Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam - popularly known as Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the son of a little educated boat-owner in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, has become the 11th President of the Republic of India is also known as Missile Man of India He is also popularly known as the People's President .

Have been elected on august 2002 and his term as president ended on July 25, 2007.

In 1997 Dr. Kalam was given the highest civilian award of India, the Bharat Ratna.

Dr. Kalam was born on October 15, 1931. According to his autobiography Wings of Fire: "I was born into a middle-class Tamil family in the island town of Rameswaram in Madras state. My father, Jainulabdeen, possessed neither much formal education nor much wealth; despite these disadvantages, he possessed great innate wisdom and a true generosity of spirit. He had an ideal helpmate in my mother, Ashiamma. I do not recall the exact number of people she fed everyday, but I am quite certain that far more outsiders ate with us than all the members of our own family. We lived in our ancestral house, which was built in the middle of the 19th century. It was a fairly large pucca house, made of limestone and brick, on the Mosque Street of Rameswaram. My austere father used to avoid all inessential comforts and luxuries. However, all that was needed was provided for, in terms of food, medicine or cloths. In fact, I would say mine was a very secure childhood, both materially and emotionally."

After studying in a primary school in Ramaeswaran, Dr. Kalam went to Schwartz High School at Ramanathpuram from where he went to Tiruchchirapalli for his higher studies. Dr. Kalam wrote : "By the time I completed my education at Schwartz, I was a self-confident boy with the determination to be successful. The decision to go in for further education was taken without a second thought. To us, in those days, the awarness of the possibilities for a professional education did not exist; higher education simply meant going to college. The nearest college was at Tiruchchirapalli, spelled Trichinopoly those days, and called Trichi for short."

He went to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) at Bangalore as a trainee after completing his aeronautical engineering from Madras Institute of Technology (MIT).

Before he became President of the country, Dr. Kalam worked with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in 1982. As Director of DRDO. Under his leadership India has been able to develop strategic missiles. Like Nag (an anti-tank guided missile), Prithvi (a surface to surface battlefield missile), Akash (a swift, medium - range surface-to-air missile), Trishul (a quick-reaction surface - to - air missile) and Agni (an intermediate range ballistic missile), Chairman of the Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC), also got involved with the creation of Technology Vision 2020 and the India Millennium Missions (IMM 2020), which is an integratied version of technology vision and India's security concerns. In November 1999 Dr. Kalam was appointed as Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, he joined the Anna University at Chennai as Professor of Technology and Societal Transformation.

Dr. Kalam has received honorary doctorates from as many as thirty universities.

Books :-

• India 2020 : by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
• India-my-dream : by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
• Envisioning an Empowered Nation: Technology for Societal Transformation :by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
• Guiding Souls: Dialogues on the Purpose of Life : by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
• Wings of Fire An Autobiography of APJ Abdul Kalam : by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
• Ignited Minds : Unleashing the Power Within India by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
• Scientist to President : by Abdul A.P.J. Kalam