Acharya Balkrishna is the managing director and primary stakeholder of Patanjali Ayurved, an Indian FMCG company. He is a close aide of yoga guru, Baba Ramdev, with whom he founded the company in 2006. In September 2016, he has been ranked as 48th richest man in India by Forbes. Hurun India Rich List 2016 ranked him at 25th position among 399 Indians present in the list.
Balkrishna is also a great scholar of Ayurveda, Sanskrit & Vedas and hence often referred to as Acharya Balkrishna. He is credited for rediscovering Sanjeevani Booti, a herb which, has the power to cure any malady & was believed to save the life of Lakshmana in Epic Ramayana.
Balkrishna is a one-man army when it comes to the operations in Patanjali. All the decisions starting from production to hiring senior staff to deal with advertisers, he does is it all alone. Though he holds 94% share he doesn’t take home a salary. He works for 15 hours a day from 7 am to 10 pm, even on Sundays and other holidays during the year. He claims that he hasn’t taken a single day’s leave either. Acharya speaks largely in pure Hindi.