Morning Digest: INDIA bloc to press for voting on Waqf Bill in both houses of Parliament; looming U.S. reciprocal tariffs spook stock markets, and more

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on April 2, 2025

The INDIA bloc parties have unanimously decided not to hold protests or walkout but instead to debate and press for a vote on the contentious Waqf (amendment) Bill in both houses of Parliament to force the NDA allies and the other fence sitters to take a position on the legislation, at its meeting on Tuesday evening.

The first day of the new financial year disappointed investors as frontline stock indices fell nearly 2%, reflecting fears about the impending global tariffs that the United States plans to implement from April 2. Gold prices, on the other hand, hit a new record, as investors rushed to buy the metal known as a safe haven.

The Telangana High Court will hear on Wednesday (April 2, 2025) two PIL petitions questioning allotment of 400 acres of land to the Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Limited and seeking a direction to stay excavations and uprooting of trees in the said land at Kancha Gachibowli.

The locations of air quality monitoring stations in the Capital did not “fulfil the requirements” laid down by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), indicating “possible inaccuracies” in the data generated by them, rendering the Air Quality Index (AQI) values “unreliable”, according to a Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report.

Police on Tuesday (April 1, 2025) issued a third summons to stand-up comedian Kunal Kamra and asked him to appear before them on April 5 in a case filed for allegedly making derogatory remarks on Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde at a show in Mumbai, officials said.

Commemorating the 75th anniversary of the establishment of India-China bilateral relations, Chinese President Xi Jinping in a congratulatory message to President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday said the two countries should “realise a cooperative pas de deux of the dragon and the elephant”, which completely serves the fundamental interests of the two countries and peoples, while Ms. Murmu in her message said that “stable, predictable and amicable” bilateral relations will bring major benefits to both nations and the world.

A parliamentary committee looking into the welfare of Other Backward Classes on Tuesday (April 1, 2025) said it was the “need of the hour” to raise the ₹8 lakh income limit for weeding out the “creamy layer” within OBCs, saying that this limit, set more than seven years ago, was “low” and covered only a “small segment of OBCs”.