Chinese swim star Ning Zetao will not defend his 100m freestyle world title next month after failing to qualify for the Budapest showpiece, state media said on Tuesday.

The fresh-faced Ning, a fan favourite in China after winning the world championship crown in 2015, clocked 49.67 seconds this week in his 100m free heat in a trial for the Chinese National Games, his first competitive race since last year's Olympics, Xinhua news agency said.

However the 24-year-old — hugely popular in China for his good looks as well as his success in the pool — then quit the final, citing a waist injury.

“Ning's result didn't beat the designated A cut time. He is not the top-ranked swimmer among those who meet the B cut, so he is not eligible to compete at the world championships,” Xinhua quoted Zhao Jian, vice director of the Chinese Swimming Association, as saying.

Ning has a colourful past: he served a one-year suspension after testing positive for the prohibited substance clenbuterol in 2011, and in February this year he was thrown out of the China team for “violating the rules”.

He bombed at last summer's Rio Olympics, failing to qualify for the 100m freestyle final.

The 2017 world championships take place in Hungary from July 14 to 30.

The European Union on Tuesday slapped technology giant Google with a record fine of 2.42 billion euros or $2.7 billion for breaching European Union (EU) antitrust rules by abusing the monopoly it enjoys over internet search.

In the investigation spanning seven years, Google was accused of manipulating its search engine results to favour its new shopping service at the expense of smaller price-comparison websites.

"Google has abused its market dominance as a search engine by giving an illegal advantage to another Google product, its comparison shopping service," the European Commission said in a statement.

"What Google has done is illegal under EU antitrust rules. It denied other companies the chance to compete on the merits and to innovate. And most importantly, it denied European consumers a genuine choice of services and the full benefits of innovation," said Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who is in charge of competition policy.

The company must now end the conduct within 90 days or face penalty payments of up to 5 per cent of the average daily worldwide turnover of Alphabet, Google's parent company.

The penalty has surpassed the previous 1.1 billion euros record fine Intel was forced to pay in 2009 and the EU might also demand that Google make changes to its search results so that it was not seen to favour its own service, telegraph.co.uk reported.

The investigation dates back to 2010, and was triggered by complaints from other price-comparison websites that said Google had relegated their services in its search results.

Google has a 90 per cent share of internet searches in Europe, giving it a powerful tool to direct how internet users navigate the web.

According to Google, its entry into online shopping space has been good for consumers and retailers, and argues that it was not a monopoly player in online shopping.

Google was also fighting two other competition cases with the Commission that could see it hit with heavy fines. 

European regulators have in the past investigated Microsoft, Intel, Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon, raising claims that Brussels was waging a war against the Silicon Valley, but the claim has been denied by the Commission.
 

Singer Ed Sheeran cleared the air that he did not resort to lip-syncing at his Glastonbury concert after he was accused of performing the show on backing tracks.

The 26-year-old took to Twitter to clarify that his gig was live, just like all his other stage performances.

“Never thought I'd have to explain it, but everything I do in my live show is live, it's a loop station, not a backing track. Please Google,” wrote Sheeran.

The Shape Of You hitmaker's comments came in after some viewers present at the show were left confused when they heard the sound of the guitar while the singer did not play anything.

This led to some Twitter users on social media accusing Sheeran of using backing tracks during his live performance, where he sang his hits such as Thinking Out Loud, You Need Me, I Don't Need You and introduced Galway Girl.

“Come on Ed Sheeran, where is the live band? Backing tracks! #live music!” wrote one of the followers.

While another tweeted, “Did Ed Sheeran really 'play' Glastonbury last night? Sure he sang (pretty well) over a backing tape but did he 'play' anything? Guitar? No.”

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday visited the district jail here to meet former minister and close aide Gayatri Prasad Prajapati, lodged there in connection with a rape case, and described him as “innocent”.

Mulayam alleged that Prajapati was being treated like a “terrorist” and said he would take up the matter with the Prime Minister.

“There is no proof with the police against Prajapati. A conspiracy is being hatched against him,” he said.

“He (Prajapati) is innocent and is being meted treatment like terrorists. The BJP government is following political vendetta. I will meet the prime minister and if needed the president to apprise them of the matter,” he told reporters later.

Mulayam had visited the jail yesterday to meet Prajapati, but could not obtain permission from authorities as it was a holiday on account of Eid.

During his visit today, he remained with Prajapati for

over an hour.

Prajapati was arrested after an FIR was registered with the Gautampalli police station here on February 18, 2017 on the Supreme Court directive.

The complainant had alleged that she was repeatedly raped by the accused. She had alleged that Prajapati had also tried to molest her daughter.

A Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO)

court will frame charges on July 3 against Prajapati and six

others in the case.

Mulayam also spoke in favour of some girl inmates, who had shown black flags to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath recently.

“In a democracy one has the right to show black flags. The girls are also getting terrorist-like treatment,” he alleged.

'Zyzzyva' – a tropical beetle – has become the new last word in the Oxford English Dictionary with the latest quarterly update which added over 1,200 new words, phrases and senses.

Until now, the last alphabetic entry in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was zythum, a kind of malt beer brewed in ancient Egypt.

The title now belongs to Zyzzyva, the name of a genus of tropical weevils native to South America and typically found on or near palm trees.

The name of the genus was coined by the entomologist Thomas Lincoln Casey in 1922.

“The motivation for the name is not clear,” Katherine Connor Martin, Head of US Dictionaries said in a blog post.

“Some sources suggest it is an onomatopoeic reference to the noise made by the weevil, possibly inspired by a former genus of leafhoppers, Zyzza, and perhaps chosen deliberately as an alphabetical curiosity,” she said.

Oxford's 2016 word of the year 'post-truth' is also entered in the OED update.

Defined as 'relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping political debate or public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief,' it evidences an emerging use of post prefix forming words denoting that a specified concept has become unimportant or irrelevant.

Earlier words using post in this way include postnational and post-racial.

The update also included a new sense of the noun 'thing'.

The word has been part of the English lexicon for more than a thousand years, but the OED now defines a new meaning which has only arisen in the past two decades.

The new sense is defined as 'a genuine or established phenomenon or practice,' and is often used in questions conveying surprise or incredulity, such as 'is that even a thing?'

The earliest citation is from 2000, in an episode of the US television programme 'The West Wing': “Did you know that 'leaf peeping' was a thing?”

The update also included the term 'Boston marriage' used to describe the cohabitation of two women, especially in a romantic relationship or intimate friendship – a living arrangement that was an acknowledged cultural phenomenon among unmarried, well-to-do American women in the late 19th century.

The depiction of such a relationship in Henry James's novel The Bostonians (1886) may have inspired the term, or it may be that both the term and the title of the novel allude to the prevalence of such cohabitation in the city of Boston.
The OED's earliest evidence for the usage comes from an 1893 letter to the editor of the progressive journal Open Court by the Beacon Hill-born reformer and suffragist Ednah D Cheney.

Cheney wrote that she 'for many years has been accustomed to the existence of ties between women so intimate and persistent, that they are fully recognised by their friends, and of late have acquired, if not a local habitation, at least a name, for they have been christened “Boston Marriages”'.

She goes on to say that although she would not go so far as to suggest that Boston marriages be 'adopted into our civil code, still 'this institution deserves to be recognised as a really valuable one for women in our present state of civilisation.'

The OED publishes four updates a year. The next update will be added to the dictionary in September 2017.

The 71-year-old Salahuddin crossed over to Pakistan in 1989 after losing the assembly election in 1987. As chairman of the United Jehad Council (UJC), which is the umbrella of several terror outfits, he is steering terror activities in the Kashmir valley from a safe house that has reportedly been provided to him by the ISI of the Pakistan army. He is responsible for hundreds of killings of security personnel and innocent people in J-K.

A large number of educated youths in Jammu and Kashmir are sitting jobless, but Salahudddin’s four of the five sons and two daughters have been given cosy jobs by the Jammu and Kashmir government. His both daughters and a son have been given home posting and the successive governments did not dare to shift them out of the Budgam district.

One of his sons, Syed Mueed, IT manager in the Entrepreneurship Develeopment Institute (EDI) at Pampore in the outskirts of Srinagar, was rescued along with about 100 persons by the Army when terrorists stormed the EDI building last year and they were caught in the crossfire.

Among his other sons, Syed Shakeel Ahmad is a medical assistant in the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) in Srinagar and Wahid Yusuf is a doctor in the SKIMS. His daughters, Naseema and Akhtara are government teachers.

It is learnt that he remains in constant touch with his family through the network of Over-Ground Workers (OWGs) of various terrorist organisations.

Salahuddin in his capacity as head of the UJC on Monday gave the call for week-long mass agitation in Kashmir from 8 Julyto mark the first death anniversary of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) commander Burhan Wani who was killed in an encounter with security forces.

Salahuddin through the social media is known to be motivating the Kashmiri youth to join terrorist outfits and has been arranging their training by the Pakistani army and launching them back in J&K.

Before slipping into Pakistan, Salahuddin was actively engaged with the Muslim United Front (MUF) and was also an Islamic preacher with the Jamaat-e-Islami. He graduated from the Sri Pratap College in Srinagar and did his MA in political science from the Kashmir University in 1971. He gradually drifted towards terrorism and, in 1991, while sitting in Pakistan, became chief of the HM.

Hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi met US President Donald Trump, the United States on Monday declared the leader of terror group Hizbul Mujahideen, Syed Salahuddin, a ‘global terrorist’.

India welcomed the move and said it will help for fighting terrorism. "India welcomes this notification. It underlines also quite strongly that both India and the US face threat of terrorism," External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.

“The outfits that Syed Salahuddin leads have perpetuated terrorism against India from the territory of Pakistan and PoK, especially in the state of J-K,” Baglay said.

Who is Syed Salahuddin?

Salahuddin is the supreme commander of the militant group Hizbul Mujahideen, founded by Muhammad Ahsan Dar also known as ‘Master’. He is known for playing a major role for the spurt in militancy in Jammu and Kashmir over the past 27 years.

He is also the chief of the United Jihad Council (UJC) that oversees the operations of the terror outfits in the Valley.

After Hizbul’s militant commander in the Valley, Burhan Wani, was killed last year, Salahuddin claimed Wani was a ‘martyr’. Last year, Salahuddin had claimed responsibility for the Pathankot airbase terror attack last year.

Salahuddin has been quite vocal about his anti-India stance and is listed in the NIA’s most-wanted list.

Born in the Budgam village of Kashmir, the 71-year-old militant was once a well-known preacher affiliated to the religious socio-political organisation Jamaat-e-Islaami.

He completed his Masters in political science from the University of Kashmir in 1971, reports say.

Before joining the militancy, he unsuccessfully contested the Kashmir Assembly elections from Amirakal constituency in 1987.

Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah rose to the second spot in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Twenty20 International (T20I) rankings for bowlers while skipper Virat Kohli retained the top spot among the batsmen.

Pakistan all-rounder Imad Wasim leapfrogged South African leg-spinner Imran Tahir to occupy the top spot, according to the latest ICC rankings, released here on MOnday.

Bumrah now sits on the second spot with 764 points, 16 points behind Wasim who has 780 points, while a poor outing from the Proteas in their recent matches against England pulled Tahir to the third spot.

The Indian pacer attained his career-best number one in the shortest format of the game in January this year.

In batting, Kohli, Aaron Finch of Australia and Kane Williamson of New Zealand have retained the top three positions on the table. 

Among the all-rounders, seasoned Bangladeshi campaigner Shakib Al Hasan continues to hold the top spot, followed by Glenn Maxwell of Australia and Afghanistan's Mohammad Nabi.

Meanwhile, in the ICC T20I Team Rankings, England has moved into outright second position. It had started the series level with Pakistan on 121 points, but has now moved to 123 points to trail number-one ranked New Zealand by two points.

Pakistan and India occupy the third and fourth places while the West Indies completes the top five.

Being an actor was not Shraddha Kapoor's first choice, it seems!

Not known to many people, Shraddha Kapoor first worked at a coffee shop of a popular chain in Boston.
 
The actor was studying in Boston when she decided to do this part-time job, besides her college, to enjoy a sense of independence and to pocket some extra bucks.
 
Shraddha, on the work front, has been busy with her forthcoming projects. She will be seen in the biopics of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s sister Haseena Parkar and badminton player Saina Nehwal. The actor is the only one among her contemporaries to have two biopics in her kitty.

Lambasting the three municipal corporations here for their "lack of will to work", the Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked them to streamline the duties of safai karamcharis to ensure regular removal of garbage from the city roads.

A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar suggested installing of biometric attendance system and use of instant messaging application like WhatsApp to ensure the presence of safai karamcharis for cleanliness in the area they are entrusted with.

"There is a lacuna in assigning of the work to the safai karamcharis and their presence on the spot. Try and streamline a process through which those present at the site can send the picture of the area they have cleaned. They be also asked to put their attendance on the biometric machines, twice or thrice a day.

"You regulate their working hours, there will be visible difference in Delhi today and tomorrow," the bench said, adding that "because of your lack of will to work, people of Delhi cannot be made to suffer from malaria, dengue and chikungunya".

The bench made the observation while asking the MCDs that if they were ensuring proper work, why was so much garbage seen on the city roads.

It also said the supervisors should personally keep a tab on the safai karamcharis, so that they perform their duties.

On this, the counsel for the corporations told the court that the people living in unauthorised colony threw garbage on the on roads which remained uncleaned some time.

The bench said for such problems, the authorities should have thought before regularising the unauthorised colonies.

"You (Delhi government and MCDs) are lavishly regularising colonies. See what we have to face. Stop ruthless regularisation. Right to shelter for one cannot be inconvenience to other law-abiding citizens," the bench said.

It also asked the authorities to create an awareness programme and educate people of Delhi to overcome such a situation.

"We need to move ahead and undergo some education, like the Delhi State Legal Services Authority is already working on a project in this regard," the bench said and sought to know the action plan of the Centre, the Delhi government and the MCDs for disposing of the garbage.

It also asked the Delhi government to inform it about the funds they have been paying to all the three corporations here for making payment to the safai karamcharis.

The matter was then listed for hearing tomorrow.

The court was hearing two pleas accusing the AAP government and the MCDs of not acting vigilantly and responsibly to control dengue and chikungunya outbreaks.

Earlier during the hearing of the pleas, it had also noted that there has been "wilful violation and disobedience" of the court orders to collect and dispose of garbage.

The court had taken note of the matter after a TV news channel showed garbage "overflowing" on to roads from 'dhalaos' and "stretching for miles".

The issue of lack of solid waste disposal was taken up by the court after it was told that it contributes to breeding of mosquitoes which cause vector borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya.

India's numero uno hockey goalkeeper PR Sreejesh will be out of action for at least five months following a knee surgery, which effectively means he will miss the Asia Cup to be held in Dhaka in October, 2017.

Sreejesh, who was badly missed by the team in the just- concluded Hockey World League Semi-Final in London, went under the knife earlier this month in Mumbai after he sustained a ligament tear in his right knee during the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in April-May this year.

According to India hockey's High Performance Director David John, Sreejesh will take at least five months to return to full fitness, which means he has a bright chance of playing in the year-ending Hockey World League Final, to be held in Bhubaneswar in December.

“We missed Sreejesh badly. Vikas Dahiya and Akash Chikte are young and they are no match for top goalkeepers of the world. We need to develop our second line of keepers in the next six months.

“Sreejesh is out of action. He underwent a surgery under Dr Anant Joshi 10 days back in Mumbai and he will need at least 5 to 6 months to return to full fitness,” John told PTI.

“Sreejesh will definitely miss the Asia Cup but we will try our best to make him fully fit before the all-important Hockey World League Final in December. But it also give us time to work with and develop our reserve keepers,” he said.

Being the High Performance Director, John has analysed India's lacklustre outing in the HWL Semi-Final in London.
“We need to work on our defence. We need to find some faster defenders because in London we were caught in counter attacks by Malaysia and Canada for lack of speed,” he said.
“We also need to work on our conversions. Throughout the tournament we had far more opportunities in and around opposition circle, we had far more chances. We had high number of circle penetrations. We need to improve our efficiency in scoring,” John added.
By just stating that the Indian team needs faster defenders, John has literally hinted at the end of VR Raghunath's international career.
“Raghu is not the fastest and as I said speed in defence is a big problem for us. We had left out Raghu from the last core probables list but a new list will be made soon after the Senior Nationals. But at present Rupinder (Pal Singh) and Harmanpreet (Singh) are a good battery,” the Australian said.
John, however, ruled out any radical changes in the structure of the team and the support staff in the aftermath of HWL Semi-Finals performance.
He said just like any other tournament, a review meeting on the performance will be held next week and the coaches, including chief coach Roelant Oltmans will have to answer some tough questions.
“We will have a review meeting next week after we receive the coach's report, which generally comes within 48 hours. It's a routine exercise which is held after every tournament. But definitely some tough questions will be asked,” John said.
“(But) I don't think there is going to be any changes because a team needs stability over a period of time.”
Oltmans will not be a part of the meeting as he will be travelling straight to The Netherlands from London for a short break.
The players will also enjoy a break before assembling for the national camp again on July 12.

Trangenders' refusal to join duty, insensitive photo of a hearing impaired commuter on social media and a Congress protest journey spoiled the party for the Kochi Metro inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi less than a fortnight ago.

Nine out of 21 transgenders employed by the Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL), an initiative hailed by Modi, for jobs ranging from handling the ticket counter to housekeeping work have declined to join work citing lack of shelter for them.

However, "Kudumbasree Mission", which recruited and trained the transgenders, said the mission and the KMRL have taken certain measures to address their problem.

Dilraj, an official appointed by Ernakulam District Kudumbasree Mission to head the facility management centre for providing services to Kochi Metro, said the transgender staff would be provided hostel facility at an affordable rate in Kakkanad here.

He also said an offer of free transportation was made at a meeting with the transgenders, attended by authorities of KMRL and Kudumbasree Mission here yesterday.

KMRL's initiative to gender justice by opening up employment opportunities to not only hundreds of women, but also the transgender community has invited wide attention.

Inaugurating the Metro project on June 17, the Prime Minister had lauded it for providing employment for transgenders in its rail network.

In another controversy, the Metro was confronted with the circulation of a photograph of a person who was seen lying down on a seat inside a coach, with a caption –"snake in Kochi Metro", a reference to a person in an inebriated state.

Public and politicians including Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan sharply reacted to the post that went viral on social media, including whatsapp, after it was found that the man was a speech and hearing impaired person.

The person, identified as Eldo, was a "victim of public trial" by social media in the name of social responsibility, Vijayan had said.

A top official of the Kochi Metro Rail Limited has offered a free pass for Rs 2000 to Eldho after the incident was equated with a 'social media trial' of a Delhi constable Salim, hailing from Kerala, in Delhi Metro two years ago.

The video had showed Salim struggling to hold on to a pole while swinging back and forth inside the moving metro coach, that was inferred as he being drunk.

However, it emerged later that Salim at that time was losing consciousness because of a major blockage in his brain.

The Chief Minister had said both Eldo and Salim were victims of human rights violation and public trial.

Eldo, a staff at the Headload Workers' Welfare Board, is reluctant to go to office after the episode, his relatives said.

Associations of differently abled persons have demanded a probe against those who clicked his photo and circulated it on social media.

Cyber police said they have not received any complaint so far in this regard.

Meanwhile, another video indicating a leak in a Metro coach, circulated on social media, has been dismissed as false by KMRL.

It clarified that the leakage was not due to rain, but water coming out of an air conditioner vent.

"The train is built with stainless steel material and there will not be any leakage due to rain… This is a minor issue," a KMRL spokesperson said.

Earlier, on June 20 Congress workers led by former state chief minister Oommen Chandy had undertaken a protest journey condemning non-invitation of the senior leader for the Metro inauguration.

An internal probe by KMRL, ordered amid complaints of inconvenience caused to Metro commuters by the Congress stir, has found violation of the Metro Act by Congress leaders including Chandy, during whose regime the initiative for the project was taken.

The KMRL has said those who had breached certain substantive provisions of the Metro Railways (Operations and Maintenance) Act, 2002 during the 'Janakeeya Yatra' would face legal action.

Despite the controversies, Kochi Metro collected a record revenue last Sunday, the first weekend after the launch of the commercial operations.

A KMRL official said the Kochi Metro which experienced rush of joyriders collected a record Rs 30.91 lakh on June 25.

Scientists have discovered a major extinction event that wiped out around a third of marine species and reduced their diversity by 55 per cent between two to three million years ago.

The disappearance of a large part of the terrestrial megafauna such as saber-toothed cat and the mammoth during the ice age is well known.

Researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland and the Naturkunde Museum in Berlin, Germany have shown that a similar extinction event had taken place earlier in the oceans.

The team investigated fossils of marine megafauna from the Pliocene and the Pleisto-cene epochs – 5.3 million to around 9,700 years BC.

“We were able to show that around a third of marine megafauna disappeared about three to two million years ago. Therefore, the marine megafaunal communities that humans inherited were already altered and functioning at a diminished diversity,” said Catalina Pimiento from the University of Zurich.

Above all, the newly discovered extinction event affected marine mammals, which lost 55 per cent of their diversity.
As many as 43 per cent of sea turtle species were lost, along with 35 per cent of sea birds and nine per cent of sharks.
On the other hand, the new forms of life developed during the subsequent Pleistocene epoch.

Around a quarter of animal species, including the polar bear Ursus, the storm petrel Oceanodroma or the penguin Megadyptes, had not existed during the Pliocene.

Overall, however, earlier levels of diversity could not be reached again, researchers said.

In order to determine the consequences of this extinction, researchers concentrated on shallow coastal shelf zones, investigating the effects that the loss of entire functional entities had on coastal ecosystems.

Functional entities are groups of animals not necessarily related, but that share similar characteristics in terms of the function they play on ecosystems.

Researchers found that seven functional entities were lost in coastal waters during the Pliocene.

This led to an erosion of functional diversity – 17 per cent of the total diversity of ecological functions in the ecosystem disappeared and 21 per cent changed.

Previously common predators vanished, while new competitors emerged and marine animals were forced to adjust.
In addition, the researchers found that at the time of the extinction, coastal habitats were significantly reduced due to violent sea levels fluctuations.

The researchers propose that the sudden loss of the productive coastal habitats, together with oceanographic factors such as altered sea currents, greatly contributed to these extinctions.

Any attempt by India to become US ally to counter China will not be in its interests and could even lead to "catastrophic results", a state-run Chinese daily said as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump held their maiden meeting.

"Washington and New Delhi share anxieties about China's rise. In recent years, to ratchet up geopolitical pressure on China, the US has cozied up to India," an article in the Global Times said.

Underlining that India is not a US ally like Japan or Australia, it said, "To assume a role as an outpost country in the US' strategy to contain China is not in line with India's interests. It could even lead to catastrophic results." 

The daily said if India regresses from its non-alignment stance and becomes a "pawn" for the US in countering China, it will be caught up in a strategic dilemma and new geopolitical frictions will be triggered in South Asia.

With an eye on China and the disputes in the South China Sea, Modi and Trump after their meeting in the White House called for freedom of navigation and resolving of territorial and maritime disputes peacefully in accordance with international law.

A joint statement on the meeting said as responsible stewards in the Indo-Pacific region, Trump and Modi agreed that a close partnership between the United States and India is central to peace and stability in the region.

The Chinese daily in the article said both former Soviet Union and the US under Kennedy presidency tried to pit India against China but the results were not "satisfactory".

"From the end of the 1950s to the beginning of the 1960s, both the Soviet Union and the US wanted to play the India card to check China. Then the Kennedy government supported India's Forward Policy. But the result wasn't what was expected. India isn't able to balance China, which has been proved by history," it said.

Asserting that India should avoid being roped into a "geopolitical trap", the daily said despite New Delhi's anxieties over Beijing's rise, maintaining a stable relationship with China is of more importance to its security and development.
 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday asked the Congress to refrain from indulging in politics over GST launch, saying all decisions with regard to the new tax regime were taken unanimously by the GST Council.

The GST Council, he said, is the first federal institution which is chaired by the Union finance minister and has representatives from all states.

The government is planning to launch Goods and Services Tax (GST) at the midnight of June 30-July 1 from the Central Hall of Parliament. President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan will be present, along with members of Parliament.

Jaitley has already invited former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and H D Deve Gowda to attend the event.

When asked about the Congress party being non-committal of attending the event, Jaitley said "I don't know what they will do. All decisions (on GST) were taken collectively and we want the launch programme to reflect the collective nature of our polity".

Jaitley said that GST is for the entire country and all political parties have supported the GST Constitutional Amendment Act in Parliament. All states sans Jammu & Kashmir have passed the State GST (SGST) act.

"It is for entire country, and President would be there and there should be no politics over it," Jaitley said at the 'GST Sammelan' hosted by ABP News.

The Union finance minister said, in Parliament every political party supported GST and then the Council was set up.

"GST Council is the first federal institution where every decision was taken by consensus. No decision was taken on the basis of UPA Vs NDA, or on the basis of politics. All decisions were taken keeping in mind the benefits to the country and traders," Jaitley said.

The Congress has remained non-committal about attending the event to mark the launch of GST in the Central Hall of Parliament. GST will subsume 16 different taxes.

AICC chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala yesterday said the Congress was considering whether to attend the meeting and suggested that it had not given any concrete assurance to the government on its participation.

"The Congress party is examining various aspects of the issue, including the manner the GST is being implemented causing harassment to the common people, the unorganised sector and small businessmen," Surjewala said.

The historic Central Hall of Parliament will host a midnight function on 30 June to launch the sweeping tax reform measure, reminiscent of India's tryst with destiny at the midnight of 15 August, 1947.

The government will use the circular-shaped Central Hall, perhaps for the first time, to launch a new taxation system that is set to dramatically re-shape the over $2 trillion economy.

The launch event will, in all probability, start at 11 pm on 30 June and extend into midnight, coinciding with the roll-out of GST regime.

The GST Bill was originally piloted by Mukherjee when he was the finance minister in the previous UPA regime.

Pakistan on Tuesday described as "completely unjustified" the US' designation of Hizbul Mujahideen leader Syed Salahuddin as a global terrorist and said it will continue its "political, diplomatic and moral support for … the Kashmiri people".

The Foreign Ministry said the "indigenous struggle of Kashmiris" in Jammu and Kashmir "remains legitimate. The designation of individuals supporting the Kashmiri right to self-determination as terrorists is completely unjustified".

A ministry spokesman made no reference by name to the Pakistan-based Salahuddin, who was on Monday — just ahead of the meeting in Washington between US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi — designated by the State Department as a global terrorist.

The spokesman said Pakistan had demonstrated its "long-standing commitment of combating terrorism in all its forms and manifestations". 

The spokesman came out strongly in support of the separatist campaign in Jammu and Kashmir which has left thousands dead since 1989. India says the separatists are armed, funded and trained by Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denies.

Accusing the Indian security forces and the government of unleashing terror in Jammu and Kashmir, the statement said "the Kashmiris remain undeterred and unbowed. 

"Pakistan shall continue to extend political, diplomatic and moral support for the just struggle of the Kashmiri people for the realization of the right to self-determination and the peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with UN Security Council Resolutions."
 

Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Tuesday said the Congress "deliberately refuses to see" the outcome of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US due to "sheer jealousy" and "guilt" of lost opportunities during the UPA's regime.

The information and broadcasting minister's comments came after Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari termed the India-US joint statement as "disappointing and old hat", lacking "new or big ideas" in the relationship between the two countries.

"Congress deliberately refuses to see and believe the significant outcomes of this visit of PM and his meeting with the new US President for the first time.

"This is borne out of sheer jealousy and guilt as the prime minister's every foreign visit holds a mirror to the lost opportunities during the 10 years of UPA rule," Naidu told reporters here.

He said the "grand and warm welcome" extended to Modi by the White House and the US President speaks for the rising importance of India in the global economic and geo-political order.

"Congress is particularly disappointed by the fact the US President acknowledged the accomplishments of India under Modi during the last three years," Naidu said, adding that Trump particularly referred to the comprehensive battle against corruption launched during NDA rule.

The minister said the main objective of the visit was to further strengthen Indo-US relations, besides sharing perspectives on a wide range of regional and global issues including the menace of terrorism, trade and economic cooperation.

In this regard, Naidu said, the prime minister's visit was a "success" which was reflected in the joint media briefing by the two leaders.

He claimed that the growing status of Modi as a global leader and rising status of India in the comity of nations "obviously is not digestible" to Congress given their "lacklustre foreign policy" during its 10-year rule.

He said the US administration has declared Syed Salahuddin of Hizbul Mujahideen as a "global terrorist", reflecting India's concerns in the matter.

"If this is not a major outcome of PM's visit to the US for the Congress party, this is a clear evidence of disorientation that this party is suffering from (due to) its growing irrelevance and mounting frustration," Naidu claimed.

PTI CPB/MP