Manmohan Singh turns 80, will work as usual on birthday

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a reluctant birthday boy, 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 

The Prime Minister will on Wednesday give away the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar awards and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) awards on the organisation's 70th Foundation Day function.

The Prime Minister is the president of CSIR, whose foundation day coincides with his birthday.

"He will work as usual (on his birthday)," an official said.

Though some political leaders are expected to call on the Prime Minister to greet him, the celebrations will be a low key affair, the official said.

Born in 1932 in Gah Begal village in what is now Punjab province of present-day Pakistan, Manmohan Singh's birthday falls on Sep 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.