The Forum for Medical Ethics Society with the Centre for Law and Society, School of Law, and Constitutional Governance, Centre for Public Health, School of Health Systems Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, eSocial Sciences (eSS),Mumbai organised a public lecture by Dr Sarah Hodges, for the University of Warwick. Hodges, a social and cultural historian of modern South Asia, focusing on the politics of health in colonial and postcolonial India, especially Tamil Nadu, is currently working on a project examining "the idea that fake drugs threaten global health". The team closely examines the widely held assumption that Africans’ already poor health is further imperiled by fake Indian drugs. Looking closely at the scientific literature backing these claims, the project has found that they were based on unexpectedly weak evidence. Following Dr Sunita Bandewar's crisp introduction to the speaker, Hodges held the audience interest in a fascinating recounting of a well-documented event and how there lies a story behind the story. 
In this public lecture Hodges narrated in dramatic detail the way the spurious drug racket unravelled in 2010 in Chennai.  While the entire exercise was to discover the culprits, gather evidence and take them to court, Hodges pointed out that there was much that the public investigation did not cover nor did it even pose questions.  It is far from clear, she said, whether the retrieval, relabelling and redistribution of outdated medicines in fact posed a threat to public health.  The act is certainly a crime, but whether and how it impacts on health in general needs closer examination. While there is a sincere attempt to quell the circulation of re-labelled drugs, she pointed out that drugs are neither the subject nor the object, but in fact the substratum on which battles are fought.
The scholarly audience made the lecture a truly interactive event.