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Elective English–I

Notes In 1963–64, he visited Nasa’s Langley Research Center in Hampton Virginia, Goddard Space
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland and Wallops Flight Facility situated at Eastern Shore of
Virginia. During the period between 1970s and 1990s, Kalam made an effort to develop the
Polar SLV and SLV-III projects, both of which proved to be success.
Kalam was invited by Raja Ramanna to witness the country’s first nuclear test Smiling Buddha
as the representative of TBRL, even though he had not participated in the development, test
site preparation and weapon designing. In the 1970s, a landmark was achieved by ISRO when
the locally built Rohini-1 was launched into space, using the SLV rocket. In the 1970s, Kalam
also directed two projects, namely, Project Devil and Project Valiant , which sought to develop
ballistic missiles from the technology of the successful SLV programme. Despite the disapproval
of Union Cabinet, Premier Indira Gandhi allotted secret funds for these aerospace projects
through her discretionary powers under Kalam’s directorship. Kalam played an integral role
convincing the Union Cabinet to conceal the true nature of these classified aerospace projects.
His research and educational leadership brought him great laurels and prestige in 1980s,
which prompted the government to initiate an advanced missile program under his directorship.
Kalam and Dr. VS Arunachalam, metallurgist and scientific adviser to the Defense Minister,
worked on the suggestion by the then Defense Minister, R. Venkataraman on a proposal for
simulataneous development of a quiver of missiles instead of taking planned missiles one by
one. R Venkatraman was instrumental in getting the cabinet approval for allocating 388 crore
rupees for the mission, named Integrated Guided Missile Development Program (I.G.M.D.P)
and appointed Kalam as the Chief Executive. Kalam played a major part in developing many
missiles under the mission including Agni, an intermediate range ballistic missile and Prithvi,
the tactical surface-to-surface missile, although the projects have been criticised for mismanagement
and cost and time overruns. He was the Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister and the
Secretary of Defence Research and Development Organisation from July 1992 to December
1999. The Pokhran-II nuclear tests were conducted during this period where he played an
intensive political and technological role. Kalam served as the Chief Project Coordinator,
along with R. Chidambaram during the testing phase. Photos and snapshots of him taken by
the media elevated Kalam as the country’s top nuclear scientist.
In 1998, along with cardiologist Dr.Soma Raju, Kalam developed a low cost Coronary stent.
It was named as “Kalam-Raju Stent” honouring them. In 2012, the duo, designed a rugged
tablet PC for health care in rural areas, which was named as “Kalam-Raju Tablet”.

Presidency

Abdul Kalam served as the 11th President of India, succeeding KR Narayanan. He won the
2002 presidential election with an electoral vote of 922,884, surpassing 107,366 votes won by
Lakshmi Sahgal. He served from 25 July 2002 to 25 July 2007.
On 10 June 2002, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which was in power at the time,
expressed to the leader of opposition, Indian National Congress president Sonia Gandhi that
they would propose Kalam for the post of President. The Samajwadi Party and the Nationalist
Congress Party backed his candidacy. After the Samajwadi Party announced its support for
him, President KR Narayanan chose not to seek a second term in office and hence left the field
clear for Kalam to become the 11th President of India.
I am really overwhelmed. Everywhere both in Internet and in other media, I have been asked
for a message. I was thinking what message I can give to the people of the country at this juncture.
On 18 June, Kalam filed his nomination papers in the Parliament of India, accompanied by
Vajpayee and his senior Cabinet colleagues.

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