Morning digest: 10% quota Bill may fail legal test, Meghalaya miners overlooked risks for higher pay, and more

A select list of stories to read before you start your day

10% quota Bill may fail legal test

A proposed law, which got Cabinet approval on Monday, to provide 10% reservation for upper castes (or the unreserved category) exclusively with reference to their economic backwardness may run into rough weather if challenged in the  Supreme Court.

Miners in Meghalaya overlooked risks for higher pay

A majority of men in Bogidari in Chirang district have worked at some point in Meghalaya’s coal mines.

20 crore workers will strike work, say unions

Ten central trade unions on Monday expected 20 crore workers to respond to their call for a nationwide general strike on January 8 and 9.

T.N. Minister Balakrishna Reddy gets jail term for rioting

Tamil Nadu’s Youth Welfare and Sports Development Minister P. Balakrishna Reddy, along with 15 others, was convicted and sentenced on Monday by a special court to three years’ imprisonment in a case of unlawful assembly and rioting in 1998 in Bagalur village near Hosur, in Krishnagiri district.

India secures extradition of bookie Sanjeev Chawla

India secured another legal victory in the U.K. as a judge at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court has said that the extradition of alleged bookie Sanjeev Chawla can proceed, and referred the case to Home Secretary Sajid Javid for a final decision.

' Akhilesh approved 14 illegal mining deals’

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav allegedly approved 14 mining leases in Hamirpur, in violation of his own government’s e-tendering policy and an Allahabad High Court directive, according to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Family will kill me, says Saudi woman to UN refugee agency, pleads for asylum

An 18-year-old Saudi woman who fled her family and barricaded herself inside a Bangkok airport hotel to prevent being expelled by Thai authorities has left the airport after talks with the United Nations refugee agency, an official said on Monday.

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim to step down on February 1

In a surprise move, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim on Monday announced that he will step down from his position on February 1 - much before the end of his term in 2022.