US President Joe Biden on Tuesday said that he lit a “diya” (earthen lamp) to embrace the spirit of Diwali. Mr Biden shared a video of the festivities on X (formerly known as Twitter) and can be seen lighting a diya with US First Lady Jill Biden at the White House.

“Today, Jill and I lit the diya to symbolise Diwali’s message of seeking the light of wisdom, love, and unity over the darkness of hate and division. May we embrace the enduring spirit of this holiday and of our nation – and reflect on the strength of our shared light,” he posted.

Today, Jill and I lit the Diya to symbolize Diwali’s message of seeking the light of wisdom, love, and unity over the darkness of hate and division.

May we embrace the enduring spirit of this holiday and of our nation – and reflect on the strength of our shared light. pic.twitter.com/eHjfQ68rXU

— President Biden (@POTUS) November 14, 2023

Mr Biden’s Diwali celebration video was widely acknowledged.

A user wrote, “Congratulations America, wish you strength and prosperity. Wish you good health.”

Congratulations America, wish you strength and prosperity. Wish you good health

— Tôi Yêu Viêt Nam ( love Viet Nam) (@ebookingvn) November 14, 2023

“Diwali as a festival spreads a lightning positiveness. Happy Diwali,” said a person.

Diwali as a festival spread a lightening positiveness..
Happy Diwali..✨????

— Sachin Yadav (@imsachinyadav1) November 14, 2023

“We pray for light, peace, unity and love” echoed a few on social media.

Happy Diwali to everyone celebrating. We pray for light, peace, unity and love.

— Ella Madu (@Ellamadu3) November 14, 2023

“May Diwali bring you hope and peace,” read a comment.

May Diwali’s brings you hope and peace

— ENK (@WMKonsulting) November 14, 2023

US Vice President Kamala Harris, who has Indian roots, also celebrated the festival of lights on Tuesday at her official residence.

During the event, she emphasised the significance of observing the festival of lights, especially in the current global context marked by the Israel-Hamas war.

Wishing everyone a blessed Diwali. pic.twitter.com/h6JcHrxlBm

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) November 12, 2023

“We celebrate Diwali at a time when there’s a lot happening in our world. I think it’s important that as we celebrate Diwali, which is about celebrating the light, we understand it is always in the context of understanding the contrast between light and dark moments” Ms Harris stated in her brief remarks to predominantly Indian American guests, as per a PTI report.

In India, people marked the festivities on November 12, Sunday. 

Former US President Donald Trump’s social media platform Truth Social has lost $73 million since its launch in early 2022, a securities filing by Digital World Acquisition Corp, the SPAC that plans to merge with the company, showed on Monday.

Trump had announced the launch of his social media app in Oct 2021, saying it would “stand up to Big Tech” companies such as Twitter and Facebook that previously barred him.

In 2022, Truth Social posted a loss of $50 million, with net sales of just $1.4 million. It lost $23 million in the first half of this year, with net sales of $2.3 million.

Trump Media & Technology Group’s (TMTG) independent registered public accounting firm has indicated that the financial condition raises substantial doubt as to its ability to continue as a going concern, according to the filing.

“TMTG believes that it may be difficult to raise additional funds through traditional financing sources in the absence of material progress toward completing its merger with Digital World.”

The company also eliminated several positions in March, the filing said, adding that the action followed a review of all departments, most significantly impacting TMTG’s streaming video on demand and infrastructure teams.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has visited the manufacturing facility of US-based electric vehicle major Tesla at Fremont, California and said that the company would be doubling its auto components imports from India.

The minister is in the US on a four-day visit. The world’s largest electric car producer Tesla Inc’s chief Elon Musk met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June in New York and after the meeting Musk had said that he planned to visit India in 2024.

“Visited @Tesla’s state of the art manufacturing facility at Fremont, California. Extremely delighted to see talented Indian engineers and finance professionals working at Senior positions and contributing to Tesla’s remarkable journey to transform mobility.

Visited @Tesla‘s state of the art manufacturing facility at Fremont, California.

Extremely delighted to see talented Indian engineers & finance professionals working at Senior positions and contributing to Tesla’s remarkable journey to transform mobility.

Also proud to see… pic.twitter.com/FQx1dKiDlf

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) November 14, 2023

“Also proud to see the growing importance of auto component suppliers from India in the Tesla EV supply chain. It is on its way to double its components imports from India. Missed Mr @ElonMusk’s magnetic presence and I wish him a speedy recovery,” Mr Goyal said on social networking platform X.

The platform is also owned by Elon Musk.

The visit assumes significance as there are reports that India is looking at giving customs duty concessions to Tesla for setting up a plant in the country. In September, Mr Goyal said the company is looking to source components worth around USD 1.9 billion from India this year against USD 1 billion in 2022.

Going forward, demand for electric vehicles will increase and it will help in pushing the growth of the sector. Earlier, the government had stated that it is not looking to frame a separate policy for providing incentives to Tesla, and the company can apply to avail support measures under existing schemes like PLI for auto and advanced chemistry cells.

The government has rolled out the production-linked incentives (PLI) schemes (PLI) for advanced chemistry cell (ACC) battery storage with an outlay of Rs 18,100 crore and Rs 26,058 crore PLI scheme for auto, auto-components and drone industries.

When asked whether the government is considering duty concessions on completely built-up units to attract certain sections of electric cars into India, Mr Goyal in September had said that “everything we have done has been done equally without any differentiation, without any preferences. This is the government which provides equal opportunity to everybody. So we will come out with a policy”.

In August 2021, Elon Musk had said Tesla might set up a manufacturing unit in India if it first succeeded with imported vehicles in the country. He had said Tesla wanted to launch its vehicles in India “but import duties are the highest in the world by far of any large country!”.

Currently, India imposes 100 per cent import duty on fully imported cars with CIF (Cost, Insurance and Freight) value more than USD 40,000 and 70 per cent on those costing less than the amount.