News highlights of the day: Droupadi Murmu elected new President; ‘India scripts history’, says PM Modi

-  NDA Presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu crosses the 50% mark of total valid votes at the end of the third round of counting.

- Droupadi Murmu inches closer to victory, leads after second round of counting.

- After the second round, where ballot paper of first 10 states alphabetically counted - total valid votes 1138 & their total value 1,49,575. Out of this, Droupadi Murmu gets 809 votes valued at 1,05,299 & Yashwant Sinha gets 329 votes valued at 44,276, said PC Mody, Secretary Gen, Rajya Sabha.

- The NDA’s presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu is leading with 540 of the 748 votes of the MPs, while Opposition nominee Yashwant Sinha has received 208 votes after the first round of counting, Returning Officer P C Mody said on Thursday. Votes of 15 MPs were declared invalid, he said, adding that all the votes of MPs have been counted. Eight MPs did not vote in the presidential election, Mody said. Eight MPs did not vote in the presidential election, Mody said. With each MP having a vote value of 700 in this presidential election, Murmu received a total of 5,23,600 votes which is 72.19 per cent of the total valid MP votes, indicating some cross-voting in her favour, officials said.

-PM Narendra Modi is hosting a farewell dinner for outgoing President Ram Nath Kovind tomorrow 5:30 pm onwards at Hotel Ashoka in Delhi.

- Nation is going to create history, said Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. "The 15th President will be officially announced shortly. Nobody has any doubt in mind. Daughter of a tribal family coming from a very ordinary house in Odisha, Droupadi Murmu will be elected as the President," he added.

- BJP MPs rue the fact that Congress, other opposition parties are not present in Lok Sabha. Bill due for consideration, not being taken up. The house adjourned for the day.

- Rajya Sabha proceedings on Thursday were adjourned twice during the pre-lunch period after opposition members created uproar over issues of price rise and Goods and Services Tax (GST) hike on daily essentials. While the House was first adjourned for about an hour soon after it met for the day, it was again adjourned briefly for 10 minutes during the Question Hour as opposition members continued to create uproar. The opposition parties led by the Congress tried to raise the issues of price rise and levy of GST on daily essentials.

-Lok Sabha has been adjourned until 2:15 pm, while Rajya Sabha has been adjourned till until 2:00 pm. Houses break for lunch.

-The process of counting of votes for the Presidential election has started in Parliament.

-Rajya Sabha adjourned for 10 minutes amid continued protests by opposition parties on issues of GST, price rise and minimum support price of crops.

-Rajya Sabha adjourned till 12 noon following sloganeering by some Opposition members minutes after the House proceedings began for the day.

-All ballot boxes from state assemblies had reached the Parliament's strongroom on Tuesday evening and have been locked there since. The ballot boxes had been flown into the national capital as Mr Ballot Box' from across the states. 'Mr Ballot Box' came seated in the front row of aircraft under the watchful gaze of the Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) of their respective states, according to CNBC-TV18.