Ramdev to launch special 'swadeshi jeans' for women

Swadeshi jeans will be entirely made of cotton with no addition of any kind of synthetic material

According to a report published in The Economic Times, on Monday, Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali is now keen to launch swadeshi jeans, which will be ‘Indianised in style, design and fabric’. Acharya Balakrishna, CEO of Patanjali products, told ET, Patanjali jeans for women will be loose so that they comply by Indian cultural norms and also comfortable to wear.

Ramdev at a meeting in Nagpur announced that Patanjali will soon venture into the apparel market, making both traditional and modern clothes, as part of an ambitious expansion to make Patanjali an international brand. Swadeshi jeans are likely to be launched by the end of 2016 or early 2017.

The ET report goes on to add that swadeshi jeans will be entirely made of cotton with no addition of any kind of synthetic material.

There is a great demand of jeans from youths, and therefore Patanjali has decided to launch the Indianised jeans to compete with foreign brands, Ramdev said.

The Patanjali group is all set to explore international markets with its FMCG products and may also enter Pakistan and Afghanistan in future.

"We have already set up our units in Nepal and Bangladesh and our products have reached the Middle East and became popular in some of the countries, including Saudi Arabia," Baba Ramdev told reporters in Nagpur.

"We should be concentrating in poor countries as the profits from those countries will be utilised for development work there itself.

"The entry to Pakistan and Afghanistan will mostly depend on the prevailing political situation, and if the situation is politically conducive, units will be set up there," he said.

He said their company products are reaching right up to Canada.

Patanjali has already entered Azerbaijan which has 90 per cent Muslim population, he said claiming that a top industrialist there has shown interest in his products.

The company's refined edible oil will also be launched this year, he added.

On expansion, Ramdev said Patanjali will be setting up its biggest unit on a 40-lakh sqft at Mihan in Nagpur, which will be bigger than its first unit at Haridwar and biggest in the country.

The total investment in the city will be to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore (Rs 10 billion) with a potential of providing employment opportunities to 10,000 to 15,000 youths from Maharashtra.

An export unit in the adjoining SEZ will be set up as Nagpur provides better connectivity, he said.

Patanjali is in the process of setting up big units in Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Karnataka, besides establishing subsidiary units in a number of places, as part of the supply chain.

"Our target is Rs 50 lakh crore in the FMCG segment," Ramdev said.

He added Patanjali is committed to produce quality products and has set up research and development units where about 200 scientists work, which has forced multinational companies to come out with their R&D plans.

Photograph: PTI Photo

Additional inputs: PTI