Bengaluru entrepreneur offers to serve filter coffee, south Indian snacks on Vande Bharat

THE founder of VS Mani & Co, a coffee brand based in Bengaluru, has urged the Railways to serve snacks from south Indian brands on Vande Bharat trains operating in the region.

While lauding the Railways for the Vande Bharat Express trains in south India, entrepreneur GD Prasad sought the government’s support in representing more brands from the region in the snack trays.

“We’re delighted by the world-class Vande Bharat in the South. Request your support w/ more brands from our region represented in the snack tray,” Prasad wrote on X (formerly Twitter), tagging the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Railways and Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

“We’d be honoured to serve filter coffee & South Indian snacks if you give us an opportunity.”

Prasad shared a photo of a snack tray onboard a Vande Bharat Express, with snacks including a packet of Haldiram’s peanut brittle, Bikaji bhujia, Girnar masala tea and a sachet of ketchup.

South India’s first Vande Bharat Express was launched in 2022, between Chennai, Mysuru and Bengaluru.

Bengaluru has Vande Bharat train services to Dharwad, Belagavi, Hubballi, Chennai, Coimbatore, Mysuru and Hyderabad.

GD Prasad and his co-founders Rahul Bajaj and Yashas Alur had appeared on the second season of the start-up reality show “Shark Tank India” last year, raising ₹19 lakh for 1 per cent equity and ₹41 lakhs debt at 10 per cent interest at a valuation of ₹19 crores. One of the judges, Anupam Mittal, had already invested in VS Mani before its founders appeared on the show.