Can 'Vande Bharat' help boost the Indian Railways' merchandising game?

The Vande Bharat train has created a huge sensation across the country since the first service was flagged off on February 15, 2019, on the New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route. The train manufactured at Integral Coach Factor in Chennai is an example of the ‘Make in India’ success story. The latest inauguration of the train service was between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasargod in Kerala by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The blue and white colored train that has a slight resemblance to the Bullet Train has attracted a lot of attention among the public so much so that many take selfies with the train. Even colorful trains like the Golden Chariot have not created as much buzz among the public as Vande Bharat has managed to. Can the buzz around Vande Bharat be used for monetising through merchandising? Yes, it is possible, says brand expert R. Sathyanarayanan, Associate Professor of Marketing, IFMR Graduate School of Business, Krea University. Listen in! ----------------------- About the State Of The Economy podcast India’s economy has been hailed as the bright spot amid the general gloom that seems to have enveloped the rest of the world. But several of its sectors still stutter about even while others seem set to fire on all cylinders. To help you make sense of the bundle of contradictions that the country is, businessline brings you podcasts with experts ranging from finance and marketing to technology and start-ups.