The Editorial Page: India’s Goldilocks moment is over, macro situation will worsen 10 FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2026 JOURNALISM of COURAGE NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES ₹7.00 (₹8 RAIPUR, ₹15 SRINAGAR) 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 Happening today lTHE MINISTRY of Youth Affairs & Sports will organise a three-day Chintan Shivir of Ministers of Youth Affairs and Sports of States and Union Territories at Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre in Srinagar. TRACk THESE AND MORE ON WWW.INDIANExPRESS.COm Business as Usual By EP UNNY WEST BENGAL SEES HIGHEST-EVER TURNOUT, PREVIOUS RECORD WAS 84.72% IN 2011; RECORD HIGH IN TAMIL NADU 92.9% Bengal, 85.1% TN SEATS IN PHASE 1: 152; TURNOUT IN 2021: 82.64% TOTAL SEATS: 234; TURNOUT IN 2021: 72.73% Over 96% polling in Bengal seat with highest SIR deletions in Phase 1 TamilNadu witnesses recordvoting asChennai postsover81% Arun Janardhanan Chennai, April 23 Damini Nath & Atri Mitra New Delhi, Kolkata, April 23 AfterCWG, Olympicspitch, Indianow targets2038 AsianGames Mihir Vasavda Mumbai, April 23 AFTERMAKINGanaggressive pitch for the 2036 Olympics and securing the hosting rights for the 2030 Commonwealth Games (CWG), India has set its sights on the Asian Games. Earlier this month, the IndianOlympicAssociation(IOA) wrotetotheOlympicCouncilof Asia (OCA) expressing interest in hosting the Asiad in 2038 — the next available slot as the 2026 edition will take place in Aichi-Nagoya, Japan, 2030 in Doha and 2034 in Riyadh. India’s proposal was discussedatthecontinentalbody’s Executive Board meeting in Sanya,China,onThursday,and it was decided that the OCA’s evaluationteamwouldvisitthe country to assess the bid. IOA CEO Raghuram Iyer confirmed India’s interest and said the Olympic body had written to OCA president Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BOTH WEST Bengal (first phase) and Tamil Nadu recorded their highest-ever voter turnouts in the Assembly elections on Thursday. InWestBengal, where152of the total 294 Assembly seats went to polls in the first phase, the turnout was 92.88%, according to DECISION the ECINET app data around midnight. This is the first election since the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) cut the electoral rolls by11.63%inthestate,including 27.10 lakh deleted electors in limbo with their appeals pending before tribunals. InTamilNadu,accordingto Voters in Baharampur constituency in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, Thursday. PARTHA PAUL; (right) Long queues outside a polling station in Chennai. PTI ‘Voting to stay on rolls’: Huge turnout SIR shadow, 12% dip in in Murshidabad after high deletions voter count: TMC, BJP say surge in their favour 2026 Ravik Bhattacharya murshidabad:Votingin »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Murshidabad, April 23 THE RECORD turnout in the first round of the West Bengal Assembly elections Thursday was evident in Murshidabad district, which recorded the highest deletions during the adjudication round of the SpecialIntensiveRevision(SIR) of electoral rolls. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l seatswithhighestdeletions Seat Deletions Turnout 1. Samserganj 74,775 96.04% 2. Lalgola 55,420 47,493 96.95% 4. Raghunathganj 46,100 96.9% ALL FIGURES ARE FROM ECINET APP AS OF 11.30 PM Purnima Sah ATLEASTtwocomplainantsin thecaserelatedtoallegedworkplace harassment at TCS’s BPO office in Nashik resigned from their jobs less than a week before FIRs based on their complaints were filed, The Indian Express has learnt. On April 17, TCS CEO KKrithivasanhadsaidinastatementthatthecompanyhadnot received any complaints 2 3 murshidabad district just the deletion of electors – deceased, shifted, absent, duplicate — from the rolls during the Special Intensive Revision, bringing down the overall base and enhancing the percentage, it also points to robust voting by those who had cleared the E. POLLING IN the first phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections Thursday set a new recordofvoterturnoutover 92%, more than 10 percentage points higher than the 2021 turnout. This reflects not »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 dEcISIoN, pAgE 6 Mythos risk: Govt pings Anthropic, FM urges banks to remain vigilant Soumyarendra Barik New Delhi, April 23 CHAIRING A high-level meeting to assess the risks that Anthropic’s latest AI model Mythos poses to India’s financial sector, Union Finance Minister NirmalaSitharamantoldbanks Thursday to exercise a “highdegree” of vigilance and develop a coordination mechanism to respond to threats E. ExPLAINED The ability & threat Governments globally are moving to step up defences against cyber attacks given that Mythos has the ability to identify serious vulnerabilities in widely used software, posing significant threats. emerging from capabilities of the advanced large language model. The Indian Express has also learnt that the government is currently in conversation with Anthropic’s senior leadership in the US on the issue. Earlier this month, Anthropic unveiled a preview of Mythos, calling it the most powerful model it has ever »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 TCS Nashik case: Days DELHI RAPE-MURDER INCIDENT before FIRs, 2 women Probe: Accused forced entry from roof, dragged woman complainants quit BPO downstairs to open locker Nashik, Mumbai, April 23 4 New Delhi, April 23 96.45% 3. Bhagawangola Damini Nath 1 BYTHURSDAYevening,Tamil Nadu’s polling booths had begun to resemble what they often doonthestate’sbiggestpolitical days:long,patientqueuescurling past school gates, elderly voters leaning on walking sticks,first-timevoterscomparing inked fingers, party agents watchingeverymovement,and theoccasionalburstofcommotion breaking the rhythm of an otherwise orderly day. TamilNadurecorded85.15% polling, according to the ECINET app data around midnight, the highest-ever turnout in an Assembly election in the state since 1952, surpassing the previoushighof78.29%in2011. Chennai,oftenseenasslowerto warm up than the rest of the state, also posted a strong 81.34% turnout by 5 pm. Acrossthestate’s234constituencies, voters turned out in throughitsethicsorPOSH(prevention of sexual harassment) committees. Asked about the resignations and whether they would have any bearing on the internal investigation ordered byTCS,aTCSspokespersontold TheIndianExpress,“Wewishto reiterate the statement issued concerning the matter on April 17, 2025. We are constrained on offering comments on specific queries as these are matters of present investigation.” »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Are you prepared for Life after Paychecks? Mutual funds may help you build a long-term, disciplined retirement corpus. Mahender Singh Manral New Delhi, April 23 THEINVESTIGATIONintothe rape and murder of an IRS officer’s 22-year-old daughter in Southeast Delhi on Wednesday has found that Rahul Meena (23), the accused who has since been arrested, first knocked on the door of the rooftop room where she was studying, claiming that her father had »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Accused Rahul Meena. ANI RELATED REPORTS, PAGE 4 l GRANDFATHER REGRETS ASSUMING IT WAS ‘SAFE’ FOR 5-YR-OLD, INFANT SISTER TO VISIT THEM IN BISHNUPUR Why Mutual Funds? Why Plan Today? Manipur on boil again around them, bodies of 2 children wait for ‘justice’ Sukrita Baruah & Jimmy Leivon Guwahati, Bishnupur, Imphal, April 23 FIVE-YEAR-old Tomthin and five-month-oldYaisanadiedtogether,instantly.Fortwoweeks now, the bodies of the siblings have lain together, at a morgue in Imphal, awaiting “justice”. That is what the family is demanding for the children, killed in a projectile attack in their sleep in Bishnupur. And that is what the protesters who have been taking to the streets Fresh plaster around the window through which the projectile is believed to have entered the room of the house in Bishnupur. EXPRESS every night in Imphal are asking for — the agitation putting Manipurbackontheedge,days ahead of what would be the third anniversary of the start of the ongoing ethnic conflict in the state. The rocket-propelled shell that killed Tomthin and Yaisana exploded in their room around1amontheintervening night of April 6-7, while they slept next to their mother Binita, at their grandparents’ home in Bishnupur’s Tronglaobi Awang Leikai village. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Your future self will thank you. Mutual Fund investors need to complete the Know Your Customer (KYC) process, which can be done by submitting completed KYC Form along with the required documents at any AMC’s branch Office or official Points of Acceptance. 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