Morning Digest: Americans vote in close race for the next President; IPL mega auction to be held in Jeddah on November 24-25, and more

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on November 06, 2024

Voters were deciding whether to send Republican Donald Trump back to the White House or elevate Vice President Kamala Harris to the Oval Office. As the first polls began to close in parts of Kentucky and Indiana, tens of millions of Americans added their ballots to the 84 million cast early as they chose between two candidates with drastically different temperaments and visions for the country.

No matter what the outcome of the U.S. presidential elections, the India-U.S. relationship as well as the engagement with the Quad will “only grow”, said External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Tuesday (November 5, 2024), as Americans began voting for the 47th U.S. President. 

Even as Asian News International (ANI) sues the Wikimedia Foundation over the Wikipedia entry on the news agency, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has sent a missive to the online encyclopedia’s parent, asking why it should not be treated as a publisher, and therefore directly liable for legal challenges against its content. The letter has not been released and was announced by government sources. 

Roche, a Swiss multinational healthcare company, is seeking a permanent injunction against Natco Pharma to prevent the introduction of a generic version of Risdiplam, a Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) drug, citing patent infringement.

To be a major space power, India needs to create “leading space companies and not merely service companies,” S. Somanath, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Tuesday (November 5, 2024). For India to raise its contribution to the global space economy from the current 2% to 10% would require significant government support, he added.

Environment Minister Gopal Rai said the Delhi government will launch a campaign on Wednesday to discourage open burning of waste. The Minister made the announcement after chairing a meeting on air pollution on Tuesday when the city’s overall air quality index (AQI) showed slight improvement even though it remained in the ‘very poor’ category.

Popular folk singer Sharda Sinha, who was undergoing treatment at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-Delhi, died on Tuesday night (November 5, 2024). She was 72.