Indian guru Baba Ramdev expands into private security

Baba Ramdev, the Indian yoga guru turned entrepreneur who has been challenging consumer goods giants Nestlé, Colgate and Unilever, is diversifying into another of his country’s fastest-growing business areas: private security services.

Mr Ramdev, a popular yoga-televangelist and high-profile backer of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has recruited former army and police officers to help train guards for his new venture, Parakram Suraksha (Valour Security) Private Ltd. 

The new security business will “help develop military instinct in each and every citizen of the country so as to awaken the spirit and determination for individual and national security,” the Hindu holy man said in a statement announcing the company’s formal launch. 

Parakram Suraksha will plunge into a sector currently dominated by multinational firms, including G4S, Peregrine, and Securitas, which have large operations in India’s fast-growing market for private security services. 

Grant Thornton estimates India’s private security industry — which currently employs around 7m people, mainly poorly-paid security guards manning offices complexes, shopping malls and other facilities — will be worth around $12bn by 2020, double its value of $6bn in 2014. 

“He will do the business in a very serious manner,” says Abneesh Roy, a consumer industries analyst at Mumbai-based Edelweiss Securities Ltd. “He brings a lot of passion to any business he does.”

The bearded, orange-robed Baba Ramdev — who routinely urges his compatriots to patronise Indian companies to further the nation’s progress — has already helped shake up the market for fast-moving consumer goods. 

The Hindu swami’s privately held Patanjali Ayurveda is considered a “disruptive force”. Its popular consumer products range from toothpastes, soaps, shampoos based on traditional Indian herbal medicine to convenience foods such as instant noodles and cornflakes. 

 At a time of resurgent Indian nationalism, Patanjali’s wares have proved a big hit with Indian consumers on account of their low prices and the carefully cultivated perception that they are more ‘natural’ and wholesome than competing products. Patanjali is also one of the country’s top television advertisers. 

Baba Ramdev said the firm’s sales doubled to $1.5bn in its most recent financial year, which ended in March.

Multinationals including Colgate and Unilever have been forced to change their strategies, unveiling their own product lines that emphasise natural and herbal products, like those espoused by Patanjali. 

 “He has managed to shake the FMCG companies, and he has changed the strategy of FMCG in a big way,” says Mr Roy. “He is one of the best marketers, and has got a huge brand equity.” 

Baba Ramdev says he does not own a stake in the company, in keeping with the code of Hindu holy men, who are supposed to shun materialism and worldly pursuits. But the swami is very much the public face of the operation, with his photo emblazoned on company ads and its outlets. 

His long-time associate, Acharya Balkrishna, a Hindu ascetic who handles the firm’s day-to-day operations, was ranked as India’s 29th richest person, with a net worth of $3.7bn, according to the most recent annual Global Rich List published by the China-based Hurun Report. 

Additional reporting by Jyotsna Singh in New Delhi.