Former Indian President Abdul Kalam passes away

Former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam died in Shillong on Monday evening after being admitted to a private hospital here in Meghalaya in a critical condition, Indian media reported. Kalam, who served as the 11th President of India from 2002 to 2007, collapsed at the Indian Institute of Management-Shillong while delivering a lecture to the students of the B-school. "The former president was brought almost dead to our hospital," John Sailo Ryntathiang, director of Bethany Hospital, said. According to sources, the former President collapsed around 6.30 pm and was taken to the hospital. He died around 7.30 pm, hospital sources said. This is what Kalam tweeted just before leaving for Shillong. "It is a terrible loss to the country," says A S Kiran Kumar, chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation. Kalam, who is the chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Technology, Isro's education arm to groom new talent, was keen to know the progress on Isro's rockets. Kalam was the project manager for the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV), among India's first rockets, which is the precursor to the current generation of rockets such as PSLV and GSLV. "He wanted an update on the GSLV MkIII and was very happy with the progress," said Kumar, who met Kalam during his last visit to Bengaluru. Former Isro Chairman K Radhakrishnan said: "It is a great loss for the country and he was our colleague in ISRO from the 60s and he was a project director SLV III, the first Satellite Launch Vehicle project and that was the turning point for the country. And his connect with all the people in the organisation was something which is to be emulated and he was able to motivate everybody in the country. One single person who has taken all the people in a path which wanted for the future of the country - that is his greatness." Kota Harinarayana, chief designer of TEJAS, the light contact aircraft, said: "Kalam was always positive. He had no negative feelings with anybody." Kalam was kota's boss for seven years as Director General, Aeronautical Development Agency.