Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born on October 15, 1931. He became the eleventh President of India in July 2002 after a distinguished scientific career in defence and space research where he was responsible for, among other things, developing India's first satellite launch vehicle SLV-3.

He has the unique honour of being the recipient of the country's top civilian awards: the Padma Bhushan in 1981, and Padma Vibhushan in 1991 and the Bharat Ratna in 1997.