The Ideas Page: Amid a widening Gulf, the need for a bridge between India and South Korea 9 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2026 JOURNALISM of COURAGE MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 16 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 REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 40-MINUTE PHONE CALL CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT BILLS CIRCULATED fOR THREE-DAY SESSION Women’s quota: govt for house at Trump dials Modi again, 850, delimitation on 2011 census discusses keeping Strait Delimitation divide:Stalin, Revanthraise alarm,TDP backsCentre Bill sets stage for delimitation panel with civil court’s powers Deeptiman Tiwary & Damini Nath New Delhi, April 14 Liz Mathew, Vikas Pathak & Jatin Anand THE GOVERNMENT Tuesday circulated three Bills to pave the way for fresh delimitation based on “such Census, as Parliament may by law determine, of which the relevant figures havebeenpublished”,likelythe 2011count;raisethestrengthof LokSabhafromthecurrent543 to 850 members; and operationalise one-third reservation of seats for women in Parliament and state Assemblies. Thelegislativepackagecomprises the Constitution (One Hundred and Thirty-First Amendment) Bill, 2026, the Delimitation Bill, 2026, and the UnionTerritoriesLaws(Amendment) Bill, 2025. It builds on the Constitution(OneHundredand Sixth Amendment) Act, 2023, whichhadintroducedwomen’s reservationbutlinkeditsimplementation to a future Census and delimitation exercise. Atthecoreofthemoveisthe removalofthedecades-oldconstitutional freeze on readjustmentofseats,whichhadpegged representation to the 1971 Census. The new amendment AS THE government Tuesday shared the texts of three Bills it proposes to introduce in Parliament — during the extended three-day Budget Session startingThursday—onthedelimitation of constituencies for early implementationofwomen’sreservationinParliamentandstate Assemblies, differences among southernstatescametothefore. While Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin warned the BJP-ledCentreagainstbulldozing “through a Constitutional amendment”inthemidstofAssembly elections and said his statewouldprotestifthe“political power of northern states” goes up disproportionately, his TelanganacounterpartRevanth Reddypushedfor“broad-based consultations and consensus building”. BJP ally TDP, which is in power in Andhra Pradesh, however,saidthegovernment’s moves were along the lines discussed with Opposition floor leaders and that seats across states would be increased by 50% on a pro rata basis. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 98 126 155 74 Business as Usual By EP UNNY New Delhi, April 14 PM Narendra Modi with Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge at an event to mark Dr B R Ambedkar’s birth anniversary in Parliament complex, Tuesday. Vice President C P Radhakrishnan is also present. ANI Bill proposes to end mandatory delimitation after every Census Damini Nath, Vikas Pathak, Deeptiman Tiwary & Amitabh Sinha New Delhi, April 14 DEALING WITH delimitation of constituencies for early implementation of women’s reservation in Parliament and stateAssemblies,thethreeBills that the government proposes tobringintheextendedBudget session of Parliament later this week answer many questions even as they raise doubts that may be debated in Parliament. The capping of elected members at 815 is a 50% increase on the existing strength of 543 in the Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha chamber in the new Parliament building has a seating capacity for 888 members — expandable to 1,272 members for a joint session. It is, however, not clear what will be the formula for seat allocation in each state based onpopulation.Inpublic statements on delimitation,thegovernmenthaspromisedtomaintaintheproportion E. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 of Hormuz open, secure Big-ticket items to be announced over next few days or weeks, says envoy Gor Shubhajit Roy New Delhi, April 14 A DAY after he ordered a US naval blockade of Iran’s ports and coastal areas, President Donald Trump called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday who said they “discussed the situation in West Asia and stressed the importance of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open and secure”. The phone call, which lasted around 40 minutes, was the first conversation between thetwoleadersaftertheUSand Iran announced a conditional ceasefire last week. In a post on X after the call, Modi said, “Received a call from my friend President Donald Trump. We reviewed the substantial progress achieved in our bilateral cooperation in »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ThE BIg PIcTURE 6’4’’ of power PAgE 12 As Mumbai launches 2 New era in Bihar: Samrat set to giant TBMs, one is stuck be CM, both Dy CMs from JDU 60 metres below Powai US wants 20-yr freeze on n-plan, Iran for 5; moves to resume talks David E Sanger & Tyler Pager Washington, April 14 JUST BEFORE Vice President J D Vance left Islamabad early Sunday morning, he described Iran and the United States as worlds apart, chiefly on the question of assurances that Iran can never build a nuclear weapon —“not just now, not just two years from now, but for the long term.” It turns out that the Trump administration’s ideaofthelongtermis20years. AsdetailsofVance’s21-hour visit to Pakistan spilled out, peoplefamiliarwiththenegotiations said the US position was not a permanent ban on »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 13 killed, 20 injured in boiler blast at Vedanta plant in Chhattisgarh Rs 2 lakh ex gratia for kin of each of the dead, Rs 50,000 for injured: PM Meets Governor to stake claim, swearing-in today Nayonika Bose Mumbai, April 14 TUNNEL BORING Machine (TBM)Nayakwaslaunchedlast week for the Thane-Borivali tunnel, with a bullet train TBM assembly beginning simultaneously.Beneaththecity,anetwork of tunnel boring machines (TBMs) has been steadily reshaping Mumbai, cutting through rock to build Metro lines, road tunnels and water networks. But one of them never made it back. Nearly 60 metres below Powai, a German-made TBM lies buried in volcanic ash and monsoon sludge, abandoned after a rare engineering failure. Andnooneiscomingforit.The machinehad been deployed by A second round of talks could happen ‘over the next two days’ in Islamabad, US President Donald Trump said. AP Santosh Singh Patna, April 14 Since soil conditions along the stuck TBM were not conducive, the BMC deployed the New Austrian Tunneling Method on nearly 420 metres. EXPRESS the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for a water conveyance tunnel from Veravali to Ghatkopar. In 2019, it got trapped in loose volcanic ash beneath the SCI establishment »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MARKING THE end of a political era in Bihar, Nitish Kumar resigned as the state’s Chief Minister Tuesday, paving the way for BJP leader Samrat Choudhary to succeed him. Choudharywasfirstelected the BJP legislature party leader and then the leader of the NDA legislature party, clearing the decks for him to become the first Bihar CM from the BJP. He met Governor Syed Ata Hasnain to stake claim to form the government and is scheduled Outgoing Bihar CM Nitish Kumar with Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary and Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan in Patna, Tuesday. EXPRESS to be sworn in at the Lok Bhavan Wednesday, alongside Deputy CMs from the JD(U), Bijendra Prasad Yadav and Vijay Kumar Choudhary. “PM Narendra Modi and our mentor Nitish Kumar will EXPRESSinvestigation continuetoguideustowardthe continued progress of Bihar. Our goal is to realise the motto of Viksit Bihar,” Choudhary toldreporters.Expressinggratitude for his party’s leadership, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Smoke rises from the Vedanta power plant in Chhattisgarh’s Sakti district after the boiler tube explosion, Tuesday. PTI Jayprakash S Naidu Raipur, April 14 THIRTEEN PEOPLE, mostly labourers, were killed and 20 injured when superheated steam generated from a boiler tube blast rained on them at a Vedanta Limited power plant in Chhattisgarh’s Sakti district Tuesday afternoon. A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into the incident, saidSaktiCollectorAmritVikas Topno, adding that the bestpossible treatment will be provided to those injured. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 IN ASSOCIATION WITH ICIJ To lower cost burden, oncologists suggest smaller doses, but Keytruda says no Anonna Dutt & Nayonika Bose New Delhi, Mumbai, April 14 FROM ALTERING recommended doses to shifting vial sizes, US-based pharma major Merck & Co (MSD) has taken several steps to maximise returns from its best-selling cancer drug Keytruda but most of them, experts in India say, have driven up the cost of cancer care and resulted in patients receiving significantly moreofthedrugthanrequired. TheIndianExpressspoketo leading specialist oncologists not willing to be named, but all across the country as part of its of them agreed that with Keyinvestigation in association truda'sgenericcompetitionexwith the International Consor- pected only by 2028, the way forward for patium of Investitients is a combigative Journalists (ICIJ) into how a nation of reduced company mandosing, shorter treatment durdate for standardation, vial sharing ised high dosing THE CANCER and pooled proand a opaque multi-layered accurement. cess for patients Keytruda was haveledtoagrowfirst approved by PART-III theUSFoodandDrug ing multi-city counterfeit racket in Keytruda. Administration(FDA)in2014for Manyofthespecialistswere metastatic skin cancer and is calculus l Cancerdrugdebate:Smallerdose,orno l Oncologists say the recommended dose (200mg) of Merck & Co’s best-selling cancer drug Keytruda is far higher than what patients in India need, making treatment unnecessarily costly. l Oncologists say much a smaller dose works just as well, but the drug company disagrees. now used across a host of cancers,rakingin$29.5billionin 2024.Lastyear,itwasaddedasa l Company offers patient assistance only for the full dose, making it nearly impossible for oncologists to prescribe smaller, cheaper doses. l Experts warn that until cheaper generic versions arrive by 2028 in India, thousands of cancer patients may not get access to this life-saving treatment. first-line treatment for metastaticnon-smallcelllungcancer, cervical cancer and colorectal cancertoWHO’smodellistofessential medicines — a list used bycountriestoensureavailabil- ity of key medicines at public health facilities and guide government procurement and insurance reimbursement. The high cost, however, means that low and middle-income countries like India cannot afford to make it widely available. The committee that proposedaddingthedrugtothe essential medicines list acknowledged as much: “...immunecheckpointinhibitorsare likelynotacceptabletreatment options for the proposed indications to most countries... due to high price, the need for com- paniondiagnostics,andtherisk oferodingthefinancialviability ofhealthsystemsanddiverting resources at the expense of other essential medicines.” Dr Atul Batra, additional professorofoncologyatAIIMS, Delhi, describes this as “financial toxicity”, where the “high prices of such cancer therapies drive it out of reach for most patients”. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 tOmORROW: RAcE ON FOR chEAPER vERSION Mumbai