 Hello, and welcome to the Pride of India show. Our guest today is Ajay Sharma, director of Baddina Thairavidh Bhavan's Limited. Baddina Group is a pharmaceutical company which is known for its Ayurvedic medicines and skincare products. Started as a small unit in Bihar a century ago. The company has now expanded its operation worldwide. Welcome to the show, Mr. Sharma. Thank you. Mr. Sharma, please take us through the initial journey of Baddina, I think. I think you started way back in 1970, right? Well, that's a lot of time back, but my grandfather was a visionary, you know, and he actually hailed from a very small village in Rajasthan, which currently is in District Jaipur. And from there through Bihar, he actually in 1917, he set up this company in Calcutta. So we have been headquartered and head office in Calcutta since then and formerly officially as a company. And, you know, I guess the motivation for him at that time, what I read about Baddina, all his jeeveny we have and all the books and old people I have interacted with while growing up, I guess one of the first motivation definitely was to improve the financial status of his family. So he wanted to start a business. But the greater motivation for him was he was a nationalist. He wanted to do something for the country. And at that time, as you know, we were being ruled by the British crown and the people were opposing a part of the freedom movement in some way or the other. So I guess he took it up on himself to oppose the British through business. So in that way, these two motivational factors is what made him actually start Baddina and, you know, take it to such heights because that nationalism in him and to succeed as a business were two things which just kept him going. And I'm proud to say that today I'm the third generation and we still have that same vision and the same ethics in our organization. And we are now 100 years past from where we started. And we are still going strong with the same ethics. That's the beauty. And I'm proud to inform you that we are the largest manufacturers of Ayurvedic medicines in the world. Yeah, as you mentioned that you started when Britishers used to rule country. What were those challenges in the beginning? I mean, apart from investment. So I guess the biggest challenge for Ayurveda for a long period of time has been acceptability. So as we all know that, you know, in those days, there used to be or even till like today the marketing people still talk like that there are two Indians. One is the Bharat and one is the Indian. So the challenges of Bharat were different, you know, because how to reach down to the micro interiors, how to provide medication to the people in the villages where acceptability was there. And the challenge on the India front was altogether very different, which was the acceptability because they were falling the West and they would look down and downgrade anything which was Indian. So I guess these two challenges were the largest besides in Ayurveda, you know, the biggest challenge what we faced at that time to starting offers collection of the raw material because there was no organized agencies or, you know, groups who could actually go. So I do remember we do have it as written down that my grandfather, he is to lead, you know, expeditions to the Himalayas hunting for the raw material which today is now a very organized industry. So I guess these were the earlier challenges. And what about the investment part? I mean, you might not have needed in the beginning but maybe in the later years. So in, see, in investment, the moment you talk about investment, obviously they have been like traditionalists and most of these families from Rajasthan and Gujarat, you know, they have believed in being debt free. So they tried to bring in their own investments either through like families and connections. So I guess they're not both also in the same way till obviously when the banks started to grow and it started becoming more formal. So one started going for, you know, like debt from the bank and these kinds of things. Definitely we are still very traditional on our holding of the company that we still haven't gone like public. So I guess we do finance ourselves through our own means. How is the ire with the market evolved over the years? Now, I mean, we see a lot of, you know, high-end products at malls, airports, right? So a lot of changes happened in the sector. I guess, yeah, it's an evolution. It's a development. It's the acceptability of the science. It is getting exposed to the advantages of ire with the. So I guess this is all, first and foremost, I would definitely say it is that the government has helped us, this current government has helped us tremendously, this industry, you know, and especially through the ministry of Ayush. So earlier we never had a ministry for ire with, you know, and this ministry has actually put in a lot and given a structure to ire with as an industry. So with government support and with our own initiatives and see ire with has grown to a level where it should be. So I would still say that we are still not there, but we are, yes, we are now accepted. We are close to our goals where today, if you see, there is no product which does not like talk about ire with. That is the strength and why? Because it's not only marketability. It is the advantages in this product. It is your generation, you know, who's knowledgeable, who is aware, who's more natural. They want to go back to the nature. They have seen the ills of chemicals. They have. So, you know, there's a complete transformation in society and definitely the influences come from the West. So how I put it, if you ask me for ire with what worked actually was the yoga. So when the West accepted the yoga and they saw the benefits of yoga, I mean, this was external. They said they are the people that was the cohort which actually said, hey, there must be something in ire with them. And they started to experiment by application and then finally intake. And that influence has obviously come to India also. And otherwise, the input of the industry and the government has done a great job. A lot more still needs to be done. But yes, it has been a tremendous journey for us. I as you mentioned that ire with is now quite popular in Western countries as well. So which products are much in demand there? So like I told you, Kanchan, that it started with application. You see, initially people, they knew the advantages. But they didn't want to take it for internal take. So we started off with spas and Panchkar rooms and the oil therapy, the massages, then application on the skin. Then you go to the air and slowly, slowly, slowly, when they started seeing the advantages. Now people are open to even take like medication. And in fact, I'm very proud to share here that for 20 years we used to always hear the word called alternate therapy. That word today, in major of the Western countries has become ire with us. So that is a bright moment, you know, because instead of saying, I'm doing alternate therapy, now they all started saying, I'm doing ire with them. And I want to know more about ire with them. And how can we get more products of ire with them? So the challenge here for Bedinath here especially, see ire with us is doing well. The advantages of herbs and roots is now well known. There's a lot of R and D happening. Now Bedinath stood for treatment in ire with us. So while ire with us is growing, the benefits are reaching people, the treatment, it as a therapy, as a medication, you know, like a homeopathy is a treatment, ire with us as a treatment, allopathy is a treatment. That is still not accepted by, I think so 90% of the countries abroad. So that is now the biggest challenge what we face at Bedinath. And definitely with the support of the government, we should be able to do that too. How is the COVID broad changes in your approach? So two ways, let's look at COVID in two ways. One is definitely opening up of the market. Immunity is the word which brought ire with us to the forefront. Everybody knew the advantages ire with us had and how immunity was the most important thing as a preventive. So ire with us propagates first, like prevention, then cure and then rejuvenation. That is the three stages what ire with us and we are very big in preventive. So that is what opened up with immunity. Everybody realize that if you have a good immunity, your body can fight most of the ailments and diseases. So I guess immunity is what opened up ire with us and the markets and the benefits of ire with us. But on the business front, if you ask me, it was technology. Technology has overtaken everything. And we at Venerable also have been exposed and these two years, the way to do business and in everything technology has stepped in. So I guess it has been, it was challenging to start off with, but oh, we are enjoying the benefits of it right now. You mentioned immunity. Yes, so I remember Baba Ramdev, he launched COVID medicine also and formulation to prevent COVID in 2020 and 2021. But I have not heard about any of the bad enough products during COVID. So it's basically immunity. It's a marketing plan. So you want to target a particular ailment, you want to target the group of ailments, do you want to target immunity as a whole? So we stuck to our role of doing immunity as a whole. Because immunity is once it's there with the body, it can ward off a lot of ailments. So we can't, we didn't want to go specific as to immunity only for this. His drug was under controversy also everyone. Well, in business there would always be controversies but I guess that does not much to read in that. It is the core issue is about immunity. If any product or any herb or any medication which can build your immunity, I guess that is what we all are looking at. What are your plans for future now? Well, future like I told you that we have reached a stage where the future is bright, it is great, India also has opened up as a market. Globally, we are looking at a lot of improvements and so there now Ayurveda has reached a different dimension where we have different groups and cohorts and niche markets. So we at Bethnath have consciously decided to grow brands and product ranges and categories which address these like demands and niches. So you would be seeing a lot of brands coming out of Bethnath as an umbrella brand. And a couple of them are already there. We are doing well with great responses and a couple of them would also be introduced into the market, some for the Indian market and some for the Western market. We also heard that you have forwarded into liquid natural gas, is that true? Oh yes, so as a group, Bethnath is into, so when we are talking about Ayurveda soon, Ayurveda is definitely a mainstay. I mean, it's a family business, it's in our blood as they say. But yes, we do have a lot of like other activities in the group, so yes, LNG is one of them. What are your thoughts on leadership? Well, that's a very interesting question you asked me because it takes me back, I have just done a book which was released by Penguin Bookhouse and it's called How to Thrive in a Family Business and it talks a lot about the leadership in family businesses. So if you ask me, we all are leaders. You are somehow either leading a family a home, maybe in an organization, maybe in a trust, maybe in a club, maybe in your organization, maybe a company, maybe a country. Leadership is instilled and prevails in every human being. That's what I personally feel and I'm sharing with you. So a leadership style could be collaborative, it could be autocratic, it could be transactional, it could be transformational, or it could be Krishna. That is for you to choose in which organization, what kind of leadership you need to maintain and which is going to work there. But the core point, Kanchan, here is that there are some very basic skills. You don't need skills from out of the world. There's some very basic skills a leader should own and have and which makes him a leader which shines and a successful leader. And that I put down as one is very basic skill of communication. Two, I would say is you have to be ethical. Three, you have to be an innovator. If you're not innovative, you cannot, cannot be a successful leader. And the fourth, which I give is self-development. You have to be a little selfish here. If you don't grow, you will not be able to make the people under you grow. So I guess these are my four very strong points on leadership. Very nicely put through. Thank you for talking with us, Sharmaji. Thank you. Thank you very much, Kanchan. Thank you very much.