The Stories that Shaped Indian Consumers in 2025
26 Dec 2025 7:30 AM IST
2025 was a year of change for The Signal Brief.
We changed our name.
We moved from being a daily show to a weekly deep dive.
And we slowed down, so we could report more carefully and listen more closely.
And, across the many conversations we had this year, one theme kept coming up.
Trust.
Or more accurately, the lack of it.
In our episode on E20 petrol, we learned that even well intentioned policies can fail when consumers don’t trust how they’re rolled out.
In our reporting on supplements, doctors and researchers told us that many people are buying health shortcuts without clear evidence they work.
And in our episode on vaping, experts questioned whether fear based bans do more harm than good.
We also heard from people who lost real money.
From gamers who kept playing even as losses mounted.
From traders who couldn’t step away, despite wiping out years of savings.
And from young men watching micro dramas, which taught them money is equivalent to both success and respect.
In our year-end special, we look back at the stories that shaped 2025, and what they reveal about being a consumer in India today.
Register for India Energy Week: https://www.indiaenergyweek.com/forms/register-as-a-delegate
The Core produces The Signal Brief. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts. To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in
NOTE: A machine transcribed this episode. A human has looked at this text but there might still be errors. Please refer to the audio above, if you need to clarify something. If you want to give us feedback, please write to us at feedback@thecore.in.
—
TRANSCRIPT
Kudrat (Host): When I tell people that I host a podcast for work, most imagine that I sit across a microphone and a camera, interviewing important people. In other words, a chat show.
Others, usually people more familiar with journalism, assume I narrate the news and put my own spin on it.
Neither description quite fits.
If you’ve listened to recent episodes of The Signal Brief, you’ll know our format is different.
I’ve learned to describe what we do as ‘audio storytelling’. For each episode, I speak to multiple sources. Later, I stitch those interviews together with my narration into a single, reported story.
It’s been eight months since we relaunched the show.
And instead of delving into a new topic this week, we wanted to pause and reflect.
On the year that’s been. On the episodes that resonated most with you. And on what reporting consumer trends in India taught us along the way.
Kudrat (Host): My name is Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Brief. We don’t do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends.
In this episode, we’re reflecting on the year that was at The Signal Brief.
Kudrat (Host): Podcasting as a medium is still growing in India, even as it plateaus elsewhere.
Several reports show double-digit growth. An ISB report pegs the growth rate at 14%. Another estimates the market could reach $4.2 billion by 2033.
But the word ‘podcast’ itself doesn’t tell you much.
It can mean chat shows like WTF by Nikhil Kamath, where high profile guests drive the conversation, but which generally lack journalistic rigour.
Or it can mean other kinds of shows like the ones The Core produces, from The Core Report to The Media Room to How India’s Economy Works, brought to you by India’s finest business journalists.
The Signal Brief sits somewhere unique, though.
Kudrat (Host): In its previous life, when it was called The Signal Daily, this show was exactly that. Daily.
One or two news items, clearly explained, with context.
When I took on this role, I wanted to try something else.
I wanted to slow the reporting down.
To include interviews.
To let scenes and voices carry the story.
Kudrat (Host): What I didn’t fully anticipate was how much this approach would change the story itself.
My favourite part of this job has been the chance to speak to people across social strata. Not just experts and policy voices, but also blue-collar workers, young people, and consumers whose experiences rarely shape public debate.
Again and again, these conversations pushed the story in directions I hadn’t expected.
Kudrat (Host): And, across many of those conversations, especially in the episodes that resonated most with listeners, one theme kept coming up.
Trust.
Or more accurately, the lack of it.
A lack of trust in products.
In companies.
And increasingly, in government policy.
Kudrat (Host): One episode that particularly exemplifies this is our story about the government’s E20 rollout. You’re all familiar with the conflict: the Indian government says blended petrol helps India become energy-secure. They add that it won’t damage engines or reduce mileage significantly.
But, consumers disagree. Their lived experience says otherwise. Experts stood in the middle: they saw both arguments as valid, and suggested that the government incentivise consumers rather than force this policy on them.
That same gap between official claims and lived experience showed up in other high performing episodes too.
In our episode on supplements, we examined India’s booming nutraceutical industry by speaking to consumers, founders, and doctors.
Tanya, a 29-year-old research archivist, told me she takes iron supplements regularly, and magnesium occasionally.
She hasn’t noticed much change with iron.
But magnesium, she says, helps her sleep better.
A lab research founder told us they’ve detected impurities in several popular brands.
Doctors, meanwhile, questioned whether people need supplements at all.
Their advice was blunt.
Focus on diet and exercise. Shortcuts rarely deliver what they promise.
If the supplements episode exposed doubt around efficacy, our episode on vaping exposed something else.
A breakdown in trust between public health policy and consumer behaviour.
Vaping wasn’t a topic I had spent much time thinking about before reporting this story. Even though I see it around me all the time.
What made this episode particularly complicated was the contradiction at its core.
Vaping can act as a smoking cessation tool. And at the same time, it can draw new users, including teenagers, into nicotine addiction.
Here’s a clip from that episode, featuring Dr. Kiran Melkote, on why he believes India’s vaping ban is misguided.
Dr. Kiran: So when we say harm reduction, it's as simple as, uh, some way to reduce the risk from a dangerous product. vaping, uh, is likely to have about 5% of the risks of smoking, which means a 95% harm reduction. So yes, it is of risk, but in the absence of vaping, it doesn't mean that nobody would not smoke. The idea is if people are vaping, they would be less likely to smoke because the reason for smoking is being sort of delivered by the vaping, which is nicotine, right? The vaping ban is not rooted in science. It was rooted in fear mongering, it was rooted in emotions.
Vaping is Illegal in India. So Why is Everyone Doing It?
Kudrat (Host): The episodes I’ve mentioned so far were also the ones that listeners clicked on the most.
But there were other stories this year that mattered deeply to me as a reporter.
In our episodes on real money gaming and options trading, I spoke to people who saw serious financial and emotional repercussions.
What stood out was how difficult it was for people to step away, even after things went wrong. Here’s two excerpts from these episodes, featuring the consumers I spoke to:
Harpreet: तो मतलब प्रॉफिट होता गया फिर होता गया मतलब गेम ऐसे लालच देती रही मतलब ज्यादा ले लो ज्यादा है ना आता रहा प्रॉफिट तब। फिर अचानक से बस। खत्म उसके बाद लॉस होना शुरू हो गया। फिर ऐसे तो अभी पूरे कर ले पैसे पिछला लॉस कवर कर ले। बस लॉस कवर करने के चक्कर में बस फिर करते रहे करते रहे फिर और ज्यादा लॉस होता गया।
Kudrat (Host): Harpreet said in total he lost 4 lakh rupees on this betting game.
Harpreet: इसी बात की वो पेमेंट था जोड़ के रखे थे पेमेंट अभी कुछ काम के लिए आज काम आ जाएंगे पैसे थोड़ा सा ना। होता ही है हर किसी को भी थोड़ा सा है ना अभी इनकम जोड़ के रखते हैं थोड़े से पैसे भी आगे फ्यूचर में इन फ्यूचर में काम आ जाएँगे लेकिन वो सब लॉस हो गया फिर अभी कुछ भी नहीं है टेंशन और बढ़ गई।
India’s Real Money Gaming Ban and What Comes Next
Mayank: So that is where, that is where I stopped my option buying. Okay. And I went for selling. I went for consistent return and that is what happened. Made me right now what I am.
Kudrat (clip): So you didn't have a stop loss in place, or why did you, how did all of it go away?
Mayank: You can say that at that point in time, I, I lost like maybe, uh, 500 K in, 50,000 K was five 50 lakh rupees that I lost an option buying in a day.
Kudrat (clip): 50 lakh,
Mayank: 50 lakh rupees. I lost like in a day that was. That is what I had earned in the last two years, but through option buying and just because my ego to cover and I not have a stop loss in place, and I just kept on averaging my position, that's where I got to understand that option buying would not gain me that kind of consistent return that I was looking for.
Kudrat (clip): What do you mean when you said that your ego took over?
Mayank: Uh, I had earned like 50 lakhs in two years. Yeah. Approximately. Maybe more than that. Then I lost one because I thought I will never be a loser. Hmm. That took over my head and I lost a lot of money, maybe 90% of what I had earned in the last two years.
Trading Options Is A Losing Game, So Why Can’t We Stop?
Kudrat (Host): At first glance, our episode on micro-dramas might seem different from the others. It’s about entertainment, not policy or money. But the underlying anxiety was strikingly similar.
These short, vertical shows have exploded in popularity in India, particularly among working class men.
Many follow the same arc. A man who grew up poor. Who was overlooked. And who finally earns respect once he has money. Industry people told me that micro-drama viewers, many of whom are young, working-class men, relate to these shows because they get to escape their lives.
I spoke to Abdul Kalam, a 25-year old photographer who binge-watched one such show. He fit into the traditional viewer demographic. His takeaway from watching this micro-drama stood out to me:
Abdul Kalam: मैंने जितना भी एपिसोड देखा है उसमें एक चीज़ मेरे को जो लगी की हाँ भाई आज की डेट में पैसा ही सब कुछ है अगर पैसा है आपके पास तो वाइफ हो, माँ बाप हो कोई भी हो वो आपकी रिस्पेक्ट करेंगे अगर पैसा नहीं है तो कोई रिस्पेक्ट नहीं करता ए दोस्त भी मेरी नज़र में तो दोस्ती भी आजकल पैसे की रह गई है वो वाली दोस्ती नहीं रही क्योंकि कई बार लड़ाईयाँ भी जो होती है ना दोस्तों में वो पैसों को लेके ही होती है। वो episodes देख के पता चला की हाँ भाई लाइफ में ना पैसा बहुत matter रखता है।
Why Can’t We Stop Watching Micro-dramas?
Kudrat (Host): Taken together, these stories point to something larger.
Indian consumers are not passive.
They question labels.
They doubt policies.
And they constantly measure claims against lived experience.
They fill up with E20, but worry about what it does to their vehicles.
They vape, trade, game, and binge content, even when they don’t fully trust the systems around them.
And that’s where The Signal Brief fits in. At a moment when India is growing, changing, and asking more of its citizens as consumers, we want to slow stories down.
Kudrat (Host): As we begin 2026, we’re hoping to explore the rise in affordable wellness travel. Who’s buying crypto in India. And more on how Indians are spending, coping, and making choices in an increasingly uncertain economy. Because consumer trends aren’t just about products. They’re also about how people navigate a world where trust is limited, but decisions still have to be made.
Outro: That's all for today. You just heard The Signal Brief. We don't do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends. The Core produces The Signal Brief. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.
To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in.
If you have feedback, we'd love to hear from you. Write to us at feedback@thecore.in or you can write to me personally at kudrat@thecore.in.
Thank you for listening.
