Chennai (Tamil Nadu): The 78th Independence Day was celebrated on behalf of the Government of Tamil Nadu at Fort Kothalam here. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin hoisted the national flag.
During the Independence Day celebrations, it is customary to honour individuals by giving awards for their outstanding work in various fields. Accordingly, the Thagaisal Tamil Award for this year was given to senior Congress leader Kumari Ananthan, senior. Sabina, a nurse from Gudalur, who bravely visited the affected areas during the Wayanad landslides and treated the injured, was awarded the Kalpana Chawla Award for Courage.
Likewise, the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Award was given to ISRO's Chandrayaan-3 Space Program Director P.Veeramuthuvel. Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed the lander on the South Pole of the Moon last year. The world appreciated this achievement of ISRO scientists. This made India the first country in the world to set foot on the South Pole of the Moon. Veeramuthuvel was given this award in appreciation of the fact that he was the main contributor to this success.
Who is this P.Veeramuthuvel? Veeramuthuvel from Viluppuram district studied at Railway School and then did vocational education. After that, he studied engineering in a private college in Tambaram, Chennai with dreams of achieving success in the space industry. Later he did his Masters and Research course at IIT Madras in Chennai.
He then got an opportunity to work as a scientist in ISRO in 2004 after doing important research in the field of aerospace. After that, he was selected as the Chandrayaan-3 program director in 2019. He also played an important role in the Chandrayaan 2 project. Veeramuthuvel is credited with successfully launching Chandrayaan-3 and showing the South Pole of the Moon to the world.
