“ YOU ARE OUR INSPIRATION ”

As inspired by APG.................

Born on 15th October 1931 at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, specialized in Aeronautical Engineering from Madras Institute of Technology. Dr. Kalam made significant contribution as Project Director to develop India's first indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III) 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 responsible for the evolution of ISRO's launch vehicle programme, particularly the PSLV configuration. After working for two decades in ISRO and mastering launch vehicle technologies, Dr. Kalam took up the responsibility of developing Indigenous Guided Missiles at Defence Research and Development Organisation as the Chief Executive of Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (IGMDP). He was responsible for the development and operationalisation of AGNI and PRITHVI Missiles and for building indigenous capability in critical technologies through networking of multiple institutions. He was the Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister and Secretary, Department of Defence Research & Development from July 1992 to December 1999. During this period he led to the weaponisation of strategic missile systems and the Pokhran-II nuclear tests in collaboration with Department of Atomic Energy, which made India a nuclear weapon State. He also gave thrust to self-reliance in defence systems by progressing multiple development tasks and mission projects such as Light Combat Aircraft.

As Chairman of Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) and as an eminent scientist, he led the country with the help of 500 experts to arrive at Technology Vision 2020 giving a road map for transforming India from the present developing status to a developed nation. Dr. Kalam has served as the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, in the rank of Cabinet Minister, from November 1999 to November 2001 and was responsible for evolving policies, strategies and missions for many development applications. 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.

In his literary pursuit four of Dr. Kalam's books - "Wings of Fire", "India 2020 - A Vision for the New Millennium", "My journey" and "Ignited Minds - Unleashing the power within India" have become household names in India and among the Indian nationals abroad. These books have been translated in many Indian languages.

Dr. Kalam is one of the most distinguished scientists of India with the unique honour of receiving honorary doctorates from 30 universities and institutions. He has been awarded the coveted civilian awards - Padma Bhushan (1981) and Padma Vibhushan (1990) and the highest civilian award Bharat Ratna (1997). He is a recipient of several other awards and Fellow of many professional institutions.

Dr. Kalam became the 11th President of India on 25th July 2002. His focus is on transforming India into a developed nation by 2020.

Alice Munro winning Man Booker

Canadian short story writer Alice Munro has won this year's Man Booker International Prize on Wednesday beating Mahasweta Devi and a host of other literary heavyweights, including Nobel laureate V.S. Naipaul and Mario Vargas Llosa, to win the £60,000(worth USD 95,000) Man Booker International Prize.

The panel, which comprised writers Jane Smiley, Amit Chaudhuri and Andrey Kurkov, praised the 77-year-old for the originality and depth of her work.


Munro, who was born and still lives in Canada, published her first collection of stories, "Dance of the Happy Shades", in 1968, which won Canada's prestigious Governor General's Award.

The Man Booker International Prize is affiliated with the Booker Prize, one of the world's most prestigious literary awards, but is unique as it can be won by an author of any nationality providing their work is available in English.


The prize, different from the annual Booker Prize for Fiction, is awarded once every two years to a living author for their lifetime achievement.

Previous winners were Ismail Kadaré (2005) and Chinua Achebe (2007).

Ms. Munro (78), regarded as one of Canada’s most celebrated writers.

Alice Munro is mostly known as a short story writerin this time.

To read Alice Munro is to learn something every time that you never thought of before.

The panel of judges, which included Indian writer Amit Chaudhuri, said that to read Ms. Munro’s work was to “learn something every time that you never thought of before.”

She will receive the prize at a ceremony in Dublin on June 25.

Ms. Munro won recognition with her very first collection of stories, ‘Dance of the Happy Shades,’ published in 1968. It won the Governor General’s Literary Award, Canada’s most prestigious literary prize. Her other successful works include ‘Lives of Girls’ and ‘Women’ (1971), which won the Canadian Booksellers Association International Book Year Award, and ‘The Beggar Maid,’ which was shortlisted for the annual Booker Prize in 1980.
Her latest collection of short stories, ‘Too Much Happiness,’ will be published in October.