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Sunrise Spices launches Champaran Mutton Masala for Holi
New Rs 20 blend brings Bihar’s iconic dish to kitchens across state and Jharkhand.
MUMBAI: Sunrise Spices just turned up the heat for Holi because nothing says “festival of colours” like a handi of slow-cooked mutton stealing the show. ITC Ltd.’s Sunrise Spices unveiled Champaran Mutton Masala at a lively pre-Holi celebration in Patna, paying tribute to Bihar’s signature slow-cooked mutton dish that’s as essential to the festival as gulal and gujiya. The new spice blend, priced at Rs 20, is crafted to deliver the authentic flavour profile of Champaran mutton eliminating guesswork while keeping the rich, earthy taste intact for home cooks.
The launch event transformed the venue into a traditional Bihari courtyard with earthy mud tones, wooden textures, and community-style seating. At the centre stood the symbolic “Holi Ki Handi,” a live, sealed slow-cooking demonstration using the new masala. Guests watched the process from spice mixing to dough-sealed cooking, then savoured the freshly unveiled dish in a communal feast.
ITC Ltd. business head for Sunrise Spices Piyush Mishra said, “At ITC Sunrise Spices, we believe food is deeply woven into cultural celebrations. Launching Champaran Mutton Masala amid a vibrant Holi celebration allowed us to showcase not just the product, but the emotion and tradition it represents.”
The celebration also featured spice-led activities, a hands-on handi-sealing ritual, and a cultural corner where guests shared Holi food memories. The evening wrapped with the community feast hot mutton straight from the handi, traces of gulal still on smiling faces capturing the warm, togetherness-filled spirit of a Bihari Holi.
Now available across key retail outlets in Bihar and Jharkhand, the launch positions Sunrise as a champion of regional cuisines made accessible for modern kitchens. In a season of colour and feasting, Sunrise isn’t just selling masala, it’s serving up a taste of home, one fragrant handi at a time.
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Apple bites back: the $599 MacBook Neo is the cheapest Mac ever made
The tech giant unveils a budget laptop that packs a punch — and a lot of cheek
CALIFORNIA: Apple has never been shy about charging a premium. So when Cupertino rolls out a MacBook at $599 (approx. Rs 55,000) , it’s worth sitting up straight.
The MacBook Neo, unveiled Tuesday, is Apple’s most affordable laptop to date — undercutting its own MacBook Air and taking a sharp swipe at the budget PC market in one fell swoop. It starts at $499 for students, which, for a machine with Apple silicon inside, is frankly a steal.
At the heart of the Neo is the A18 Pro chip — the same muscle that powers the latest iPhones. Apple claims it is up to 50 per cent faster for everyday tasks than a rival PC running Intel’s Core Ultra 5, and three times quicker on on-device AI workloads. Fanless and featherweight at 2.7 pounds, it runs silently and promises up to 16 hours of battery life. Try doing that on a Chromebook.
The 13-inch liquid retina display clocks in at 2408-by-1506 resolution with 500 nits of brightness and support for billion colours — sharper and brighter, Apple says, than most rivals in this price band. It comes dressed in four colours: blush, indigo, silver, and a zesty new citrus, with matching keyboard shades to boot.
Connectivity is modest — two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 6 — but this is a budget machine, not a pro workstation. The 1080p FaceTime camera, dual mics with directional beamforming, and Spatial Audio speakers round out a package that punches well above its weight class.
Apple senior vice-president of hardware engineering John Ternus alled it “a laptop only Apple could create.” That’s the kind of line that makes rivals wince — because, annoyingly, he might be right.
The Neo runs macOS Tahoe, with Apple Intelligence baked in for AI writing tools, live translation, and the sort of on-device smarts that keep user data away from the cloud. It also boasts 60 per cent recycled content — the highest of any Apple product — for those who like their bargains with a side of conscience.
For $599, Apple isn’t just selling a laptop. It’s selling an argument — that good design and real performance needn’t cost the earth. The PC industry had better have a decent comeback ready.
