The University of Lucknow, in collaboration with ad agency Rediffusion, will soon see an immersive 'Bharat Lab' on its campus. While providing students with an opportunity to confront commerce and industry professionals, the lab will enable the faculty and LU students to exchange information around consumer behaviour of people from smaller cities.

Moreover, the platform will incorporate activities like seminars, workshops, field studies, research projects and more to enhance the experience. The lab is being called "a consumers' insights think tank to capture Bharat's perspective in the true sense" and assist in the decision-making of brands.

Lucknow University took to Twitter to announce, "Signed an MoU with Rediffusion, today in Mumbai for research-based outcomes for corporates and policy makers of the country."

LU Vice Chancellor Alok Rai, in conversation with Knocksense, highlighted the concept behind the lab.

“There are two countries - India and Bharat, where the former is represented by metropolitan tier-1 cities, while the latter is made up of tier 2 and 3 cities. Majority population lies in the latter and our objective is to find the aspirations, hopes and dreams of people who reside in this Bharat. Unless you strengthen this Bharat, the dream of realising our Prime Minister’s goal of US$5 trillion economy by FY28 will not be fulfilled, nor will Bharat become a developed nation by 2047. We aim to contribute to the same,” he explained.

“The lab will be based largely on marketing research by Rediffusion. This will be carried out by and under the supervision of the university professors,” he said further.

"We want to answer the fundamental questions like what people in small cities like to eat, drink and watch. How does the population spend its free time and others? All will be studied and researched in this lab," explained the business administration head, Professor Sangeeta Sahu.

Overall, the Bharat Lab aims at dispensing cultural and consumer understandings of people to students. It also deems at providing internships to students, besides collaborative opportunities for all.