The Editorial Page: Dear Babasaheb, those who sing paeans to you inflict wounds on your Constitution 8 MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2026 JOURNALISM of COURAgE AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES ₹5.00 l www.indianexpress.com DA I LY F R O M : A H M E DA B A D , C H A N D I GA R H , D E L H I , J A I P U R , KO L K ATA , L U C K N O W , M U M B A I , N AG P U R , PAT N A , P U N E , VA D O DA R A {ASHA BHOSLE • 1933-2026} The legend whose voice broke many a silence Suanshu Khurana who passed away on Sunday in Mumbai at 92 after a chest infection,recognisedthisearlyon and sang what was left, from where she could: the street, the nautanki stage, the cabaret floor and the club back rooms thick with smoke. This voice was wild, could shake a leg and take one’s breath away. It seemed to know what a party smelled like, what a dance floorfeltlikeat3inthemorningandwhatdesireactually New Delhi, April 12 ASHABHOSLE,oneofthemost remarkable voices in Indian film music with over 12,000 songs to her credit, was never regardedasthecountry’snightingale. Post independence, the nation’scarefulconsciencehad already given the coveted title to her older sister Lata Mangeshkar,whosangdelightfully, piously and with a voice that soared over a generation’s lives. But an astute Bhosle, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ILLUSTRATION: SUVAJIT DEY MORE REPORTS, P 10, 16 Thank you, Asha ji, for that first hug on Dal Lake — the songs and the friendship sPEcIAlTO ThEExPrEss BY SHARMILA TAGORE THE PASSING of Asha Bhosle fills my heart with a profound sense of loss. For more than sevendecades,sheenrichedIn- diancinemawithherextraordinary voice, bringing depth, emotion, and joy to countless songs, including many that were filmed on me. Asha ji’s contribution to film music is immeasurable. She did not simply sing; she infused every note with such feeling that the »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ExPrEssinvestigation WITH THE INTERNATIONAL CONSORTIUM OF INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISTS (ICIJ) Rs 1.5 lakh a shot, ‘magic’ cancer drug leaked from top hospitals, fakes sold to desperate patients How nexus of pharmacists and fixers uses authentic batch numbers and used vials of Merck & Co’s Keytruda; company says hospital’s responsibility Kaunain Sheriff M Journalists (ICIJ) has found. Theinvestigationisbasedon scrutiny of more than 12,500 ONE OF the world’s fastest pagesofpoliceandhospitalrecgrowing cancer populations ords,andinterviewswithseveral and one of the world’s most hospital staff members, includpowerful and pricey cancer ing oncologists. The Indian Exdrugs intersect in a story set in pressalsoinvestigatedrecordsof a modest house in Punjab. more than 150 patients across In early 2022, a 56-year-old the national capital who had rewomannearChandigarhbegan ceived the original Keytruda — treatment for liver cancer at and found that the batch PGIMER,wheredoctorsrecom- numbersmatchedwhatinvestimendedKeytruda—animmu- gators had seized from emnotherapy drug manufactured ployees at top Delhi hospitals. by US pharma major Merck & Onagloballevel,theICIJinCo (MSD) that vestigationreveals mostfamiliescanhow one of the notaffordatanofworld’s largest ficial market price drugmakers deof over Rs 1.5 lakh ployed tactics to for a 100 mg vial. inflate the volume THE CANCER of prescriptions Weigheddown bytheburden,the and keep the price patient’s family high through bought12vialsbelobbying, while tween September and De- seeking to prevent cheaper vercember that year from a local sions of the drug from reaching medical store at a “discount”, hundreds of thousands of for approximately Rs 16 lakh. cancerpatients—andcounterButthat“smallrelief”turnedto feit rackets operating from alarm when police from Delhi Nepal to Mexico. called: the drugs they had used In India, counterfeiting is were counterfeit — filled with common across medicines antifungal medication. fromantibioticstoantacids,but This is just one among sev- as The Indian Express spoke to eral cases at the heart of a grow- patientswhoreceivedfakeKeying black market of counterfeit truda,alargerstoryemerged:of KeytrudainIndia,aninvestiga- the grey zone between global tionbyTheIndianExpressinas- pharma, government regulasociationwiththeInternational tions and hospital oversight, Consortium of Investigative »CONTINUED ON PAGE 13 New Delhi, April 12 l PlAYINGwITh lIFE&DEATh: TrAcKING KEYTruDA: 11sTEPs,lEAKsAT6,8AND10 1. Oncologist prescribes Keytruda 2. Notification emailed from hospital’s Oncology dept to Merck & Co vendor 5. Vendor delivers vials to hospital’s Purchase dept 4. Vendor procures vials from company or distributor 7. Pharmacy issues the drug to Oncology dept 3. Vendor places order, specifies dose needed Source: Police & hospital records, Delhi By EP UNNY 8. Drugs prepared by cytotoxic unit and sent to Nursing department 9. Used, empty vials discarded in colour-coded bag calculus business as Usual 6. Purchase dept sends consignment to pharmacy for hospital patients only 10. Waste weighed, barcoded, binned 11. Handed over to bio medical waste vendor TOMORROW: GETTING KEYTruDA ThE PrOPEr wAY — ThE bATTlE AND ThE chAllENGE l ARMYMAN BREAKS SHIvNATH SINGH’S RECORD SET IN 1978 28-yr-old Havildar breaks 48-yr marathon record — on his debut Nihal Koshie New Delhi, April 12 ARMY HAVILDAR Sawan Barwal did what no other Indian marathonerhasdonefornearly half a century. AttheNNMarathonRotterdam, a World Athletics Gold Label Road Race on Sunday, the 28-year-old from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh, clocked 2 SawanBarwal(centre)withhis compatriotTGopi(right)and coachAjithMarkose hours 11 minutes and 58 seconds to break the late Shivnath Singh’s marathon record of 2:12:00 set in 1978. India’soldestathleticrecord was broken by the long-distance runner making his debut in the marathon. India’s top half-marathoner couldhavegoneevenfasterbut for the cold breeze at the Dutch »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CEASEFIRE FATE UNCERTAIN; BOTH SIDES DRAW ‘RED LINES’ Peace talks fail; US will blockade Strait of Hormuz: Trump US President sees scope for further talks; Tehran says it has full control over Hormuz Bo Erickson, Saad Sayeed & Asif Shahzad Miami, Islamabad, April 12 US PRESIDENT Donald Trump said on Sunday the US Navy would start blockading the Strait of Hormuz, raising the stakes after marathon talks with Iran failed to reach a deal to end the war, jeopardising a fragile two-week ceasefire. Trump also said in a post on Truth Social that the US would takeactionagainsteveryvessel ininternationalwatersthathad paid a toll to Iran, and begin destroying mines that he said the Iranians had dropped in What’sKeytruda, whyisitabig »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 dealinIndia’s IDEA ExchANGE cancerfight Anonna Dutt ‘India follows a policy of strategic autonomy... that doesn’t mean it is neutral’ What is Keytruda and why is it considered so effective? Keytrudaisthebrandname of pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug manufactured by US-based global pharma major Merck & Co (MSD) for treating several cancers. It belongs to a class called “checkpoint inhibitors” — drugs that remove the brakes preventing the body’s T cells, which are a crucial weapon in the body’s immune system, from attacking cancerous cells. In other words, it uses the body’s own immune system to fight cancer. Pembrolizumab works by attaching to receptors called PD-1 on T cells. This prevents T cells from binding with corresponding PD-L1 receptors on cancercells,lettingthemidentify the abnormal cells and triggering an immune response. First approved by the US FDA in 2014 for advanced skin cancer, Keytruda is now used globallyforcertainlungcancers, cervicalcancer,renalcellcancer and aggressive breast cancer, amongothers.Itisthebest-selling drug globally, generating $29.5 billion in 2024 — nearly half of Merck & Co’s revenue. KEVIN KELLY, IRELAND’S New Delhi, April 12 AMBASSADOR TO INDIA PAGE 15 E. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 happening today lPRESIDENT DROUPADI Murmu will preside over the first convocation of AIIMS Rajkot. TRACK THIS AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPrEss.cOm NATION PAGE 11 SExUALHARASSMENT CASE:NASHIK-bASED bPOSUSPENDS7STAFF Ahmedabad ‘We’ve made very clear what our red lines are, what we’re willing to accommodate... and what we’re not...’ J D VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT ‘It’s time for them (U.S.) to decide whether they can earn our trust or not.’ MOHAMMAD BAGHER GHALIBAF, SPEAKER OF IRAN’S PARLIAMENT THE GAPS U.S. CLAIM that Iran refuses to give up its nuclear programme. U.S. SEEKS reopening of Strait of Hormuz, Iran says only after deal. FATE of nearly 900 pounds of enriched uranium. of frozen assets. IRAN’S DEMAND for release Deadlock, but with silver lining: Key takeaways from the US-Iran talks Shubhajit Roy New Delhi, April 12 US VICE President JD Vance’s 'mission impossible' hit a wall in Islamabad on Sunday, as US and Iran failed to reach an agreement after 21 hours of talks. Vance, before leaving Islamabad, said, “They have chosen not to accept our terms.” E. This may have come as a dampener, but the moment is extraordinary. Here are the key takeaways: Historic moment This was the first highestlevel political contact between »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
Indian Express Limited is an Indian news media publishing company. It publishes several widely circulated dailies, including The Indian Express and The Financial Express in English, the Loksatta in Marathi and the Jansatta in Hindi.
