Former President APJ Abdul Kalam passed away in Shillong. He was 83. He collapsed during a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management-Shillong (IIM-S).

Quick Facts:

• Kalam served as president for five years from 2002, enjoying the support of both the ruling BJP and the opposition Congress.
• Kalam was closely involved in the country’s civilian space programme and military missile development efforts, earning him the sobriquet ‘India’s Missile Man’.
• He also played a pivotal technical and political role in India’s Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, shortly after the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government came to power.
• Kalam served as the chief scientific adviser to the Prime Minister and the secretary of the DRDO from July 1992 to December 1999 during which time Pokhran-II was conducted.