Former President APJ Abdul Kalam has passed away at a private hospital in Shillong in meghalaya after being admitted there today late evening.
The Missile Man, Dr. Kalam, collapsed while delivering a lecture to the students of the Indian Institute of Management – Shillong after which he was rushed to nearby Bethany Hospital.
Bethany Hospitals told news agency that he was brought into the hospital without any pulse.
Born in Rameswaram on October 15, 1931 to a boatman, Dr Kalam went on to serve as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007.
He was awarded the Padma Bhushan and Bharat Ratna for his achievements, and services to the nation’s defence research.
Dr Kalam had served as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) from JUly 1992 to December 1999. Kalam was instrumental in India’s Pokhran-II nuclear test in 1998, which was nation’s first ever nuclear test since 1974.
In his last years, Dr Kalam was working as a visiting professor at IIM-Shillong, IIM-Ahmedabad, and IIM-Indore, honorary fellow of IISc-Bangalore, Chancellor of the IIST – Thiruvananthapuram, a professor of Aerospace Engineering at Anna University in Chennai, and JSS University in Mysore.
