Acharya Balkrishna, who heads Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved empire, is among India's richest.
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Balkrishna, 43, heads Patanjali ayurveda empire
Yoga guru Ramdev is face of brand, does not own stake
Patanjali turnover is staggering; next big offering: jeans
As the head of the Patanjali Group, which started in 1995 in Haridwar as Divya Pharmacy of Ayurvedic products, Balkrishna has just entered the Forbes India rich list; his personal worth was pegged at Rs 25,000 crores. Patanjali, which started out with a loan of Rs 50 crores, has a projected turnover of Rs 10,000 crores for the coming year, but Balkrishna says he is not paid a salary. He could do without it - he owns 97 per cent of the ayurveda empire.
Yoga guru and spiritual leader Baba Ramdev helped conceive in 2006 of Patanjali as a manufacturer of everything from shampoos to toothpaste; he does not own stake in the empire, whose turnover zipped past Rs 5,000 crores last year, but is the face of the brand.

Baba Ramdev, the face of Patanjali, does not own a stake in the business headed by Balkrishna.
When asked if he enjoys the cushy ride, he responded, "It's not about cars, it's just good to be safe." "I forced him to buy the car. We travel a lot and it is better to be safer in a sturdy car. We don't care about expensive things," said Baba Ramdev, pulling out a simple phone that he uses that he says cost him Rs 2,000. Balakrishna admits he has an iPhone.
Having met over three decades ago at a gurukul or residential school in Haryana where they were studying, the pair quickly became close.

Baba Ramdev met Acharya Balkrishna over three decades ago.
The idea, apparently, can come from the most random of encounters. Like designing and manufacturing jeans. "What happened was that Ramdevji was being interviewed by a journalist wearing jeans and he commented on it. The journalist joked and said why don't you make them and we thought why not?" Since then, there has apparently been a deluge of requests, including from well-known and trendy brands for a joint venture. Essential to Patanjali's success is the emphasis on swadeshi or Indian-made. So what's swadeshi about jeans? "They can have local vegetable dyes," joked Balkrishna.

Inside Patanjali, there is a well-referenced notion that Acharya Balkrishna never takes a day off.
"I want the best scientific aids for our Research and Development," he said, showing off a brand-new laboratory. Lined up outside are trucks which transport the butter to Haridwar for its transformation to ghee, Patanjali's top-selling product.
Critics say that it is 50 something-year-old Ramdev's support and campaigning for the BJP that deleted cases, including one being handled by the CBI, against Balkrishna for forging his passport (his parents are from Nepal) and educational degrees. Detractors also say it's not just serendipity that Patanjali's enormous growth has coincided with the coming to power of the BJP. "It doesn't matter if the central government is favourable to us," said Balkrishna. "We need the state government more and they are forever against us. For every little thing, every No Objection Certificate, they make us suffer," he said of the Congress government in Uttarakhand.
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