PM’s Name Floated For Presidency

• Presidential Nominees. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party head Mulyalam Singh Yadav have caused a ruckus by suggesting that the party should consider former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee, former president APJ Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as candidates for the President of India. This has upset chances for finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and vice president Hamid Ansari, who were both strong contenders for the post backed by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi. [First Post]

• Elder Abuse. According to a survey by HelpAge India, nearly one in every three senior citizens in India face some form of abuse. The survey, which interviewed 5,600 people across the country found that nearly 62 per cent of victims in Mumbai were abused by their sons, followed by 21 per cent who were abused by their daughters-in-law. It also revealed that 83 per cent of senior citizens bear abuse silently, mainly due to “family honour”. [The Times of India]

• Religious Quota. The Supreme Court quashed the UPA government’s bid to carve out a 4.5 per cent quota within the 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes for Muslims. The court pulled up the government for arriving at the figure that would allow backward Muslim groups jobs in government and admission into colleges, including Indian Institutes of Technology. The court said the decision appeared to be driven only by religion. [The Times of India]