New role for Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev - promote medical tourism for foreigners

Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev set to embark on a new role with his assistant Acharya Balkrishan - the Centre has found a new role for both of them. They will help frame a policy to attract more foreign patients to India. The duo has been drafted into the fledgling National Medical and Wellness Tourism Board. It is headed by tourism minister Mahesh Sharma and the team has government officials, travel operators and senior doctors from leading hospitals.
The Prime Minister's Office had cleared the plan for the board and its proposed members in September.
This has been reported in telegraphindia.com dated 19 December 2015.

The board will have to devise strategies to increase the number of foreign medical tourists at the country's hospitals and wellness clinics, and issue guidelines to regulate the services that these establishments will offer. The new board will have to help interlink all the key players in this sector to provide seamless services to patients.
Since one of the objectives is to promote naturopathy and yoga in a big way, Baba Ramdev and his associate have been inducted in the board.
It may be recalled that Baba Ramdev had openly backed Narendra Modi ahead of last year's general election and the Baba will now be entitled to perks and allowances as board member. Haryana's BJP government had appointed Ramdev the state's brand ambassador for yoga and ayurveda and had granted him the rank of a cabinet minister with all the perks such as cars, a bungalow, staff and Z-category security.
However, a request from Ramdev for no-frisk status at airports across India is pending with the government.

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Baba Ramdev to convert two islands into yoga resorts to attract tourists

The Center wants to increase the footsteps of tourists and wants to give two islands with lighthouse to develop as not just a yoga resort bit also as a tourist spot. AS revealed by Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari, there are over 700 uninhabited islands across India. These can be developed for tourism, filmmaking, entertainment activities, as honeymoon destinations, maritime security apart from generating non-conventional energy - both wind and solar.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 29 November 2015.

Baba Ramdev has already established a Patanjali Yogpeeth on an island in Scotland and he apparently has plans to turn the island into a peace haven.
Hence, the government wants him to develop a scenic island with a lighthouse and yoga on the beach. Such an action would have tremendous tourism potential. Seaplanes can be used to reach such islands.
While making the offer to Baba Ramdev, shipping minister Nitin Gadkari has said that such an island resort can combine short-duration stays along with yoga and thus make it an attractive proposition for both domestic and foreign visitors.
Incidentally, renowned ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar has shown keen interest to develop two islands in Andaman Nicobar Island and Lakshadweep with lighthouses as tourist destinations.

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Ramdev graduates from yoga-guru to marketing guru to capture Maggi’s market

Baba Ramdev, the yoga-guru, plans to, now, graduated to marketing and be known as the marketing guru. He is keen to capture the serval crores of rupee slot left vacant by Nestle because of withdrawal of its Maggi instant noodles from the shelves.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 9 October 2015.

His Patanjali Ayurveda is ready to launch its instant noodles. It will be a purely desi brand and would be priced at just Rs 15. Obviously, his brand wants to position itself as an alternate to a foreign brand and market it through some well-known outlets that have a pan Indian presence.
The catch line for the Ramdev noodles is "Jhat pat pakao, aur befikr khao" – it will be perfectly safe with 'no added MSG and lead'. For Maggi, it was ‘two-minute’ noodle.
The desi brand would be launched on October 15. It will be made from whole wheat flour (atta), unlike noodles of other companies where maida is used extensively with only 10 per cent atta. Moreover, “Patanjali noodles will use rice-bran oil and not cheap and inferior palm oil used by others.
He has also added that his work is based on the principles of swadesshi, where we work for the betterment and health of the country. Who knows – with the tremendous Indian influence in Silicon Valley and other corners of the globe, this new brand of noodles might even wean away foreigners from their own products.
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It is a real anti-climax – the admission of the CBDT that only 638 people have come out in open and declared an amount of Rs 3,770 crore as a part of the one-time compliance window for disclosing black money is far removed from the poll promises of BJP that they would bring back all black money stashed abroad within 100 days of taking over office. This has been revealed in zeenews.india.com dated 2 October 2015.

Obviously, the common man’s dream of getting Rs 15 lakh credited to his bank account sound hollow now and will remain a dream. In this connection, excerpts of report published in financialexpress.com dated 29 October 2014 is relevant – ‘ … the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders were declaring from the rooftops that the black money stashed abroad will be brought back within 100 days. (But) when it came to declaring the names, they just released three. … Ramdev had said that more than 50,000 people have stashed money away in foreign banks and (prime minister) Narendra Modi had said during the election campaign that Rs 15 lakh will be deposited in the bank accounts of all Indians once the black money is recovered… ‘ Incidentally, there are 442 crorepatis in the 16th Lok Sabha with the BJP leading the crorepati club with 237. Its ally Telugu Desam Party has the richest member, whose assets cross Rs 683 crore. As to other parties, the Congress has 35 crorepatis, the AIADMK 29 and the Trinamool Congress 21. The figures speak for themselves – very seldom is one born a crorepati. It takes plenty of guile to create the crores and, stashing them in foreign banks is the solution. Therefore, trying to unearth and bring the defaulters to book would be a really uphill task. (Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Baba Ramdev to fill the void created by the ouster of Maggi noodles

Yes, a news item has emerged in the media that Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev has indicated that his Patanjali setup would bring out an alternative to Maggi noodles by the year end. That way, the foreign label would vanish and it would be a product that will bear the mark of ‘Made in India’.
This has been reported in newsnation.in dated 8 June 2015.

The health hazards connected to the consumption of the Maggi brand of 2-minute noodles have hogged the limelight for the last few days and lab tests are being conducted in various laboratories to ascertain the extent of damage that has been done to children and adults alike. Needless to say, its makers Nestle are in a fix as are a few celebrities who have endorsed the product.
Incidentally, Baba Ramdev has plans to bring into the market other products that will gradually do away with products like Complan, Horlicks and Bournvita. He also has plans to add hair dye and gel to the list.
Hopefully, if the quality of these products come up to international standards, there could be a huge export market which could transform into dollars.
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Baba Ramdev disillusioned with BJP within one year - lauds Rahul Gandhi

Yog Guru Baba Ramdev has always been a staunch supporter of the BJP but, as the Modi government is celebrating its one year in office, Ramdev has expressed his disillusionment. He made the comments while talking to a TV new channel and it has been reported in indiatoday.intoday.in dated 19 May 2015.
He has lauded the efforts of Rahul Gandhi to revive the Congress party, which suffered a major setback in the 2014 Assembly elections. He has also said that Rahul has injected new life in congress and has shown up the Modi government as anti-poor.

Ramdev has gone to the extent of saying that some of the BJP leaders have become arrogant after their landslide victory in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Of course, he has praised PM Narendra Modi, but has also emphasized that the central government is gradually getting stuck with an anti-farmer image which needs to be coerced.
On the issue of black money, his enthusiasm appears to have been dampened because he, like so many others, had harbored an impression that bringing the stashed black money was a simple affair and that the earlier governments had not put in proper efforts.
The Baba is now a more wise man – he has realized that it is not that easy and simple affair and he has indicated that he would wait till June and then decide on the future course of action on black money.
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