Selling spirituality


ONE morning in early May this year, a large and brightly lit room in the Constitution Club of India, an influential club in the national capital, was brimming with reporters and camerapersons. They had gathered for the annual press conference of Patanjali Ayurved Limited, India’s fastest-growing fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) company, and Baba Ramdev, its public face, was expected to make some important announcements.

A few minutes past noon, Ramdev began speaking: “Last year, in 2016-17, the Patanjali Group registered a turnover of Rs.10,561 crore, which, in the world of FMCG, is historic.” This was a 100 per cent rise compared with the previous year, he explained, and the company planned to exceed the performance in the future. “In 2017-18, this pace of 100 per cent rise will only be improved upon; it won’t be less than this, so you can estimate what it will be. In the next one or two years, Patanjali will be the number one [FMCG] brand in India,” Ramdev said.

Predictably, these numbers put Ramdev and Patanjali in the headlines yet again, and colourful epithets were deployed to describe the rise of both. Indian FMCG’s new Bahubali, said one, describing Patanjali. Baba worth 10 thousand crore, screamed another, obviously referring to Ramdev.....Read more

 

Source web page:Frontline


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