Prime Minister Manmohan Singh turns 80 today
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, turns 80 on Wednesday but will spend the day working as he has done in the past, officials said.
A workaholic, the Prime Minister has shied away from celebrations on his birthday but there have been occasions when he has cut a cake on board his special aircraft during foreign trips.
The Prime Minister last week embarked on a series of bold economic measures, including allowing foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail and a cap on the number of cooking gas cylinders.
The decisions, including a hike in diesel prices, cost the government support of the Trinamool Congress.
Manmohan Singh, who has been Prime Minister since 2004, had also weathered the political storm when the Left parties withdrew support to the government over the India-US nuclear deal during the UPA-I government.
Born in 1932 in Gah Begal village in what is now Punjab province of present-day Pakistan, Manmohan Singh’s birthday falls on September 26 because his parents had given it as his date of birth to get him admitted in school.
His family shifted to India during partition.
“Sep 26 is shown in the school records as my date of birth,” Manmohan Singh had said when asked about it.
The Prime Minister has celebrated his birthday mid-air on four occasions.
He had cut a cake on his 77th birthday while on board Air India One enroute to Pittsburgh from Geneva and had also done so last year on his flight back from Frankfurt.
