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There’s no dispute that Ramdev is a yoga phenomenon. His complicated postures, his fitness, agility and energy, even at this age, have impressed and inspired many. But journalist Kaushik Deka’s book, mysteriously subtitled The Baba Ramdev Phenomenon: From Moksha to Market, totally misses the core of the phenomenon, and is just a sloppy mishmash of the extensive reportage (including his own) on Ramdev, says former financial journalist Paromita Shastri in her book review. Read what else she is saying:
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Deka does talk about this, in a single chapter (out of 27) called Land Controversies. However, he restricts himself to recent ones, such as in Nepal and Uttarakhand, and mostly cancelled deals. The book overwhelmingly focuses on Ramdev as a business leader, whereas his contribution has been really in disrupting the FMCG market and triggering a wave for natural ingredients in these goods. The good thing: the average consumer has benefitted from the price wars, as happens with any new entrant.
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To say the 181-page book manages to barely touch the tip of the giant iceberg called Ramdev would be undermining the cliché itself. After a quick recap of Ramdev’s emergence as a TV yoga guru, the book focuses on how he, together with first mate Balkrishna, captained the rise of Patanjali Ayurved as an FMCG player (it’s actually an organisation, not a listed company), a development that has sent industry leaders scurrying back to their drawing board to launch products leveraging traditional Indian medicine aka ayurveda to compete with Patanjali’s products. Yet, the book says only three products—ghee, toothpaste and shampoo—formed the mainstay of Patanjali’s Rs 5,000-crore revenues in 2015-16 (this has since gone up to Rs10,651 crore in 2016-17).
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What’s more, food products contributed 37% of this revenue, with the lion’s share coming from Patanjali ghee, ghee being an expensive product and Patanjali ghee being costlier than a few well-known brands. Read the full book review here.
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<br><strong>Read full story:</strong> <a href="https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/the-baba-ramdev-phenomenon-from-moksha-to-market-by-kaushik-deka-here-is-book-review/786211/" target="_blank"><strong>The Baba Ramdev Phenomenon: From Moksha to Market by Kaushik Deka; here is book review</strong></a>
