Top news on Saturday morning. Top news on Saturday morning.

General Soleimani killing: Unease in India over fallout, relations with US and Iran

Hours after the killing of Iran’s top military commander, General Qassem Soleimani, in an American drone strike in Baghdad Friday, India said it had “noted that a senior Iranian leader had been killed by the US”, urged restraint and called for de-escalation. The terse statement masked the deep unease about how far the ripples from this sharp spike in US-Iran tensions will extend across the region, and impact India.

Govt readies provisions to protect jobs and land rights in J&K

Five months after the scrapping of Article 370 and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories, the Ministry of Home Affairs is likely to finalise provisions to protect jobs and land ownership of people in J&K in the next few days. “It is almost finalised, we are just discussing the procedure: whether the state administration alone can notify it or we need to approve it,” a top official in the Ministry said.

Run-up to Budget 2020-21: On Govt table – Do away with or prune tax on long term capital gains

In the run up to the Union Budget 2020-21, the Finance Ministry is considering a partial or complete rollback of the long term capital gains (LTCG) tax on shares of listed companies. Government officials have informed The Indian Express that a series of discussions between the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry have been held on the same. Sections within the government as well as leading market players have noted that LTCG has not yielded much in terms of revenue.

Seema Chishti writes: The new Indian Muslim

The Muslim presence in India is as old as Islam. This is no refugee or atithi story, it is an insider’s tale. The civilisational urn has Islam as much in the mix as any other faith. But it has been a journey which has had its hiccups, defined as much by the strain as the smoothness of the ride. But the nationwide debate on India’s streets in the aftermath of the CAA, which provides that undocumented non-Muslims from three South Asian countries fast-track their citizenship has broken something, somewhere — even if no one can immediately point to exactly what, writes Seema Chishti.

Explained: Maharashtra’s second farm loan waiver in 2½ years — what is different

Last week, the new Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government announced a loan waiver for farmers who had up to Rs 2 lakh in pending loans between April 1, 2015 and March 31, 2019. Maharashtra, thus, became possibly the only state to have offered two consecutive farm loan waivers within two-and-a-half years of each other which came after the previous loan waiver announced by Devendra Fadnavis in 2017. The Indian Express explains why this loan waiver was considered necessary, and how it is different from the earlier one.

Storm in UP after SSP’s report says top officers in transfer-for-cash nexus, DGP seeks explanation

The Uttar Pradesh Police finds itself at the centre of a storm with the Director-General of Police seeking an explanation from Gautam Buddh Nagar SSP Vaibhav Krishna on Friday for allegedly leaking details of a report which levels serious allegations, including bribery for postings, against top police officers of the state. The details of the report prepared by Krishna were made public after a purported video sex chat featuring him began doing rounds.

Friday Box Office release reviews: Bombshell and Sab Kushal Mangal

Bombshell, which released this Friday, was thoroughly engrossing as the movie scores in bringing out the casual sexism that dogs women in the workforce, from offhand compliments to insistence on shaved legs —one can pick from all in the middle. With 3.5 star rating, Shalini Langer highly recommends the movie. On the other hand, Bollywood release Sab Kushal Mangal starring Akshaye Khanna, Priyaank Sharma, Riva Kishan among others came across as a rather long, aimless comedy film and got 1.5 stars from our critic.

And finally…

Nobel Laureate Abhijit Banerjee Friday said the government, in the upcoming Budget, should look at more demand-side measures such as putting more money in the hands of poorer people, rather than going for any more reduction in the corporate tax rate.

📣 The Indian Express is now on Telegram. Click here to join our channel (@indianexpress) and stay updated with the latest headlines

For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App.

© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd