Latest news with #ChitaleBandhu
Time of India
7 hours ago
- General
- Time of India
Tuljapur temple to resume distribution of prasad with Chitale Bandhu laddoos
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: After a temporary halt, devotees visiting the revered Tulja Bhavani temple in Dharashiv district will soon receive laddoos as prasad, with Pune-based Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale roped in for preparation and supply. The decision comes as part of a renewed focus on ensuring purity and quality in religious offerings. Confirming the development, Dharashiv collector Keerthi Kiran Pujar told TOI, "The prasad in the form of laddoos will be prepared by Pune's famous Chitale Bandhu." He clarified that the sweet-maker is charging close to Rs 29 for 50g of laddoos, while the temple trust will be charging devotees Rs 30 only. The Tulja Bhavani temple trust stopped distributing prasad some time ago after receiving several complaints regarding its quality. In a significant policy shift, the trust floated tenders in Sept 2024, inviting reputed firms to take over prasad preparation. This move was prompted by heightened concerns nationwide, particularly after allegations of the use of animal fat and fish oil in the prasad served at the Tirupati Balaji temple created a stir among devotees. Chitale Bandhu, known for its high standards in sweet preparation, was selected through a transparent bidding process. The Tulja Bhavani temple is one of Maharashtra's most important religious destinations. It is counted among the 51 Shakti Peethas in India and draws lakhs of pilgrims every year. The temple also holds a special place in Maratha history, with Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj known to be a devout follower of the goddess. Officials said prasad distribution is likely to resume once the necessary logistics and packaging arrangements are finalised. The prasad will be made using pure ghee and traditional ingredients, aligning with the temple's cultural and spiritual heritage. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Eid wishes , messages , and quotes !
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Yogendra Yadav writes: When a nation's idea of itself is stolen, what follows must be more than recovery
How should you react when something you value is stolen? Once you overcome the initial bewilderment (Where is it?), curiosity (Who stole it? How?) and guilt (Was I careless?), you arrive at the all-important question: How do I reclaim it so as to not lose it again? That is the question I would like to take away from the thoughtful response ('Who stole my nationalism?', IE, May 31) to my article ('The nationalism we forgot', IE, May 27) by Suhas Palshikar — my colleague, co-author and friend for three decades. His disagreements are constructive, as our starting point is the same. Suhas bhai puts it better than I did: It's not just the backsliding of Indian nationalism, but the delegitimisation and resolute replacement by a phoney version based on the 'narrow, vicious, macho and exclusionary European duplication of nationalism'. Therefore, reclaiming Indian nationalism is arguably the most critical priority for political action today. Let me begin by accepting all the corrections that Suhas bhai suggests to my initial outline. Indeed, Indian nationalism was an audacious project, difficult to realise and even more difficult to sustain. Yes, the uniquely Indian version of 'belonging without othering' always had its communal rivals in the Hindu and Muslim versions that copied the European models of national belonging via the 'othering' of religious communities. Of course, we have not just forgotten our nationalism; it has been stolen by the RSS version of pseudo-nationalism. That leaves only one serious disagreement. Suhas bhai thinks that I exaggerate the role of the tiny English speaking and deracinated elite in squandering the rich legacy of Indian nationalism. I still believe that the ruling class is always tiny, yet its ideas become the ruling ideas with lasting consequences. But this is a dispute the two of us can continue over a cup of tea (with bakarwadi from Chitale Bandhu) in Pune. Let me focus on the more pressing question of the here and now: What is to be done? How do we regain Indian nationalism in a way that we do not lose it again? This is not a simple political question of how to take on the BJP. This is also not a simple ideological question of how to combat the RSS's Hindutva with our received liberal progressive ideology. This is a serious intellectual and cultural question. I suspect that critics of today's phoney nationalism underestimate how serious this intellectual challenge is. Let me list three uncomfortable questions that we need to address head-on before we begin the project of the recovery of Indian nationalism. First of all, what is India? Is this a cultural-civilisational entity or just a political unit with boundaries defined by accidents of history? The pseudo-nationalist version offers a narrow yet thick notion of Indianness, of Bharatvarsha, a Sanatan and Akhand Bharat, that may be rescued from 1,000 years of Muslim and British colonial history. The response of the progressive critics is to fall back upon a liberal yet thin version of Indianness, which views India only in modern, political and constitutional terms, as a political community of people brought together by accidents of history. The uncomfortable question that we need to ask is this: Is the modern Indian state a successor to the civilisation called India? If so, what are its defining cultural features? Answering this question, without falling into dominant majoritarian myths, was never easy. In a sense, Jawaharlal Nehru's The Discovery of India was an attempt to do exactly that. The task has got more difficult today after Partition and with deeper awareness of the multiple histories and geographies that the Indian state is heir to. Yet, this is a question we cannot evade any more. We need a thick yet liberal notion of Indianness, a notion that has cultural resonance with the people of India. Second, should we be proud of being Indian? Here again we confront two bad answers. The dominant answer is jingoistic, the political equivalent of football club loyalty. Every Indian must, at all times, be proud of everything Indian as it is our 'motherland'. This powerful sentiment then drums up all kinds of reasons for this pride: India as the vishwaguru, India as the mother of democracies, India as the fountain of ancient wisdom, and so on. The critics of this narrative of national pride demand good reasons for such an assertion. Accident of birth is no proof of excellence; if anything, this conflict of interest calls for extra care in judging our own country. They find it difficult to take pride in a country full of class inequality, caste oppression, gender injustice and what not. They respond with guilt, if not shame, about being an Indian. So, the difficult question is: Can we address the deep sense of cultural inferiority that Indians have inherited from their colonial past? Can we do so without inventing ridiculous lies about plastic surgery in ancient India? Can we do so without brushing under the carpet the ugly truths about our country, our society, our civilisation? Can we come up with ways of self-affirmation that inculcate pride without asserting superiority over others? Finally, what do we owe this entity called India? Here again, the dominant answer is simple and powerful, if totalitarian. In this version of nation-comes-first, we owe everything, unlimited and unquestioning loyalty, even our lives, to our country. This requires suppressing any competing demand from a lower or higher unit: From attachment to any region, religion or language or from considerations of internationalism etc. The critics of jingoistic nationalism are more circumspect about what and how much they owe to one of the many entities that demand our affection. They want a space to assert other identities, from regional to global. Faced with aggressive nationalism, their loyalty appears shallow. They look non-aligned and can be dubbed anti-national. So the challenge is: How do we define deep loyalty to the nation in a way that does not preclude other equally legitimate commitments? I suspect that the progressive and liberal critics of the RSS-BJP do not have good answers to this or the other two questions. In sum: Our challenge is to reimagine a deep and non-jingoistic nationalism, at once culturally rooted in the plural heritage of our civilisation and open to claiming the heritage of humankind. That is what the nationalism of our freedom struggle was. Yet we cannot simply go back to that nationalism now. As Suhas bhai reminds us, it was a rather precarious achievement in its own times. Besides, a lot of water and blood has flowed in the Ganga since then. So we have no option but to recreate, rearticulate and then regain the nationalism that we lost. Suhas bhai is right: Creating a deep sense of 'belonging without othering' was and remains an 'audacious project' always exposed to external challenges and internal hiccups. This is infinitely more difficult than the jingoistic political project of finding external and internal enemies to forge a unity based on hatred. But I am sure he does not believe that in this audacity lies its impossibility, that this is a good reason to give up on this project. The project of reclaiming Indian nationalism is not an optional project for some Indians of a particular ideological orientation. The success of this project is the precondition for the very survival of India. The writer is member, Swaraj India, and national convenor of Bharat Jodo Abhiyaan. Views are personal
Mint
15-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
From milk delivery to modern FMCG - Chitale Bandhu now aspires for a bigger slice of the snack market
MUMBAI: For a company that started out transporting milk to Mumbai before independence, Chitale Bandhu now speaks a very different language—inventory optimisation, omnichannel strategy, and clean-label snacking. With a ₹265 crore capacity expansion complete and Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador, the fourth-generation family business is reengineering itself into a modern FMCG challenger. From building bhujia machines in the 1990s to baking ₹10 namkeen bars in 2025, the Pune-based company is betting on automation, quality and scale to capture a bigger slice of India's ₹1 trillion salty snack market. 'We've added enough capacity to take us from a 1% to a 10% market share, but we're not trying to compete in the ₹5 space – we can't maintain quality at that price," said Indraneel Chitale, managing partner at Chitale Bandhu. While the company operates 90 franchise-run stores, many of them in Pune and Mumbai, with plans to reach 125 such stores this financial year. The focus is squarely on distribution. Today, 60% of the company's top line comes from its retail network of over 250,000 outlets across 11 states and two Union Territories. Franchise store sales contribute 30%, with exports and digital channels accounting for 7% and 3% respectively. 'We look at stores as real estate and brand presence. They help with visibility and enable quick commerce, but volumetric growth is coming from general and modern trade," Chitale said. Also Read | Temasek's pricey bite of Haldiram is a risky bet on India's consumer market To support this, the company has invested ₹330 crore since 2016 in expanding manufacturing and logistics. Of this, ₹265 crore was spent recently to add capacity that can support revenue of up to ₹1,500 crore. 'We plan to utilise that capacity fully over the next three years," he added. However, scaling up in India's price-sensitive and brand-cluttered snacking market is far from easy. Legacy companies Haldiram's, Bikanervala and Balaji dominate shelf space in both traditional and modern retail. Mass-market play Chitale's growth bet is rooted in smaller product stocks at mass price points. It recently launched mini bhujia rolls at ₹20 and is now scaling up Binge Bars, baked ₹10 namkeen bars aimed at what Chitale called the 'C and D category buyer." There are over a dozen variants in the pipeline, each designed to appeal to local palates. What Chitale won't do is dilute quality to hit the lowest price points. 'We realised that at ₹5, we can't deliver the kind of ingredients we use – groundnut oil, dairy fats, and no trans fats. So we dropped that plan entirely," he said. Instead, the focus is on value-added snacking and clean-label offerings. 'Nutrition per gram is the lens we're applying. Every product we launch must deliver better health without losing taste or affordability," he said. Experts said that mass consumption may be the opportunity, but it's also where the slowdown pinches first. And unlike the metros, where brand recall can drive premium purchases, the mass-market game is unforgiving on margins. Also Read | Private equity eyes fresh bite of regional food brands, repeat of Haldiram When rural demand weakens, sub- ₹20 snacks are the first to see drop-offs. Chitale's decision to stay out of the ₹5 price point, while deliberate, also limits its play in a market that's still extremely value driven. Chitale Bandhu is using quick commerce platforms not just as a sales channel, but as a demand predictor. The company watches city-level demand closely. If Q-commerce sales in a market like Kolkata or Jammu hits a certain threshold, it starts deploying on-ground sales teams and building out distribution in that region. This approach has helped Chitale open up new territories, especially where traditional distributors were hesitant to stock perishables. 'Q-commerce is giving us digital visibility and data. If we can sell 120 packs a day in a market we've never entered, that's proof of concept," Chitale said. Q-commerce is a double-edged sword. Logistics costs remain high, and brand discoverability can be inconsistent. It's also unclear whether consumers will continue to pay a premium for speed in smaller towns and tier-2 cities. Beyond the diaspora Overseas expansion is another growth lever. The company exports its products to over 60 countries and runs 12 stores in the US, two in the UAE, and two in Australia. That number is set to grow: the US store count is expected to double to 25 this year. The strategy is shifting from selling to Indian-run grocery stores abroad to cracking mainstream retail. The company is already supplying to Coles in Australia and is in advanced talks with a leading US supermarket chain. To enable this, Chitale has set up subsidiaries in both countries. 'We want to go beyond the diaspora. That means adapting to global retail standards not just in compliance, but in packaging, positioning, and category innovation," Chitale explained. While overseas manufacturing isn't on the table just yet, the company is open to technology partnerships. 'We're interested in tech transfers that let us manufacture in India, but sell products tailored for global markets," he said. Consultants are of the view that mainstreaming Indian snacking will take more than good distribution, including brand familiarity, smart packaging, and marketing muscle. Also Read | Can an early summer thaw India's consumption slowdown? One of the brand's strongest moats is its perception of quality and transparency. During the pandemic, when a rumour circulated that factory workers were infected with covid-19, Chitale went live on Instagram from the plant to address concerns head-on. That moment cemented the brand's belief in showing – not just telling – its commitment to safety and hygiene, said Chitale. Its upcoming integrated plant in Ranjangaon will feature visitor galleries and consumer-facing education zones. 'We want people to see how our products are made. Once they trust the process, repeat purchase becomes easier," says Chitale. That trust is also what drove the company to onboard Tendulkar as brand ambassador in 2023. 'He brings authenticity and pan-India recognition, especially in regions where our brand recall is low," he added. No funding pressure Unlike peers such as Haldiram's, which is exploring private equity partnerships, Chitale Bandhu remains fully family owned. There are no plans to raise external capital. 'Unless we plan a big bang global manufacturing play, we are comfortable funding our own growth," Chitale said. For now, the playbook is clear: scale through distribution, innovate for mass appeal, and preserve trust through transparency and quality. In an industry crowded with regional titans and new-age D2C brands, Chitale Bandhu is trying to carve out a rare space, one that blends tradition with technology, nostalgia with next-gen snacking.
Indian Express
24-04-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
Chitale Bandhu name on our bakarwadi packets due to printing error: Chitale Sweet Home
In a press conference held on Thursday, advocate Hemant Zanjad, representing Chitale Sweet Home, said, a printing mistake led to Chitale Bandhu's name being printed on certain packets of bakarwadi sold by Chitale Sweet Home. On April 16, Chitale Bandhu had filed an FIR at Vishrambaug Police Station, claiming that Chitale Sweet Home was using the Chitale Bandhu brand name to allegedly produce and sell fake bakarwadi. 'On the packaging strip on the side, where the customer care number is, Chitale Bandhu's name got printed by mistake,' Zanjad said on Thursday. Chiatale Sweet Home claimed the mistake had happened while printing their new bakarwadi packets. They had also released a public notice in a Marathi daily stating this mistake. 'Once we realised this mistake that had occurred while printing the packaging, and to avoid another complaint and to prevent any kind of business hurdles, we released a public notice,' he said. Zanajd said, 'We came to know that on a small strip on the new packets of bakarwadi, the name of Chitale Bandhu was printed instead of Chitale Sweets. The mistake that occurred was at the printing press and was unintentional. Once we realised the mistake, we recalled the said packets. This has happened by mistake, and there was no intention of doing anything wrong. We will fight whatever legal battles we have to. The reason for holding this press conference was that our total brand is different. Our trademark is different. So there is no reason for us to be doing this on purpose,' said Zanjed. Chitale Sweet Home has been a trademarked name since 2010, and has been in business since 1954 in Sadashiv Peth area. 'If you go to the government's trademark website, you can find the name Chitale Sweet Home, and our design is registered under the name of Pramod Prabhakar Chitale. It has been trademarked since 2016,' said Zanjad. He added, 'We also have the Shop Act License for Chitale Sweet Home since 1954, and we keep renewing it as well.'
