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Three reasons why Kalam was a tech visionary

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Dinesh C Sharma
Dinesh C SharmaJul 29, 2015 | 08:56

Three reasons why Kalam was a tech visionary

People describe Kalam in very many ways - People's President, Kalam chacha, missile man of India, sage-scientist, scientist-President, karm yogi, science communicator, a true Bharat Ratna and so on. Kalam was all of this and much more. To me, he was a technology visionary, a futurist, a dreamer and a great technology manager.

There are three distinct parts of his scientific career that preceded his presidency and in each of them he emerged as a superb team leader and a technologist par excellence. The first part of his career, from 1963-80, was spent in space research after a very brief stint in defence research. His career in space began with the founding of India's space programme by Vikram Sarabhai under the Indian Committee for Space Research (which became ISRO). The high point of Kalam's space stint was successful launch of the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-3) which propelled India into a select band of countries with rocket launching capability.

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Working with Sarabhai, Brahm Prakash and Satish Dhawan, Kalam picked up techno-managerial skills needed to steer strategic scientific missions. For SLV-3, he wanted a team of 275 engineers and technicians but was sanctioned only 50. The SLV team included Madhavan Nair who later rose to become head of the ISRO.

Building and leading technology teams

While being in the ISRO, Kalam was kept in the loop on important projects in defence research, particularly missile development, both informally and formally. At the time he was busy launching SLV-3 and preparing for the next generation ASLV, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was trying to develop a surface-to-air missile. It had been working on a missile project code named Devil since 1972, but with little success. After success with SLV-3, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi took a strategic decision to shift Kalam to the DRDO to head its missile project and made him director of the Defence Metallurgical Research Laboratory (DMRL) in Hyderabad in 1982.

Kalam was familiar with DMRL as he used to visit it in connection with the SLV development. He put his launch vehicle experience to full use in DRDL, putting together teams of engineers to work on missile development while roping in experts from other labs like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and IITs. This effort gave birth to the Guided Missile Development Programme, leading to the launch of Nag, Trishul and finally Agni. Yet again he proved his team building and leadership qualities for technology projects.

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In the third part of his career, Kalam played a role in the 1998 nuclear tests known as Pokhran-II. This was surprising to many because he did not come from the nuclear science pedigree and his foray was rocket science in both the ISRO and DRDO. But he became instrumental as a technology manager because the Pokhran-II campaign was seen as a joint venture involving the DRDO, armed forces and the nuclear establishment. Building and leading technology teams was Kalam's real strength as a technologist and an engineer. This is what is needed for mission-oriented programmes.

Contribution to space research

Kalam will always be remembered for his landmark contribution - India 2020: A Technology Vision - co-steered by his scientist-colleague YS Rajan at the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC). Under this project, a series of reports were prepared as a roadmap for technology development in different sectors like energy, food, advanced materials, strategic areas etc based on inputs from academic as well as industry experts. The idea was to put India on a trajectory to become a developed country by 2020. It was a detailed exercise in technology mapping and forecasting. These reports remain a great source of information and discussion even today.

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In many ways, Kalam was a futurist and a technology visionary. At the DRDO, he conceived the idea of a supersonic missile aircraft called hyper plane. When the ISRO was preparing to launch the Chandrayaan-1, Kalam challenged space scientists to develop a probe that the mission could drop on the lunar surface.

This resulted in the addition of an important scientific payload to the project - Moon Impact Probe.

He was always tossing new ideas and promoting out-of-the-box thinking among students, scientists and general public. Several ideas contained in the 2020 reports have been implemented in different parts of the country. Kalam foresaw that India will have to develop its own strategies industry. However, some of his ideas like interlinking of rivers, promotion of genetically modified foods and unbridled support to nuclear technology (post-Fukushima), proved to be controversial.

Grassroots innovator

To Kalam, children with innovative ideas were very dear. That's why he became a lifelong champion of grassroots innovators coming from both formal and informal streams. He regularly participated in the activities of the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) and started the tradition of holding innovation exhibition and award functions in the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The NIF celebrates Kalam's birthday on October 15 as the Children's Creativity and Innovation Day.

Speaking at the last award function in Ahmedabad in December 2014, Kalam recalled how a lesson about how birds fly by his primary school teacher Sivasubramania Iyer in Rameswaram ignited his interest in the science behind flying and transformed his as a rocket engineer, aerospace engineer and technologist.

When children in the class did not understand the lesson theoretically, the teacher took all the children to the seashore and explained with live bird formations. "The bird's flight entered into me and created a special feeling. From that evening, I thought that my future study has to be with reference to flight and flight systems," Kalam recalled.

Biomedical research

A little known aspect of Kalam's career in the DRDO is his drive to use spinoffs of defence and missile technologies for civilian applications, particularly biomedical devices. His interest in biomedical devices was sparked by a visit from an orthopaedic surgeon to defence research laboratory in Hyderabad. The surgeon examined a composite material used in a missile heat shield and wondered if the lightweight material could be used to replace the heavy metal prosthetics, each weighing three kilograms, used by children recovering from polio. Within a few weeks, Kalam's lab developed lightweight calipers weighing less than half a kilogram.

Last updated: July 29, 2015 | 11:51
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