The FMCG and Ayurved brand Patanjali is all set to enter the telecom sector. Baba Ramdev launched at an event, Swadeshi Samriddhi SIM Cards in collaboration with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited(BSNL). Only the Patanjali employees will be able to use these SIM Cards, as of now. The SIM Cards will be available for public use later, after its full-fledged launch.
The plan is also to provide discounts for Patanjali SIM Card users on other Patanjali products. As per sources, on a recharge of ₹144, one can get 2GB of data, 100 SMSs and unlimited calling anywhere inside the country. The validity period is not yet clear, can be for 28 days or one month.
Apart from that, the SIM Cardholders will also get the benefit of medical and life insurances cover of ₹2.5 lakhs and ₹5 lakhs respectively. Although, the cover will only be available for road accidents.
Patanjali also launched a WhatsApp like messenger app ‘Kimbho’. This can pose a great challenge to the market leader WhatsApp, which has over 1 Billion downloads from Google PlayStore. The word ‘Kimbho’ is used in Sanskrit for ‘How are you’. The ‘Kimbho’ App was made available on the Google PlayStore but has been removed temporarily due to some security issues.
Patanjali crossed a turnover of ₹10,500 crore in 2016-17 with a whopping 111% growth over the previous financial year and aims of crossing ₹20,000 crore mark in 2018-19. Earlier this year, Patanjali had also tied up with major E-commerce giants like Amazon, Flipkart, ShopClues, BigBasket, Grofers, NetMeds, ImgOfficial to increase the presence of Patanjali products online. Patanjali already has its own E-commerce portal patanjaliayurved.net, which is already popular.