Bengaluru entrepreneur urges support for South brands, offers to serve filter coffee aboard Vande Bharat

GD Prasad also offered to serve South Indian snacks and filter coffee from his own brand. (Image: @gd_vsmani/X)

A man named GD Prasad, who is the founder of VS Mani & Co, a coffee brand based in Bengaluru, urged the Indian Railway to include South Indian brands aboard the Vande Bharat Express trains in the region.

Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Prasad wrote a tweet addressed to Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and the Ministry of Railways. He shared a picture of the snack tray served aboard Vande Bharat and sought the government’s support for southern brands. He also offered to serve South Indian snacks and filter coffee from his own brand.

Lauding the service provided on the Vande Bharat Express, he wrote, “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. We’d be honoured to serve filter coffee & South Indian snacks if you give us an opportunity.”

. @RailMinIndia @AshwiniVaishnaw @PMOIndia
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. We’d be honoured to serve filter coffee & South Indian snacks if you give us an opportunity pic.twitter.com/W4rGMZowFE

— GD Prasad (@gd_vsmani) March 18, 2024

The snack tray consisted of items such as bhujia, peanut brittle, masala chai and a tetra pack of juice, among other items.

According to Forbes, VS Mani & Co is founded by GD Prasad, Rahul Bajaj and Yashas Alur. The Bengaluru-based brand’s founders appeared on popular reality show “Shark Tank India” too. Prasad noted that the brand aspires to become “The Haldiram’s of South India”.

"I am a hard-core South Indian. I take my cup of filter coffee seriously. Having lived outside Chennai, I have realised that most of South Indian cravings of people like me cannot be fulfilled easily. Of course, there are a few pockets of restaurants and a few brands in every city. However, for your everyday cravings, if you walk into a supermarket you would find aisles full of snacks from different corners of the country. In the coffee section, the selection of homegrown coffee brands is still limited compared to the international and a few national products," Prasad told Storyboard18 when asked what made his brand unique.