Balkrishna

Acharya Balkrishna
Born (1972-08-04) 4 August 1972[1]
Residence Haridwar, India
Nationality Indian
Occupation Businessman
Known for 98.6% owner of Patanjali Ayurved
Net worth US$6.8 billion (August 2018)[2]
Title MD/CEO, Patanjali Ayurved
Parents
  • Jay Vallabh (father)
  • Sumitra Devi (mother)
Website www.acharyabalkrishna.com

Acharya Balkrishna (born Balkrishna Suvedi[3][4]; 4 August 1972) is an Indian billionaire who owns and serves as the chairman of the consumer goods company Patanjali Ayurved. He was reported by Forbes to have a net worth of US$6.1 billion as of March 2018.[2][5][4][6]

Early life

Acharya Balkrishna born on 4 August 1972 to Sumitra Devi and Jay Vallabh of Nepal. He was born in India's Haridwar city.[1]

Career

In 1995, Balkrishna and Ramdev founded Divya Pharmacy, and in 2006, they founded Patanjali Ayurved,[7] an FMCG company involved in the manufacturing and trading of FMCG, herbal, and ayurvedic products.[8] Followers of Ramdev, NRIs Sunita and Sarwan Poddar, helped kick-start the business with a loan. According to Balkrishna, he had taken out a ₹50–60 crore loan at a time when he had never held a personal bank account in his name.[9] In 2012, the company posted a turnover of ₹450 crore (US$63 million) which by 2015–2016 had risen to ₹5,000 crore (US$700 million).[10]

While Ramdev does not hold a stake in Patanjali Ayurved, he is the face of the firm and endorses its products to his followers across his yoga camps and television programmes.[10] Balkrishna owns 98.6% of the company[2] and serves as its managing director.[11] He is a close aide of Ramdev.[12]

Controversies

Balkrishna has been embroiled in a number of controversies including those that question his Indian citizenship and academic qualifications.[13]

The Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) registered a case against Balkrishna in 2011 and arrested him on charges of forgery and cheating. The agency claimed that his passport was issued based on forged high school and graduation certificates and that he owned a pistol without a legal permit.[13] Subsequently, the Enforcement Directorate filed a case against him on charges of money laundering,[14] but after a 2-year investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing and gave Balkrishna a clean chit in 2014. and another against him and a Naresh Chandra Dwivedi, the principal of the Sanskrit college which allegedly issued the fake certificate.[15] The cases were closed in 2014.[10][16]

Personal life

Balkrishna lives in Haridwar, India, and is single.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 "Nepal followers celebrate Ramdev Aid Acharya Balkrishna's birthday with pomp". Daijiword.com. 4 August 2011. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Forbes profile: Acharya Balkrishna". Forbes. Retrieved 22 August 2018.
  3. ↑ Priyanka Pathak-Narain (2017). Godman to Tycoon: The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev. Juggernaut Books. pp. 25–. ISBN 978-93-86228-38-3.
  4. 1 2 "A Billionaire With Fake Degrees And Passport - This Is Patanjali's CEO Achrya Balkrishna". indiatimes.com. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  5. ↑ "Billionaire Baba: What makes Patanjali's Acharya Balkrishna one of India's richest". 26 September 2017. Retrieved 16 March 2018 – via The Economic Times.
  6. ↑ "How Acharya Balkrishna built a multi-crore company - Billionaire Baba". The Economic Times. Retrieved 16 March 2018.
  7. ↑ "Billionaire Baba: What makes Patanjali's Acharya Balkrishna one of India's richest". 26 September 2017. Retrieved 17 March 2018 – via The Economic Times.
  8. ↑ "Ramdev turns his Ayurved enterprise into an FMCG empire". Business Standard. 1 July 2015. Retrieved 29 December 2017.
  9. ↑ "The man who owns 94% of Patanjali Ayurved". The Times of India.
  10. 1 2 3 Singh, Kanishka (14 September 2016). "How our craze for Patanjali made Ramdev aide Acharya Balkrishna one of the wealthiest Indians". Indian Express. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  11. ↑ "Should Patanjali's Dizzying Growth Worry the Competition?". The Wire. 19 September 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  12. ↑ "Ramdev's close aide and Patanjali CEO Acharya Balakrishna now worth Rs 25,600 crore". DNA. 14 September 2016. Retrieved 13 October 2016.
  13. 1 2 Prashant, Shishir (30 July 2011). "The rise and fall of Balkrishna". Business Standard. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  14. ↑ "Balkrishna, aide of Baba Ramdev, booked in money laundering case; may be arrested". NDTV. PTI. 22 August 2011. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  15. ↑ "Charges framed against Ramdev aide Balkrishna in fake passport case". NDTV. PTI. 31 October 2013. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  16. ↑ "ED closes laundering case against Ramdev aide Balkrishna". The Times of India. 30 September 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
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