allotmentthe two men met in the 1990s when they studied at the same gurukul a residential school that was the norm for indian hindus before the british arrived both the sons of farmers they went on together to study in the himalayas mr ramdev focusing on yoga and mr balakrishna on ayurvedain 1994 they founded the first of three charitable trusts to run a hospital and a university dealing in ayurvedic medicine and an ashram there they held yoga camps and free health checkups at which they dispensed ayurveda treatments which are largely herbal before long they had set up a manufacturing plant for ayurveda productsaround the same time mr ramdev began his televised yoga classes lean and muscular mr ramdev proved to be a telegenic tour de force bringing yoga to indias poor and the growing middle classhe gradually ventured beyond yoga to become a public critic of government corruption leading a mass protest in new delhi in 2011 and later endorsing prime minister narendra modi during the election in 2014mr modi and his bharatiya janata party swept to power soon after unleashing a strong hindu nationalist sentiment that mr ramdev says has created an ideal ecosystem to support his business mr modi pushed the united nations to create international yoga day and he inaugurated it last year with mr ramdev by his side in a nationally televised ceremony involving 35000 peoplefew people noticed when mr ramdev and mr balakrishna founded patanjali in 2006 and then in 2009 began building factories on a 150acre campus about 20 miles from haridwarpatanjali now has 28 factories at the campus that make more than 800 products that are sold at around 20000 franchised outlets around the country company officials said twentyfive technicians in a dozen glasswalled labs use computers to test ingredients for contaminants from pesticides to heavy metalsmr ramdev given to raucous laughter and bouts of giggles that make him seem disarmingly humble can just as suddenly overflow with bravado as he did when asked about the source of patanjalis popularity and powerpeople buy our products because they believe i will only sell them good things he saidbeyond mr ramdevs appeal patanjali products are attractive because they are high quality and prices are about 20 percent lower than the competition analysts saidimagecreditkuni takahashi for the new york timesit is not clear how patanjali is able to charge such low prices given that its profit margin of 13 percent is within the industry range of 13 to 16 percent mr ramdev ventured that with his fame his advertising costs are much lower than his competitors who spend as much as 15 percent of their revenue promoting their productsthe faces of mr ramdev and mr balakrishna adorn most every building billboard and truck connected to the company which is expanding so fast it is striking fear into its current and potential competitors the company expects to report revenue of 750 million in the fiscal year that ended in march more than double the