Turning Points (23 page)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A
VUL
P
AKIR
J
AINULABDEEN
A
BDUL
K
ALAM
was the eleventh President of India, from 2002 to 2007. He is a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, the Padma Vibhushan and the nation’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.
Born in 1931 in Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, Dr Kalam studied aeronautical engineering at the Madras Institute of Technology. He played a key role in the development of India’s first satellite launch vehicle, the SLV-3, which launched the Rohini satellite in 1980 to take India into the space club; in the building and operationalization of India’s strategic missile systems; and in the 1998 nuclear tests. As chairman of the 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 into a developed nation.
As an elder statesman, he remains in the public eye for his role in offering counsel, reaching out to people and building bridges across religious and social divides. Dr Kalam’s focus stays on transforming India into a developed nation by 2020 and to this end he continues to follow a rigorous schedule that has him travelling across the country for his teaching assignments at IITs and IIMs, to address conferences and to meet students and people from all walks of life.
The Family and the Nation
with Acharya Mahapragya
First published in India in 2011 by
HarperCollins
Publishers
India
a joint venture with
The India Today Group
Copyright © A.P.J. Abdul Kalam 2012
ISBN: 978-93-5029-347-8
Epub Edition © June 2012 ISBN: 9789350295434
4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam asserts the moral right to be identified
as the author of this work.
The views and opinions expressed in this book are the author’s own and the facts are as reported by him, and the publishers are not in any way liable for the same.
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Publishers
India.
Cover design: Amrita Chakravorty
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