Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s 80th Birthday as the WORLD STUDENTS DAY

New Delhi:  United Nations Organisation (U.N.O) declared October 15th, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam‘s 80th Birthday as the “WORLD STUDENTS DAY“. It’s really a very great honor given to the Indian Personality. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (born 15 October 1931 in Rameshwaram, Madras Presidency, British India), usually referred to as Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam was the 11th President of India, serving from 2002 to 2007. During his term as President, he was popularly known as the People’s President. Before his term as India’s president, he worked as an aeronautical engineer with DRDO and ISRO. He is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on development of ballistic missile and space rocket technology. In India he is highly respected as a scientist and as an engineer.

On April 29, 2009, he became the first Asian to be bestowed the Hoover Medal, America’s top engineering prize, for his outstanding contribution to public service. The citation said that he is being recognized for making state-of-the-art healthcare available to the common man at affordable prices, bringing quality medical care to rural areas by establishing a link between doctors and technocrats, using spin-offs of defence technology to create state-of-the-art medical equipment and launching tele-medicine projects connecting remote rural-based hospitals to the super-specialty hospital. A pre-eminent scientist, a gifted engineer, and a true visionary, he is also a humble humanitarian in every sense of the word, it added.

On 13 September 2009, he was a recipient of the International von Kármán Wings Award. The Government of India has honoured him with the nation’s highest civilian honours: the Padma Bhushan in 1981; Padma Vibhushan in 1990; and the Bharat Ratna in 1997 for his work with ISRO and DRDO and his role as a scientific advisor to the Indian government. Kalam is the third President of India to have been honoured with a Bharat Ratna before being elected to the highest office, the other two being Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Zakir Hussain. He is also the first scientist and first bachelor to occupy Rashtrapati Bhavan. After his tenure as the president he is now a visiting guest professor at JSS University, Mysore. He has agreed to deliver a minimum of four lectures every year.

Bureau Report