 2002. In this photo, Indian artist Nageshwar Rao (top) arranges his paintings of portraits of Bharat Ratna Award winners (L-R) Lal Bahadur Shastri, APJ Abdul Kalam and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan at the Sri Thyagaraja Gana Sabha auditorium in Hyderabad on June 28, 2018. Photo: AFP
The former Indian president was also supportive of the Uniform Civil Code, which he stated was necessary for a country like India, which had over billion people and any law should be uniformly applicable. The law was also supported by social reformer Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar. In this photo, Indian school children piece together an image of former Indian president, APJ Kalam during a remembrance event on his 85th birth anniversary at a school in Chennai on October 15, 2016. Photo: AFP
Kalam’s work wasn’t only limited to space and missile research. He also collaborated with Indian cardiologist B Somaraju to create the low-cost Kalam-Raju stent (K-R stent) for coronary heart disease in 1998. Almost 14 years later, they came together again to create a mobile table computer to help healthcare workers in rural areas in India. In this photo, former Indian President, APJ Abdul Kalam gestures during his visit to the LD Institute of Indology in Ahmedabad on November 11, 2011. Photo: AFP
In 2012, the former President of India started the What Can I Give movement in an attempt to encourage young students and youth of India to fight against corruption. Apart from fighting corruption, the movement also focused on social and environmental issues in India. In this photo, Indian school children carry a portrait of former Indian president APJ Abdul Kalam on the second anniversary of his death in Chennai on July 27, 2017. Photo: AFP
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