Ramdev

As a part of the "India against corruption" movement, Ramdev launched another indefinite protest on 10 August 2012 against the government's failure to take action against corruption and to bring back black money. He announced that his future strategy depended upon the governmental response to his protest. Ramdev ended the fast at Delhi's Ambedkar Stadium on 14 August 2012, and said he was returning to Haridwar. Seeking the defeat of the Congress Party in 2014, he said, Congress hatao, desh bachao Remove Congress, save the country, adding that except for the Congress Party, all parties were together on the issue of black money.

In April 2011, Ramdev called on the government to add punitive powers to the Jan Lokpal Bill, a bill to appoint an independent body that would investigate alleged government corruption. Ramdev announced he would go on an anshan hunger strike at Ramlila Ground in Delhi, on 4 June 2011, to pressure the government into rooting out corruption and repatriating black money. A week before the scheduled fast, the government set up a committee, headed by the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes, to suggest steps to curb black money and its transfer abroad.

In 2010, Ramdev announced plans to form a political party called Bharat Swabhiman India Pride. He said that it would contest every seat in the next national elections. A year later, he stated that, instead of forming a political party, he would influence politics by encouraging a groundswell of popular reaction. In 2014, Ramdev announced that Bharat Swabhiman intended to contest some constituencies in the general election of that year and to form alliances with some other parties. It was at this time that he voiced his support for Narendra Modi to become the next Prime Minister of India. His attempts to run yoga camps during that election campaign, allegedly to gain support for Modi, were stymied by the Election Commission of India (ECI), who determined that they were politically motivated. The ECI had also tried to control his use of camps in the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh state elections of 2013.

Ramdev founded an organisation called the Bharat Swabhiman Trust in 2009, in part, to support his political activities. The financial arrangements of this and his two other trusts, the Divya Yog and Patanjali Yogpeeth, came under ECI scrutiny during the 2014 elections because of a complaint that they were being used to fund the campaigns of some political parties.

Patanjali Ayurved is a consumer packaged goods company, based in Haridwar, that was started by Ramdev and Balkrishna in 2006. According to a company official, sales in early March 2016 were ₹ 45 billion (US$630 million) with monthly sales of ₹ 5 billion (US$70 million)–₹ 5.5 billion (US$77 million). According to a report by India Infoline (IIFL), at least 13 listed companies would be affected by Patanjali's success including Colgate, Dabur, ITC and Godrej Consumer. Acharya Balkrishna remains the CEO of Patanjali Ayurved with 95% shareholding and supervising its day-to-day activities, while Ramdev remains the face of the company and makes most of the business decisions.

Patanjali Yogpeeth is an institute founded for the promotion and practice of Yoga and Ayurveda. It has two Indian campuses, Patanjali Yogpeeth I and Patanjali Yogpeeth II in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. Other locations include UK, US, Nepal, Canada and Mauritius. Ramdev established the Patanjali Yog Peeth UK Trust in 2006, with the aim of promoting yoga in the UK. To extend Patanjali Yogpeeth, he also acquired the Scottish island of Little Cumbrae.

In March 2005, 113 employees of Divya Yoga Mandir Trust began an agitation for minimum wages and employees's rights such as coverage under the Provident Fund and Employees' State Insurance schemes. A meeting resulted in an agreement between the workers, management and the district administration; management agreed to pay minimum wage and not to initiate disciplinary actions against the protesters and, in turn, the workers agreed that they would restore normalcy at the workplace. However, the Trust refused to take back some of the workers, accusing them of committing sabotage. Their case was taken up by the Centre of Indian Trade Unions CITU, affiliated with the Communist Party of India Marxist CPM.

Ramdev's main yoga center is based in Haridwar, a city on banks of the Ganga river near the foothills of the Himalayas, where Ramdev practices and teaches yoga in the mornings and evenings in an auditorium, which is also broadcast on TV channels. Back in 1995, Ramdev founded the "Divya Yog Mandir Trust". In 2003, Aastha TV began featuring him in its morning yoga slot. There he proved to be telegenic and gained a large following. A large number of people, including some celebrities from India and abroad, attended his Yoga camps. He also had students in some foreign countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan. He also addressed Muslim clerics at their seminary in Deoband, Uttar Pradesh. In 2006, he was invited by Kofi Annan to deliver a lecture on poverty alleviation at a United Nations conference. He is also the judge of a reality show Om Shanti Om. In 2017, a district court somewhere blocked the sale of an unauthorized biography about him entitled Godman to Tycoon: The Untold Story of Baba Ramdev. In May 2018, Ramdev launched Swadeshi Samriddhi SIM cards in alliance with BSNL. Over a twenty-year career, he became the face of Patanjali Ayurved, a company that he founded with his colleague Balkrishna. Patanjali went on to become one of the highest grossing FMCG's in India.

Towards the end of the 1990s, farming conditions in his native village worsened, due to the region's depleting water table, which prompted Ramdev's move to Haridwar. Subsequently, he called his family to Haridwar. Ramdev's family members have played different roles in his ayurveda ventures depending on their capabilities. His father oversees activities in Patanjali ayurved, his brother Rambharat controls the company's finances.

Ramdev ( pronunciation  (help ·info ) ) (born as Rama Kisan Yadav in 1965), often called "Baba Ramdev" using the honorific "Baba" or similarly called "Swami Ramdev" using the honorific "Swami", is an Indian yoga guru known for his work in ayurveda, business, and agriculture. Ramdev has been holding large yoga camps since 2002 and broadcasting his yoga classes for TV audiences. He co-founded the Patanjali Ayurved Ltd. with his colleague Balkrishna.

Ramdev was born in a Hindu family in 1965 to Ram Niwas Yadav and Gulabo Devi at Saiyad Pur village of Mahendragarh district, Haryana; Both of his parents were farmers. He claims he was paralyzed when he was two and a half years old, and was later cured by practising yoga. He studied Indian scripture, Yoga and Sanskrit in various Gurukuls schools. He was the student of Acharya Baldevji in Gurukul Kalwa and learnt yoga from Guru Karanvir, an Arya Samaji. He took sanyasi diksha and adopted the name Swami Ramdev from Swami Shankar Dev Ji. While living in Kalwa Gurukul in Jind district, Haryana, Ramdev offered free yoga training to villagers. Then he moved to Haridwar in Uttarakhand, where he practised self-discipline and meditation, and spent several years studying ancient Indian scriptures at Gurukul Kangri Vishwavidyalaya.