Meet M Annadurai, who is likely to be Vice Presidential candidate of the ‘INDIA’ alliance, also known as ‘Moon Man of India’, famous for his…

Annadurai in 1980 earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Government College of Engineering in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

New Delhi: The key leader of opposition parties held an online meeting on Monday evening and decided in principle to field a vice-presidential candidate. According to the reports, names of some probable candidates- including DMK-floated Mylswamy Annadurai, a space scientist from Tamil Nadu who had worked with ISRO – were also discussed. The leaders decided to hold more talks before finalising the Opposition candidate.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge was authorised by the meeting to reach out to leaders such as Mamata Banerjee, Tejashwi Yadav and others. Some DMK members, reportedly at the suggestion of their leader MK Stalin, circulated Mylswamy’s name. According to certain leaders, the DMK would prefer a Tamil candidate to counter the BJP-AIADMK move to leverage Tamil identity with NDA nominee CP Radhakrishnan. The name of DMK MP Tiruchi Siva was also mentioned in some circles.

Mylswamy Annadurai: All You Need To Know

• Mylswamy Annadurai was born on July 2 1958 in Kodhawady, Tamil Nadu
• He is an Indian aerospace engineer who held a number of posts with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), including the directorship (2015–18) of the U R Rao Satellite Centre (formerly the ISRO Satellite Centre).
• Annadurai in 1980 earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the Government College of Engineering in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.
• In 1982 he received a master’s degree from the PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore.
• He later was awarded honorary doctorates from several universities and was the recipient of numerous awards.
• Annadurai joined ISRO in 1982.
• He served as spacecraft operations manager for the IRS (Indian Remote Sensing)-1A, IRS-1B, INSAT (Indian National Satellite System)-2A, and INSAT-2B satellite programs.
• He held the post of deputy project director prior to being promoted to mission director of the INSAT-2C program and of the INSAT-2D, 2E, 3B, 3E, and GSAT (Geosynchronous Satellite)-1 programs.
• Annadurai was program director for India’s lunar probes Chandrayaan-1 and Chandrayaan-2.
• Chandrayaan-1 was launched from Sriharikota Island, India, on October 22, 2008, by a PSLV-C11 launch vehicle.
• As the project director (2011–15) of the IRS and Small Satellites Systems (SSS) schemes, Annadurai led five projects.
• His most highly publicized post was serving as program director of the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), which was launched in November 2013 and entered Mars orbit in September 2014.

In addition to performing his research and administrative duties, Annadurai wrote a popular science column for the Tamil newspaper Kungumam and lectured on science in an effort to interest young Indians in taking up scientific careers.