Man of Missiles or Man of Masses?

​It was indeed my great honour to support 'Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Young Researchers' Fellowship' which was awarded to 11 young scientists on 27th July 2020.

That day was the 5th death anniversary of Dr Kalam, India's former President, the highest political figure who was felicitated with the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award. His was extraordinary and inspiring figure, known for ever lasting and towering thoughts.

I was equally pleased that my organization TERRE Policy Centre made a small beginning in contributing to nurture the researching curiosity of the Indian youth who always looked at President Kalam as motivator par excellence and a stimulating Guru. The virtual gathering of all the winners who from Kanpur in the north to Solapur in the West to Coimbatore in the South made it really 'all India event' ! Shruti Belose , Aarti Desai , Naveen Kumar , Janani G. , Karthikka M., Swapnil Pawar & Sunil Pawar, Raja Balasaraswathi S , Venkatalakshmi R , Bhagyashri Patil , Vedant Mishra -they all not only they represented balanced geography of India but also perfect gender balance!

I felt rather emotional to have Ashok Mangotra , former Secretary of Ministry of Home affairs, former Joint Secretary to Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy resources and former Joint Secretary to the late President of India, Dr Kalam , with whom he was extremely close for half a decade. That is where in Rashtrapati Bhavan we first met . Ashok and I share some common stories with The President Dr Kalam.

Ashok not only provided close scrutiny for the final selection from more than 100 submissions received and short listed by team of TERRE but, he told me later, that each and every application he judged from the lens of Dr Kalam. He added to his judgement criteria that additional dimension, " what President Kalam would have thought of this research proposal'. I wish that Ashok remains as TERRE's jury for the President Kalam fellowship for ever.

President Kalam literally fetched me out from the United Nations global jungle. I was in UNEP's Paris office heading global programme to help developing countries to protect the Stratospheric Ozone Layer. Ashok called me in Paris one day from India to say that the President wants to meet me. I missed my heartbeat but did not miss the opportunity to meet him at the first possible instance and that was at the VIP lounge of airport from where both of us were travelling to different destination.

Our dialogue continued . President later graciously and enthusiastically organised the meeting of experts at Rashtrapati Bhavan ( President's office and residence) where he organised the demonstration of CFC-free and HFC-free Solar Vaccine cooler that was ozone friendly and Climate friendly , developed by my colleagues in UN along with number of experts from technology institutes, including Greenpeace and UN agencies like WHO, UNICEF . I am sure, had he been alive today, he would have said, that ' Dr. Shende, let us utilize this solar vaccine cooler to roll out the vaccine for COVID19 patients reach to the poorest of poor and remotest of remote places of India.

TERRE resolves to make this event of Dr APJ Kalam Research fellowship an annual one. Over the last 5 years India has moved nearly 30 places up in the list of countries in terms of global ranking by Innovation index that takes into consideration , among others, the research activities and capabilities. We are still half way to come on the top But we have the potential to rise quickly because India's DNA is closely related to the nature and ecosystems where Indians live. Nature itself is the profoundly valuable treasure to learn from. Secondly our young minds are agile in grasping the lessons and alert in learning.

No one had ability to understand these dimension of young researchers more than President Kalam , who himself rose from a son of a boat-man to India's most revered defence strategist and the missile scientist . Such a speedy transformation in one's life can happen only in India that respects brilliance of those who learn from the laboratory of the nature.

Let me also state that these Fellowships are going to be different. We would be tracking the progress of these young scientists till their research is complete and lout to the societal use. Each of the young researchers would get a mentor a web page to share their successes and challenges. TERRE would even facilitate their meeting with the venture capitalists . India 's path towards Atma Nirbhar Bharat ( Self-Reliant India) was shown by President Kalam when India became Atma Nirbhar ( self-reliant ) in Nuclear and space technologies.

Many call Dr Kalam as 'missile man' , who overseen the development of Agni, Prithvi, Akash, Trishul and Nag-missiles. For me this 'man of missiles' was really 'man of masses'. His inspiring fierce 'Wings of Fire' ( title of his autobiography) that took him high in the sky, were also like beautiful wings of butterfly that took him far.

I recall the title and topic of his last lecture in north-east state of India -Assam- where he said good bye to all of us, it was 'Creating a Liveable Planet Earth'. He could not complete his talk. But that has now become my own life-long mission and raison d'etre of TERRE Policy Centre and its flagship project of Smart Campus Cloud Network-SCCN.

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Rajendra Shende

Chairman, TERRE Policy Centre
Former Director, UNEP