The EU’s new president-elect Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday made her first trip to Brussels since being nominated, as senior officials sought to shore up support for her appointment in the European Parliament.

Current German defence minister von der Leyen met Jean-Claude Juncker, the man she is to replace as European Commission president, for talks a day after pledging to present her “vision for the next five years for Europe” within a fortnight.

She must win the approval of the highly fragmented European Parliament, where there have been grumblings about the deal to appoint her, which was cooked up by EU national leaders over three days of tortuous summit wrangling.

Juncker and von der Leyen -- the first woman to be named to the head of the EU’s executive arm -- embraced warmly for the cameras as they met at commission headquarters in Brussels, but neither made any comment.

The latest Henley Passport Index 2019 ranks the Indian passport on the 86th position with a mobility score of 58. The score points out that Indian passport holders can access 58 countries around the world without a prior visa.

India shares the 86th position with Mauritiana and Sao Tome and Principe.

Asian countries dominate the rankings with Japan and Singapore holding onto the top spot with a score of 189, after they unseated Germany from its first position at the beginning of 2018.

IN a red T-shirt and pink shorts that she wore to sleep on Monday night, Priya Nanavare (8) stood outside Goregaon crematorium on Wednesday, clutching a water bottle. The bodies of nine people who died in the Kurar wall collapse had been brought to the crematorium for final rites. Five of them were from Priya’s family.

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank has invested around $250 million in Ola Electric Mobility. With this, the electric vehicle unit of ride sharing aggregator Ola has become the newest unicorn from India, at par with the likes of Flipkart, Zomato, Paytm, as well as its parent company.

As per regulatory documents filed with the Registrar of Companies, Ola Electric issued "4,326 fully and compulsorily convertible series B preference shares of face value of Rs 10 each having the rights, privileges and preferences..." to SB Topaz (Cayman) Ltd. The Japanese investor paid a total of Rs 1,725.04 crore (around $250 million) to the Indian company, the filing further said.

The SoftBank funding was received on Tuesday in light of a special resolution passed by the board of Ola Electric on June 25.

India secured a place in the semi-finals of the ICC Cricket World Cup with a 28-run win over Bangladesh at Birmingham last night.

Opting to bat, the Men in Blue posted 314 for 9, riding on Rohit Sharma's 92-ball 104, his 26th ODI ton. He became the first Indian and second after Sri Lanka's Kumar Sangakkara to score four centuries in a World Cup.

Rohit also became the leading run-scorer in the ongoing tournament. The Indian opener has, so far, amassed 544 runs.

KL Rahul's 77, Rishab Pant's 48 and MS Dhoni's 35 also helped India lay the foundation of a 300 plus total.

Later, with the ball, India bundled out Bangladesh for 286 in 48 overs sending them out of the World Cup. Paceman Jasprit Bumrah bagged four wickets guiding Team India to join Australia in the last-four.

Indian pro boxer Vaibhav Yadav became the WBC Asia silver welterweight champion after defeating Thailand's Fahpetch Singmanassak in the title bout held in Pattaya, Thailand.

Yadav, a cousin of Commonwealth Games gold-medallist Vikas Krishan who has also turned pro now, clinched a third-round knockout over Singmanassak.

The fight, which took place on Sunday night, was conducted by the Asian Boxing Council and approved by the World Boxing Council (WBC).

Union Government has launched Jal Shakti Abhiyan to create awareness on the benefits of water conservation and declining sources of water in the country. Launching the initiative in New Delhi this evening, Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat said, water conservation is now a national priority and it is time to make water conservation a people's movement. He requested the people to associate themselves with Jal Shakti Abhiyan. 

Mr Shekhawat said, everyone should made efforts to save the country from the threat of water scarcity. The Minister said, per capita water availability has dropped a lot in India and India is also one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. He said, there is a need to conserve more water as at present only 8 per cent of rainwater is being conserved. 

The Jal Shakti Abhiyan has been launched in two phases. The first phase is 1st July to 15th September and is for all participating States and the second phase will be between 1st October to 30th November for States with retreating monsoon. Under Jal Shakti Abhiyan, focus will be on 256 water stressed districts and 1,592 water stressed blocks. 

Government has constituted a high-powered committee of chief ministers for transformation of agriculture and raising farmers' income. The nine-member committee, chaired by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, will suggest measures to boost agricultural export, raise growth in food processing, attract investments in modern market infrastructure, value chains and logistics.

Chief ministers of Karnataka, Haryana, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh will be the members of the panel, according to an official statement. Agriculture rural development and panchyati raj minister Narendra Singh Tomar and NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand will also be part of the committee.

The committee will suggest modalities for adoption and time bound implementation of agriculture sector reforms and will submit its report within two months of the date of notification.

Second anniversary of implementation of historic tax reform of Goods & Services Tax as 1st July is celebrated as the "GST DAY".

Kicking off celebrations, the finance ministry will on Monday come up with further reforms in the indirect tax system with introduction of new return system, rationalisation of cash ledger system and a single refund-disbursing mechanism, among others.

Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur will preside over the event alongside key secretaries and officials of various departments.

The introduction of GST was a game changer for the Indian economy as it has replaced multi-layered, complex indirect tax structure with a simple, transparent and technology-driven tax regime.

The ministry said it will introduce the new return system on a trial basis from 1 July and on mandatory basis from 1 October. At the event, a book on 'GST for MSME' will also be released.

K. Natarajan took over as the Director-General of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Sunday. He is the 23rd chief of India’s coastal security force.

He took over form Rajendra Singh, who was the first Director-General to be appointed from within the force. Prior to taking over as D-G, Mr. Natarajan was the Coast Guard Commander, Western Seaboard.

Commissioned into the ICG in 1984, he has commanded all classes of Indian Coast Guard ships such as advanced offshore patrols, offshore patrols, fast patrol vessel and inshore patrol vessel, the Coast Guard said.