NEW DELHI, Oct 15: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, along with chiefs of three services, today paid floral tributes to former President APJ Abdul Kalam’s statue on the occasion of his birth anniversary at DRDO Bhawan here.
They were at the DRDO Bhawan to participate at 41st Directors’ Conference of DRDO.
Born on 15 October 1931 at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, Dr Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, graduated in Science from St Joseph’s College, Trichy in 1954 and specialized in Aeronautical Engineering from Madras Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1957.
Dr Kalam was a pioneer in fibre glass technology and led a young team to initiate this effort in ISRO from design, development leading to production of composites rocket motor cases.
He made significant contribution as Project Director to develop India’s first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-3) which successfully injected the Rohini satellite in the near earth orbit in July 1980 and made India an exclusive member of Space Club.
He was awarded with the coveted civilian awards – Padma Bhushan (1981) and Padma Vibhushan (1990) and the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (1997).
Dr Kalam became the 11th President of India on July 25, 2002.
After five eventful years he demitted office on July 25, 2007. The former president suffered a cardiac arrest on July 27, 2015 while he was delivering lecture at Indian Institute of Management in Shillong and passed away. (UNI)
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