Brands
Spice of Life Sunrise rolls out a safety drive to beat food adulteration
MUMBAI: Nothing spices up a community like safety and Sunrise now wants to season India with both. ITC Ltd.’s Sunrise Spices, a household name across the East, has launched its flagship CSR initiative, the Sunrise Swasthya Pradesh Program, a large-scale food safety movement designed to fight adulteration and strengthen safe eating habits across Indian homes and community kitchens. Rolled out in partnership with the NGO READS (Rajabazar Education and Awareness Development Society), the initiative will cover West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam and Andhra Pradesh, aiming to reach millions of households and food handlers.
At the heart of the programme are two powerful interventions, one for the people who feed the nation at celebrations, and another for the women who nourish it at home.
Every festive season, crores of Indians rely on the invisible army of cooks, caterers and street vendors who keep the country’s weddings, melas and celebrations running. Yet many of these food makers lack formal training in safe handling. Sunrise aims to change that through specialised FoSTaC (Food Safety Training and Certification) sessions aligned with FSSAI guidelines.
Participants undergo structured training, followed by assessments, and those who pass receive official FoSTaC certification, a mark of trust that boosts both consumer confidence and the professional credibility of vendors and caterers. Over time, this initiative is expected to impact millions of consumers, ensuring that celebratory meals are not just memorable but also safely prepared.
The programme’s second pillar is rooted in the home, empowering women to become frontline defenders against adulteration. Sunrise aims to sensitise 1.5 million women across 10 districts in West Bengal, equipping them with:
. FSSAI’s DART (Detection of Adulteration by Rapid Test) booklet
. IEC material on reading food labels
. Adulteration testing kits
Health camps and haat-level activations will encourage women to test ingredients, spread awareness and champion safer choices within their communities.
“For decades, Sunrise has been a trusted name in Indian kitchens,” said ITC Spices business head Piyush Mishra. “With the Swasthya Pradesh Program, we reinforce our commitment to food safety, hygiene and health. By empowering caterers, food vendors and women with knowledge and skills, this initiative goes beyond awareness to transform everyday practices and safeguard the health of millions.”
ITC ltd vice president & head of food sciences Shantanu Das emphasised the scientific backbone of the initiative: “By building capacity through FoSTaC and awarding certification, the programme ensures consumer protection and strengthens India’s food handling ecosystem. Such science-backed initiatives are critical for safeguarding health and creating a culture where every meal can be enjoyed with confidence.”
The launch event brought together street food vendors, caterers and women from nearby villages, many of whom shared how certification, tools and awareness would directly uplift their livelihoods and communities. The programme aligns with ITC’s Nutrition Strategy – ‘Help India Eat Better’, centred on safe nutrition, sustainable food ecosystems and healthier communities.
With adulteration continuing to challenge both rural and urban India, Sunrise’s new initiative brings both scale and science to a mission that begins in the kitchen but reaches far beyond it.
Brands
Uber launches hotel bookings feature in partnership with Expedia
From hotel bookings to room service at your door, the ride-hailing giant is making its boldest push yet into everyday life
CALIFORNIA: Uber is done being just a taxi app. At its annual GO-GET product event, the world’s leading mobility and delivery platform unveiled a sweeping set of new features designed to plant itself at the centre of how people travel, eat and shop, hotel bookings included.
The headline move is a partnership with Expedia Group that lets Uber users in the United States book hotels directly within the Uber app, with access to a catalogue that will eventually grow to more than 700,000 properties worldwide. Uber One members get 10 per cent back in Uber One credits on all hotel bookings and savings of at least 20 per cent on a rolling list of more than 10,000 hotels globally. Vacation rentals from Vrbo, Expedia Group’s home-rental brand, will be added later this year. The partnership is expected to expand beyond the United States. From June, Uber rides will also be integrated directly into the Expedia app, with push notifications sent to travellers ahead of hotel check-in to book discounted Uber rides for the duration of their stay.
Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive of Uber, framed the expansion in terms of the modern condition. “Uber is becoming an app for everything, helping people go, get, and now travel all in one place,” he said. “We’re all living through a moment of real cognitive overload: too many apps, too many decisions, too much noise. At the end of the day, our job is to help people reclaim their time, spending less of it managing the logistics of life and more of it actually living.”
Ariane Gorin, chief executive of Expedia Group, struck a similarly ambitious note. “Travel should feel effortless, and this partnership gets us one step closer to offering a seamless traveller experience,” she said. “By connecting our two-sided marketplace with Uber, we’re bringing Uber rides directly into the Expedia app and Expedia Group’s lodging inventory into the Uber app through our Rapid API technology. Together, we’re helping travellers spend less time planning and more time enjoying the journey.”
Beyond hotels, the product announcements come thick and fast. Travel Mode, available within both the Uber and Uber Eats apps, offers curated recommendations on local favourites, tourist destinations, OpenTable restaurant reservations and on-demand delivery to hotel rooms. Uber One International means the membership programme now works globally, allowing members to earn credits on rides abroad that can be redeemed once back home. A new Shop for Me feature lets users request items from any store, even those not listed on the app. Eats for the Way allows riders in select cities booking an Uber Black or Uber Black SUV to have a drink or snack waiting for them in the car. Voice Bookings, powered by artificial intelligence, lets users book a ride conversationally, without touching their phone. And a redesigned One Search bar consolidates results for places, food and items across the entire Uber platform in a single query.
Uber has now logged more than 72 billion trips since it launched in 2010. The question it is now answering is what comes after the ride. The answer, apparently, is everything else. Whether users want a hotel in Paris, a coffee in the back of a car or a snake plant from the local garden centre, Uber would very much like to be the one to provide it. The app economy’s land grab has a new front-runner.
NOTE: The image used is AI generated and only for representational purposes.
