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Time of India
6 days ago
- Lifestyle
- Time of India
Add a unique twist to ice apples this season
Inputs by chefs Shailendra Singh, Manikandan V and Nesamani Adaikkalam Ice apple, also known as nungu or tadgola, with its jelly-like flesh and mildly sweet taste, is not only refreshing, it also offers a good dose of vitamins, minerals, and fibre. Though it's often enjoyed raw, here are some creative and unique recipes made using ice apples that you can try preparing at home. ICE APPLE JEERA DRINK Ingredients Ice apple (chopped) Mint leaves Black salt Palm sugar, if required Cumin powder Method In a mixer jar, add chopped ice apples, a few mint leaves, and add a bit of black salt and palm sugar to taste. Blend them all well and chill in the refrigerator for a bit. Before serving, top it up with a few mint leaves and cumin powder for extra flavour. ICE APPLE BASUNDI ICE CREAM BAR Ingredients For the basundi layer 1 lt full-fat milk 1⁄2 cup condensed milk 1⁄4 cup sugar 1⁄4 tsp saffron strands 1⁄2 tsp cardamom powder 1 tbsp chopped pistachios For the ice apple layer 1⁄2 cup ice apple (peeled and chopped into small cubes) 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp sugar Ice cream coating 200 gm dark chocolate 1 tbsp coconut oil Method Boil full-fat milk, reduce it to 1⁄3. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 5 Books Warren Buffett Wants You to Read In 2025 Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo Add condensed milk and sugar, cook for 5 minutes. Mix in saffron and cardamom. Cool and refrigerate, peel and chop the ice apples into small cubes. Mix them with lemon juice and sugar, pour some chilled basundi into popsicle moulds. Add a layer of chopped ice apples, then fill with more basundi. Insert sticks and freeze for 4–6 hours. Remove frozen bars from moulds. Dip them into the melted chocolate to coat, sprinkle nuts if desired, place the bars on a tray, and freeze for 30 more minutes. MANGO ICE APPLE COLD KHEER Ingredients 150 ml fresh mango puree (Alphonso mango or imam pasand) 250 ml condensed milk 150 gm ice apples (diced) 25 gm roasted pista flakes 1 tsp cardamom powder 5 ml saffron-infused water Method Boil 500 ml full fat milk, and reduce to 300 ml. Add 150 gm of sugar, and cook until it's dissolved and reaches a smooth texture. Cool it down on an ice bath or make overnight and store in a chiller. Soak the saffron in a tbsp of hot water. Peel and deseed mangoes. Make a fine puree. Add the pulp to cold condensed milk and mix. Cut the ice apple into small cubes, add the saffron water. Mix with a spoon and serve cold. Garnish with saffron and pistachios. ICE APPLE BASUNDI ICE CREAM BAR Ingredients For the basundi layer 1 lt full-fat milk 1⁄2 cup condensed milk 1⁄4 cup sugar 1⁄4 tsp saffron strands 1⁄2 tsp cardamom powder 1 tbsp chopped pistachios For the ice apple layer 1⁄2 cup ice apple (peeled and chopped into small cubes) 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 tbsp sugar Ice cream coating 200 gm dark chocolate 1 tbsp coconut oil Method Boil full-fat milk, reduce it to 1⁄3. Add condensed milk and sugar, cook for 5 minutes. Mix in saffron and cardamom. Cool and refrigerate, peel and chop the ice apples into small cubes. Mix them with lemon juice and sugar, pour some chilled basundi into popsicle moulds. Add a layer of chopped ice apples, then fill with more basundi. Insert sticks and freeze for 4–6 hours. Remove frozen bars from moulds. Dip them into the melted chocolate to coat, sprinkle nuts if desired, place the bars on a tray, and freeze for 30 more minutes. This is a guilt-free version of an ice cream. All of the goodness, minus the guilt The creamy and sweet mango puree and jelly-like ice apples go well together. Check out our list of the latest Hindi , English , Tamil , Telugu , Malayalam , and Kannada movies . Don't miss our picks for the best Hindi movies , best Tamil movies, and best Telugu films .
Time of India
22-05-2025
- General
- Time of India
PTR unveils anti-trafficking drive on World Turtle Day
Pilibhit: Authorities at Pilibhit Tiger Reserve (PTR) have unveiled a long-term strategic plan to curb illegal turtle trafficking, promote scientific conservation, and restore habitats, coinciding with World Turtle Day observed on May 23. The initiative highlights the region's rich freshwater turtle diversity. The plan includes rehabilitating identified turtle traffickers by linking them with govt-subsidised pisciculture schemes as a sustainable livelihood option. This is the first initiative of its kind in Uttar Pradesh. "Once offered a viable, state-supported alternative, traffickers are expected to abandon the illegal trade," said Manish Singh, divisional forest officer of PTR. India is home to 30 freshwater turtle species, 26 of which are listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act. According to Dr Shailendra Singh, director of the Turtle Survival India Foundation, Uttar Pradesh ranks third in turtle diversity after Assam and West Bengal, with 15 identified species—13 of them found in Pilibhit's rivers, lakes, Sharda Sagar Dam, and other water bodies. Eleven are protected under Schedule I. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trade Bitcoin & Ethereum – No Wallet Needed! IC Markets Start Now Undo Freshwater turtles are frequently smuggled to countries including China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand. Their parts are used in traditional medicine, while their meat, eggs, and even blood are consumed in some communities for protein or performance enhancement. PTR's renewed focus follows the identification of the Pilibhit-Kheri region as one of the five most sensitive turtle-trafficking zones in Uttar Pradesh by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) during its 2018 Operation Kurma. As part of its conservation efforts, PTR is also setting up a turtle conservation and research centre on a 28.2 km stretch of the River Mala within the reserve. The Rs 5 crore project, approved earlier this year, will be funded by the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA). Dr Merwyn Fernandes, coordinator of TRAFFIC India—a global wildlife trade monitoring network—said that Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal are the country's major hotspots for turtle trafficking. From 2009 to 2019, 111,310 tortoises and freshwater turtles were rescued from across 19 states and two union territories, averaging more than 11,000 annually. Between 2018 and 2023 alone, the WCCB seized 68,538 turtles during nationwide operations. In addition to trafficking, turtles face threats from poaching, riverside cultivation of cucurbits that destroy nesting sites, and unchecked sand mining. "To ensure coordinated enforcement and strengthen conservation, we've convened a meeting on May 23 with officials from the police, railways, road transport, and irrigation departments," said PTR DFO Manish Singh.
Time of India
25-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Scoop: Peak XV out to raise $1.2 billion fund, its first since Sequoia split
Peak XV Partners , the rebranded entity that split from Silicon Valley 's marquee venture capital firm Sequoia Capital two years ago, is set to raise its first independent fund with a target corpus of $1.2-1.4 billion, said three people familiar with the matter. The fresh capital being racked up will focus on investing in early-stage ventures across India and Southeast Asia, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity as the talks are private. Peak XV, which has backed the likes of Zomato, Cred and Groww, also makes larger investments through its growth vehicle, which is not a part of this fundraise, one of the people cited above said. The latest fundraising marks a crucial phase for Peak XV, which is trying to establish itself as a standalone identity after the Sequoia spin-off in June 2023. Sequoia US broke away from its India and China partnerships at the same time, signalling a retreat from Asia for the firm that had backed tech giants like Apple, WhatsApp and Google in their very early days. Peak XV's $2.85 billion eighth fund under the Sequoia Capital was announced in 2022 – for investing in venture, growth and Southeast Asia. Of the total pool, $2 billion was earmarked for India investments, while the remaining was for Southeast Asia. In 2024, the VC firm downsized this fund by 16% with the bulk of the reduction coming in its growth-stage allocation. 'They had a meeting with their limited partners (sponsors in funds) recently and expressed their intention to launch their maiden fund by end of the year…The firm expects to close the fundraise by early next year and will officially inform their LPs soon,' said another person privy to the matter. Peak XV Partners managing director Shailendra Singh did not respond to an email seeking comment. The new vehicle — ninth for the outfit since its launch in 2006 in India — will be almost half the size of its previous fund despite its resizing last year. The investment firm has since 2006 raised almost $9 billion in capital across funds. US market in focus Over the past two years, the VC fund has been looking to establish itself in the US, where it was unable to compete for deals due to its franchise partnership with Sequoia. 'Keeping in mind the number of India-origin founders who are based in the US, it makes a lot of sense for them to have a team there. To add to that the entire AI ecosystem is unfolding there which they want to capture,' said a person familiar with the thinking at the firm. Along with the frenetic pace at which deals are closing in artificial intelligence , the US has a large number of Indian founders who run cross-border companies in the enterprise segment. To push its presence in Silicon Valley, the fund hired Arnav Sahu from Y Combinator as its first investment partner based in San Francisco, adding to a six-member US team. Peak XV has invested in Atomicwork, Rapid Canvas and Supabase—which are based in the US. Top deck changes Peak XV's fundraising comes in the backdrop of a slew of leadership changes at the fund — including a churn in its leadership ranks — amid a prolonged VC funding winter and increasing scrutiny from limited partners globally. In February, two managing directors, Shailesh Lakhani and Abheek Anand, announced their exit from the firm . This was preceded by exits of managing director Piyush Gupta, who quit in April 2024 to launch his secondaries focused fund; chief marketing officer Gayatri Yadav, who left to join Reliance Industries; chief public policy officer Shweta Rajpal Kohli; and Anandamoy Roychowdhary, who was a partner at Surge, Peak XV's seed-stage investing programme. In March, Shraeyansh Thakur, a principal involved with the firm's early-stage investments, also announced his departure. ET had reported on February 11 that Peak XV could see more churn in its top deck over the course of the year – which the firm had denied at the time. IPOs and exits Since 2006, the venture capital firm – which has backed new-age companies such as Razorpay, Oyo and Truecaller, in addition to traditional businesses such as Prataap Snacks, Five Star Business Finance and Indigo Paints – has realised almost $6 billion in cash through exits from both public markets and private transactions. Last year the fund clocked exits of nearly $1.2 billion with five of its portfolio companies – Ixigo, Awfis, Go Digit General Insurance, Blackbuck and Mobikwik – going public. To be sure, Peak XV did not sell any stake in Go Digit and Mobikwik during their public issues. Additionally, Peak XV scored $185 million from a stock sale in Indigo Paints, $150 million through a block deal in Five Star Business Finance, clocked $73 million of liquidity through the sale of shares in Mamaearth parent Honasa Consumer and closed a $40 million stake sale in Truecaller. It also closed private market secondary deals in portfolio companies such as Healthkart, Rebel Foods, Finova and Cloudnine Hospitals. Since 2020, more than 20 of Peak XV's portfolio companies have gone public. Multiple other Peak XV portfolio companies are finalising plans to go public, including Groww, Meesho and Zetwerk. Peak XV's fundraising will further add to the available capital for investments in the Indian startups. Over the last year, firms including Accel India ($650 million), A91 Partners ($665 million), Bessemer Venture Partners ($350 million), Stellaris Venture Partners ($300 million), Cornerstone Ventures ($200 million) and Prime Venture Partners ($100 million) have closed or are in the process of raising their new India-focused funds.
Forbes
11-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Sequoia Spinoff Peak XV Returns To The Bay Area With New Partner
PeakXV's managing director Shailendra Singh signalled a push into making investments in the United States with the hire of Y Combinator investor Arnav Sahu. TechinAsia Nearly two years ago venture capital's biggest global brand Sequoia Capital split up with its China and India funds. Now, its former India and Southeast Asia arm, rebranded as Peak XV, is back home in Silicon Valley. The $9 billion venture fund has hired partner Arnav Sahu to head up investment from a new San Francisco-based team. Peak XV's managing partner Shailendra Singh said that the fund needed a permanent presence in the United States to work with the best founders and help them scale globally. Peak XV had been investing globally, but a recent migration of international founders moving to the Bay Area to build their startups has shifted its focus. 'We are partnering with more and more companies that are born outside the U.S. but their target market is the U.S.,' he told Forbes. The plan to expand to the Bay Area with an initial focus on seed stage and growth stage deals had been on Peak XV's timeline since its split from Sequoia Capital but the explosion of investment in artificial intelligence has expedited its schedule, said Singh. 'The minute we became independent, we were transparent with other leaders at Sequoia that it would be critical for us to start to build out a U.S. team,' he told Forbes in an interview. Peak XV's first partner hire in the United States will be Arnav Sahu. Sahu started his investing career at Spark Capital after working for networking giant Cisco, and earlier this year joined Peak XV from Y Combinator where he focused on growth investments in startups like ScaleAI, Vanta, and Rippling. 'Arnav fit our bill perfectly because he had seen a lot of seed at Y Combinator and growth with YC Continuity,' Singh explained. Peak XV has slowly been building a team in the United States since the split from its Sand Hill Road-based parent. It hired former Sequoia talent partner Jamie Bott in 2023; Operating partners Chris Merritt, and Dini Mehta joined over the last year. Sequoia Capital and its former China and India funds split in June 2023. The decision to do so was largely driven by how best to manage diverging funds and competition between rival startups in each portfolio. Rising tensions between the United States and China also played a role. Sequoia was one of a number of venture funds that drew attention from the Biden Administration over its backing for Chinese technology companies. A number of other global venture funds like DCM Ventures, Matrix Partners and GGV Capital also moved over the last two years to spin out China-focused teams. Since the split, Hongshan Capital (formerly Sequoia China) has opened offices in London and Singapore, potentially putting it in competition with Sequoia's Europe team, and Peak XV's Southeast Asia unit based in the city-state. Peak XV itself has made a string of investments in U.S.-based companies like database startup Supabase, AI agent platform Atomicwork and marketing unicorn Hightouch. Singh doesn't anticipate any friction with his former partners in the U.S. 'We don't have any crazy bold plans for the U.S. where we will be investing billions,' he told Forbes. 'The average successful company has 10 to 20 investors on the cap table and they can have Sequoia, or another top U.S. VC, and us as a complimentary strength.' Peak XV's new international focus comes amid an investment boom in its home market in India. Pitchbook reported that VC fundraising in India grew 77% last year defying a global slump. That surge follows a record number of initial public offerings on Mumbai's National Stock Exchange in 2024. The bull run on India's public markets has led to 16 IPOs from Peak XV's portfolio over the last five years, with around $1.2 billion in exits over the last 12 months alone. While the IPO window in the United States, and Europe seems to have been slammed shut by President Donald Trump's trade war, Peak XV has at least three Indian unicorns including payments platform Pine Labs preparing to go public. 'We have three big IPOs we are very excited about and another 15 or 20 companies preparing for IPOs,' said Singh. Despite this several senior partners have left Peak XV since its split with Sequoia, and the fund has trimmed its fund size and fees in its last fund raising in 2024, according to TechCrunch.
Yahoo
09-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
WVU Medicine leads trial of procedure to maintain weight loss without GLP-1 drugs
Feb. 9—dbeard @ MORGANTOWN — WVU Medicine is playing a lead role in a national clinical study of a minimally invasive surgical procedure for people who've lost weight through drugs like Mounjaro and fear regaining the weight when they go off the drugs. Dr. Shailendra Singh is WVUM's director of Bariatric Endoscopy and the WVU site's principal investigator. He explained what they're exploring. Drugs such as Mounjaro and Zepbound (the generic name is tirzepatide) and Ozempic and Wegovy (semaglutide) are part of a drug class known as GLP-1s. GLP-1s are approved to treat Type-2 diabetes, but are also effective as weight-loss drugs. But GLP-1 users may have to stay on them long-term to maintain their weight loss. Side effects and high costs pose barriers to long-term use, he said. And studies show that people who go off their GLP-1 therapy see a 3 % weight gain within four weeks. Some gain more than what they lost. Singh explained how GLP-1s work and why the weight comes back. They act in several areas. They slow the stomach down, which slows gastric emptying, meaning the food in the stomach for a longer time. They also act on the hunger center. "That kind of changes your relationship to food. What people say is there's not as much food noise and they can kind of avoid things which they were previously tempted to eat." They also increase insulin production and digestion. "So once the medication is gone, all those factors are totally reversed. Now you have patients whose satiety or hunger was controlled. No they don't have that inhibition anymore. So once that's reversed, then people kind of tend to, obviously, eat. ... So I think there's a huge need that needs to be addressed here." The surgical procedure trial is called REMAIN-1 and builds on trials and practice of a procedure called Revita DMR, developed by Fractyl Health, a metabolic therapeutics company focused on approaches to the treatment of metabolic diseases, including obesity and Type 2 diabetes. DMR is short for hydrothermal duodenal mucosal resurfacing. The duodenum is the first part of the small intestine, just beyond the stomach. Fractyl says it has an important role in regulating hunger and body weight. The duodenum is sensitive to the foods you eat and can signal to your brain to help the brain control your appetite. Singh said, "What we think is that over a period of time in diabetes, in patients with Type 2 diabetes or obesity or other factors, these cells [in the duodenum ] are inflamed or hypertrophic [enlarged or thickened ] which leads to the imbalance in the hormones." In the Revita procedure, an endoscope is inserted through the mouth down into the duodenum. Hot water is circulated into the duodenum to burn away the inflamed lining (called heat ablation). This allows regeneration of a new lining. "And the idea is that the new lining that comes in is a healthy lining, which is secreting GLP-1s and other beneficial hormones, " Singh said. The Revita DMR was developed to treat Type 2 diabetes and had positive results in improving blood glucose levels, liver insulin sensitivity, and other metabolic measures. REMAIN-1 finds a new focus for the procedure: the potential to maintain weight loss. It builds on the experience of a prior trial, REVEAL-1. In REVEAL-1, four weeks after Singh's first patient underwent Revita, none of the 15 % of weight loss was regained. Further data will be forthcoming later this quarter. REMAIN-1 is now recruiting patients, Singh said, who have either have lost weight or will take Zepbound to lose 15 % of their body weight. When the desired weight loss is achieved, they will undergo the Revita DMR procedure. "So there's a lot of interest, and we're seeing very heavy interest." Fractyl said the REMAIN-1 study has enrolled more than 100 patients across the first eight clinical study sites in less than four months. REMAIN-1 is a randomized controlled trial. Singh explained that for two patients who undergo the DMR procedure, a third will undergo what's called a "sham " procedure where the endoscope is inserted but the lining is not burned away. The randomization takes away the psychological component the patient may bring to the trial — any pre-existing biases regarding lifestyle modification or other matters — Singh said. It's the next step beyond REVEAL-1 where all the patients underwent the DMR. Singh said he expects it will take about a year to fully enroll all the patients for the trial. Then will come follow-up. "I think that's the important part is you want to follow these patients, " he said. "They might do well like our first, second patient [in REVEAL-1 ]. They did well for the first month. They did well for the second month. But what we want to see is what are the outcomes at six months ? What are the outcomes at 12 months ? So that's when we might start getting some preliminary data." The endoscopy, he said, is a low-risk procedure, he said. Patients go home the same day. They then go on a regular healthy diet. Harith Rajagopalan, co-Founder and CEO of Fractyl Health, said this about the REMAIN-1 trial: "As interest from key stakeholders continues to grow, we are increasingly confident in the transformative potential of our platform. Revita is more than a technological advancement — it represents a redefinition of how we approach metabolic disease treatment and raises the prospect of durably modifying the obesity epidemic without the need for burdensome drug therapy. For the millions of people struggling with obesity, this marks an exciting step forward in providing accessible and enduring solutions."
