  An equation of state (EoS) for symmetric nuclear matter is constructed using
the density dependent M3Y effective interaction and extended for isospin
asymmetric nuclear matter. Theoretically obtained values of symmetric nuclear
matter incompressibility, isobaric incompressibility, symmetry energy and its
slope agree well with experimentally extracted values. Folded microscopic
potentials using this effective interaction, whose density dependence is
determined from nuclear matter calculations, provide excellent descriptions for
proton, alpha and cluster radioactivities, elastic and inelastic scattering.
The nuclear deformation parameters extracted from inelastic scattering of
protons agree well with other available results. The high density behavior of
symmetric and asymmetric nuclear matter satisfies the constraints from the
observed flow data of heavy-ion collisions. The neutron star properties studied
using $\beta$-equilibrated neutron star matter obtained from this effective
interaction for pure hadronic model agree with the recent observations of the
massive compact stars such as PSR J1614-2230, but if a phase transition to
quark matter is considered such agreement is no longer possible.
