Here are the top stories this Saturday morning: 

PM Modi to launch Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY SEHAT scheme for J&K

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) SEHAT scheme for the residents of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday at 12 pm. The scheme will benefit as many as 21 lakh eligible people on the basis of Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011. According to a release by Prime Minister's Office (PMO), this scheme will ensure Universal Health Coverage and focus on providing financial risk protection and ensuring quality and affordable essential health services to all individuals and communities of Jammu and Kashmir.

PMO statement read, "The scheme would work in convergence with Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY). The scheme would operate in insurance mode in convergence with Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY).”

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Internal rift in Telangana Cong; Hanumantha Rao threatens to resign 

In yet another chaos in the Congress party, senior Congress leader V Hanumantha Rao on Friday threatened to resign along with other party leaders, if Revanth Reddy, is made the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) chief. Congress, after its crushing defeat in the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Council Elections and BJP's rise in the South, is looking to re-establish itself and it is likely to choose Revanth Reddy - who is from Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) background - as the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee chief. 

Opposing the same, Rao said, "Many senior Congress leaders, including me, are ready to resign from the party if ex-RSS member Revanth Reddy is made the TPCC president. Many senior Congress leaders have spent a lifetime fighting against the RSS and now an ex-RSS member is being made the TPCC president. We can't work under an ex-RSS candidate." 

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Nepal PM Oli’s move to dissolve parliament challenged 

A Constitutional bench will hear all petitions challenging Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli's move to abruptly dissolve the Parliament, amid an intensified struggle between the two warring factions of the ruling Nepal Communist Party to wrest control of the party. Nepal's Supreme Court has also issued a show-cause notice to Prime Minister Oli-led government, asking it to furnish a written clarification over its decision to dissolve Parliament. The Oli-led Cabinet now has 18 members including ministers and ministers of state. 

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Congress expels Assam’s senior Neta Ajanta Neog from party 

Amid leadership vacuum in Congress, there is no end to the setback for the grand-old party. Now, Assam Congress leader Ajanta Neog, a senior minister in late Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's all three governments, was on Friday expelled from the party for her alleged anti-party activities. She later resigned both as an MLA and all positions of the party on similar allegations. Neog had recently met Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and Himanta Biswa Sarma triggering speculations that she would join the ruling BJP, following which she was asked by the state's party leadership to show cause why action should not be taken against her.

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EU expected to approve post-Brexit trade deal with UK ‘within days’: Report 

The 27-member European Union is expected to approve the post-Brexit trade with the UK within days after a Christmas briefing of ambassadors, The Guardian reported. After Britain and the bloc successfully agreed on trade terms, it is now upon the members to pore upon the 1,246-page text, although there is little doubt if the agreement would be called off. On Christmas eve, both the UK  and the EU finally zeroed down on common terms after nine months of fraught talks regarding a trade deal.

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