Having twisted and turned the entire Indian fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) market on its head, Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev has now announced Patanjali’s entry into the telecom market. Patanjali on Sunday (27 May) launched Swadeshi Samriddhi SIM cards in alliance with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

As reported by The Economic Times, Baba Ramdev speaking at the launch of the SIM card called BSNL a ‘Swadeshi network’ and that the two said companies had the ‘welfare of the country’ as the common motive.

The Patanjali SIM, which for now will be only available for employees of Patanjali, will come with health, life and accidental insurances. Unlimited calls across the country, a 2GB data pack and 100 short message services (SMSs) for a recharge of Rs 144, which is said to be BSNL’s best plan as of now is what the Swadeshi card will offer. Post the full launch of the product, sim card holders will also get a 10 per cent discount on Patanjali products.

“There are five lakh counters of BSNL and from there people can soon get Patanjali swadeshi-samradhi card,” Baba Ramdev was quoted as saying by ANI.

Patanjali had crossed a turnover of Rs 10,500 crore in 2016-2017 registering a 111 percent growth and was aiming at crossing the Rs 20,000 crore mark in 2018. This association of the two ‘desi’ brands we hope brings some good news for the state-owned telecommunications service provider BSNL, which is one of the top three loss-making ventures of the government, reporting net loss of Rs 4,786 crore for the year ended March 2017.