TN honours "Rocket man" Sivan with Kalam Award for stellar

In recognition of his stellar work in promotion of science and technology, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman K Sivan was on Thursday awarded the Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Award by the Tamil Nadu government.

Kailasavadivoo Sivan, who led ISRO's successful launch of Chandrayaan-2 mission recently, could not receive the award in person but will receive it from Chief Minister K Palaniswami at a later date, the government said.

The Kalam award is to honour those who work for promoting scientific growth, humanities and students' welfare and the awardees should hail from Tamil Nadu.

The award carries 8 gm gold medal, Rs five lakh in cash and a citation.

A native of Kanyakumari District of Tamil Nadu, the citation hailed him as "Rocket Man" and traced his humble origins to his splendid rise in career which includes a stint as director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and Liquid Propulsion Centre.

Sivan's leadership led to the "historical achievement of most successful GSLV flight with indigenous cryogenic stage."
She had also announced that Kalam's birthday (October 15) will be observed as "Youth Renaissance Day."