'No dearth of money in the country, we need to recognise our strength'

Swadeshi brand Patanjali Ayurved is working vigorously to get ahead of multinationals like Unilever in a year or two.

Proponent Ramdev, who is venturing into a host of areas such as textiles, dairy products and animal feed in a big way this year, has some advice for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He should go slow on foreign direct investments. “There is no dearth of money within the country. We need to recognise our strength,” he tells DH’s Sagar Kulkarni. Excerpts:

You have achieved a turnover of Rs 5,000 crore. What is your next target?

My target is that within a year or two, multinationals like Unilever should be behind Patanjali. We are facing some headwinds due to demonetisation but a turnover of Rs 9,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore should not be difficult next year.

How do you manage this vast business?

We make extensive use of technology. All our plants are monitored by CCTV cameras. All the key jobs in our units are done by volunteers and saints. These are highly motivated and committed people.

Aren’t there any professionals in key positions?

Our volunteers are professionals. They have become professionals by learning on-the-job. We do not employ commission agents. A commission business leads to decline in product quality. We do not compromise on raw material, neither have we compromised on equipment. Though we are proponents of Swadeshi, we have not shied away from importing better quality machines. Similarly in the field of science and technology, if a technology is better in foreign countries, we adopt. But let me tell you, all this has not happened overnight, we have taken 25 years to achieve this, develop ourselves to the level that you are seeing today. People often think that Patanjali has become enormous all of a sudden.

What is the extent of the hit Patanjali has taken due to demonetisation?

As of now, it is not much. As I said, we are not worried much about demonetisation. In some areas we have witnessed a 10%-20% growth, in others, we have taken a 10% hit. But, this is not uniform everywhere, it varies from district to  district. It depends on the working ability, skill of the person concerned. Mostly, it is because demonetisation has affected people’s purchasing capacity.

You started off with Ayurvedic medicines and now cover sectors such as detergents and food products? Do you plan to expand to any more areas?

We are focusing on four areas and textiles is one. The range is from kids to men and women. Our mission is — from coat to langot (undergarment), everything should be Swadeshi.

Another is dairy. Including milk, cheese, curd, buttermilk and srikhand, we are introducing all milk products. Ghee is already our best selling one. We are also focusing on animal feed. We plan to produce urea-free animal feed, where other players add between 1% and 2% urea to animal feed. Such animal feed leads to infertility among animals. Initially, the milk output per animal increases, so people start believing that it is effective, but later the problems begin. There is a scam in this. They also mix sand. Because of sand, animals experience stomach upset and urea makes them prone to infertility.

Dugdhamirt, Patanjalli’s animal feed brand to be launched this year, should fetch us Rs 500 crore every fiscal. We are also working on silage to address the problem of malnutrition among animals. We will be working on thousands of acres of land, particularly, maize and bajra that have nutrients required for animals. Silage is not produced by the organised sector, hence we are venturing into it in a big way.

The fourth area is puja saamagri (items used in religious rituals) under the brand name Aastha.

You had also talked about developing new indigenous cow breeds?

That is a separate project. We will breed cows that will give 30-50 litres of milk. We are getting the embryos and semen of the cows and bulls, respectively, that were exported to Brazil several years ago. Or, we can carry out artificial insemination to produce high-milk producing cows. This work will also begin this year.

You have always favoured Swadeshi and often said that you want to rid India of MNCs. Does this not run contrary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scouting for increased FDI?

MNCs control a market of Rs 50 lakh crore. They take back to their countries lakhs of crore rupees in the form of royalties. We have a dream of ridding the country of this economic loot and slavery. Our basic concept is that we have to give this country economic freedom. We got political freedom in 1947, now we have to deliver economic freedom. This is our resolve. There is no clash with Modiji in this. A person occupying  a constitutional post cannot speak in this language because he is bound by international treaties and agreements with the WTO. I am not bound by any treaties or agreements, I can speak freely about Swadeshi and other issues. Yes, Modiji has spoken a lot about FDI, but now I feel that even he would speak less about FDI. Because, so much money has been unearthed within the country (after demonetisation).

What about expansion plans?

We are starting food parks at five places. We already have a food park in Haridwar. Now, we are opening food parks in Nagpur, Noida, Tezpur, and Indore. We can cover the entire country through this. We plan to expand to southern India too. We would like to have small units every where. We can work on a large scale in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

How do you see the demonetisation initiative?

This is a courageous step. There will be difficulties in the beginning but this will put the economy back on track. Bank, RBI, Income Tax, Service Tax, Sales Tax... they will be agressive from January 1.