This 100-year Old Indian Ayurveda Company Wants To Expand Globally Globalization of Yoga has eased the path to globalization for Ayurveda says MD of Baidyanath Ayurveda Bhawan.

"Innovate and Deliver is my success recipe', says Anurag Sharma the Managing Director of Shree Baidyanath Ayurveda Bhawan, one of India's oldest Ayurveda companies.

This century old player in the Indian Ayurvedic medicine & pharmaceutical industry is aggressively eyeing acquisitions in the US. Baidyanath, which devotes itself twoards well being & public health, is now aiming at personal care owing to rising demand.

Sharma in a chat with Entrepreneur India said the brand aims to take off globally, and highlighted challenges faced by the industry.

Growth Areas

He says organic skincare products are seeing wider reach and the market is anticipated to expand further. 'That's the space which we can now take abroad and globalize Ayurveda,' says Sharma.

"The globalization of Yoga has eased the globalization of Ayurveda as India is already developing an adherence across the world which states people believe in the Indian systems now,' told Sharma.

According to the 2017 Orbis Research, the Global Ayurvedic Market accounted for $3,428.0 million in 2015, and is expected to reach $9,791.0 million by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 16.2% from 2015 to 2022.

On asking if global consumers are interested in centuries-old natural processes and practices used in India, Sharma said 'Indians as well as global audiences have realized that going back to the centuries-old technology and adapting it to the current technology is indeed the best way.'

Sharma outlines that Baidyanth is witnessing faster growth in personal space, like haircare, skincare as compared with medicine part. It's now going to come more from

The company has recently forayed into the FMCG segment with a wide range of cosmetics and wellness products in the market in order to give a tough competition to the other successful players like, Baba Ramdev's Patanjali, Dabur, Hindustan Unilever etc.

Obstructions Industry Players Face Often

Talking about the major challenges that industry faces to grow globally, Sharma highlighted the sourcing of right quality of raw materials and making sure that it is free of all contaminants, is one of the biggest challenges for Ayurveda industry within the domestic territories.'

"The low-quality air, water pollution, soil pollution and an abundant use of insecticides and pesticides cause a lot of harm to the natural ingredients and resources we produce in India,' adds Sharma.

Also, on the broader level, Sharma held regulatory bodies liable for the slow growth of Ayurveda in the market, he said, "the industry faces a lot of regulatory challenges, which makes difficult for general public to understand the concept of Ayurveda.'

"Educating them and utilizing them and getting the government of India to be able to push forward, exactly the way Chinese have done with the traditional Chinese medicine where they made most of the raw material which countries across the world accept it. Once that's done, there will be huge amount of benefits towards Ayurveda as far as mankind is concerned,' says Sharma.

Government's Role in Promoting Ayurveda

"The current government has been a lot more proactive to promote Ayurveda and even other Indian systems like Yoga,' said Sharma. The Ministry of (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy), AYUSH was formed on 9th November 2014 to ensure the optimal development and propagation of AYUSH systems of health care.

"The ministry has declared the World Yoga Day. We have also recently asked to declare the World Ayurveda Day on Dhanvantri Day as Dhanvantri is the God of Ayurveda.'

"The current government is serious on spending money and standardization. Once that happened and one would be able to convince the governments, and embassies to trade.'

(Interview by Aashika Jain)