{"id":2648,"date":"2016-07-16T16:08:40","date_gmt":"2016-07-16T10:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2648"},"modified":"2016-07-16T16:08:40","modified_gmt":"2016-07-16T10:38:40","slug":"person-of-the-week-baba-ramdev","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=2648","title":{"rendered":"Person of the Week: Baba Ramdev"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

T<\/span><\/p><\/div>

he Silicon Valley of India has reached that part of the Surya Namaskar where its arms are in the air reaching for the stars. A yoga baba-cum-swadeshipreneur has, in the last week, made a couple of contributions to global technology that have the potential to make personal details of Indians trend on a hackers\u2019 laptop all the way in China. Commence chest thumping! <\/span>\n\nIn one of the most inspiring moments for the country \u2013 and one of the finest throwbacks to the swadeshi movement since Indian Doritos \u2013 Patanjali has announced it will be taking time off from holding meetings with Louis Vuitton, and take on global tech leaders like WhatsApp and Vodafone, by introducing both a Swadeshi SIM card as well as a messaging app. Meanwhile all I have accomplished this week is being able to successfully throw a piece of paper from my chair into a dustbin 3 feet away.<\/span>\n\nBaba Ramdev, who is only a few business deals away from launching his own line of yoga-enabled spacecraft, is at this point, just showing off. It wouldn\u2019t come as a shock if he\u2019s the one who finally cures AIDS. For this reason, we are happy to announce that he is our Person of the Week. Make an appearance on a reality show and walk away with a million bucks, because at this party even your slightly slow cousin is an entrepreneur. <\/span>\n\nThe first of Baba\u2019s tech forays in the last week was a SIM card service provided to all employees of Patanjali Enterprises \u2013 presumably so Ramdev can monitor dissent as he continues down his path to total primetime TV domination. Other customers are allowed to get the SIM too, provided they also <\/span>buy into<\/span><\/a> another one of Baba Ramdev\u2019s schemes, a Swadeshi Samriddhi debit card which can be used exclusively at <\/span>Patanjali stores, hospitals, and wellness centres<\/span>. That\u2019s right, Baba\u2019s gone so wild, he\u2019s created his own banking system.<\/span>\n\nThen towards the end of the week, it emerged that the whole SIM card situation was merely an aperitif in Ramdev\u2019s pure-veg tech-course dinner. The main course was a messaging app that would rival the likes of WhatsApp, while disguising itself to look exactly like WhatsApp. To add to the ruse, it\u2019s called Kimbho, or \u201cwhat\u2019s up\u201d in Sanskrit. <\/span>\n\nBut to give Ramdev credit where it\u2019s due, there\u2019s nothing more swadeshi than a rip-off. You take something from abroad you know works well, like WhatsApp or <\/span>Oceans 12<\/span><\/i>, give it a desi twist \u2013 through Yoga emoji or a Shah Rukh Khan appearance \u2013 and voila! You have your own Swadeshi product, Kimbho, or <\/span>Happy New Year.<\/span><\/i>\n\nUnfortunately most people are not seeing this announcement for the stroke of genius it really is, but are choosing instead to focus on all the unimportant things, like originality of technology or privacy. Several cyber experts have called the app a <\/span>\u201csecurity disaster\u201d highlighting how users\u2019 messages could be breached without much trouble. Thousands of Google reviews called the app buggy, and one Twitter user who goes by the name <\/span>Elliot Alderson<\/span><\/a> and regularly points out flaws in the Aadhaar system, went as far as to access the app\u2019s backend. This meant that technically, he could have changed the name of the app to SexyBabaPix without anyone noticing. <\/span>\n\nThe app was soon taken off Google Play, but was replaced by hundreds of fake versions uploaded by enthusiastic Patanjali peeps, who didn\u2019t fully get the point, but were willing to try very hard. This led to apps like Kimbho weather, Kimbho jokes, and Kimbho code scanner (pls don\u2019t use this).<\/span>\n\nBut for all we know all this was part of a clever \u201c<\/span>reverse sting<\/span><\/a>\u201d, because this is what the managing director of Patanjali <\/span>had to say<\/span><\/a> before the launch of the app: \u201c<\/span>We are aware of the data leaks at WhatsApp\u2019s parent company Facebook. Data from our country has fuelled their economy and has been misused without our permission. To ensure the privacy of Indian consumers, we are launching swadeshi alternative of WhatsApp\u201d.<\/span> It\u2019s as if a health minister of a country stood up and said: \u201cEnough with all these hi-tech hospitals, let\u2019s get some witch doctors going in here.\u201d<\/span>\n\nSomeone is going to have to sit down and have a long, hard chat about the meaning of the word privacy with him. <\/span>\n\nMeanwhile, you can wait patiently for the return of Kimbho, which, according to its bio, is a place to share photos, videos, and to the copy guy\u2019s credit, <\/span>quickies<\/span><\/a>. Whatever people might say, nothing is going to stop millions of people from downloading the app when it is eventually up and running. For <\/span>haters gon\u2019 hate, Patanjali gon\u2019 dominate.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Baba Ramdev, who is only a few business deals away from launching his own line of yoga-enabled spacecraft, is at this point, just showing off. It wouldn\u2019t come as a shock if he\u2019s the one who finally cures AIDS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2649,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[3360,5362,5363,617,3364,5364,561,5365,19,3433,5366,5367,5368,3435,1506,5369,5370,5371,2698,5372,5373,5374,5375,111,1683,939],"class_list":["post-2648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-aadhaar","tag-app","tag-ayurveda","tag-baba","tag-card","tag-elliot-alderson","tag-google","tag-in","tag-india","tag-khan","tag-kimbho","tag-make","tag-messaging","tag-new","tag-patanjali","tag-play","tag-products","tag-ramdev","tag-rukh","tag-shah","tag-sim","tag-store","tag-swadeshi","tag-twitter","tag-vodafone","tag-whatsapp"],"yoast_head":"\nPerson of the Week: Baba Ramdev<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Baba Ramdev, who is only a few business deals away from launching his own line of yoga-enabled spacecraft, is at this point, just showing off. It wouldn\u2019t come as a shock if he\u2019s the one who finally cures AIDS.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2648\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Person of the Week: Baba Ramdev\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Baba Ramdev, who is only a few business deals away from launching his own line of yoga-enabled spacecraft, is at this point, just showing off. It wouldn\u2019t come as a shock if he\u2019s the one who finally cures AIDS.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=2648\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Arr\u00e9\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-16T10:38:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1527858085.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"850\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"#VALUE!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Person of the Week: Baba Ramdev\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Baba Ramdev, who is only a few business deals away from launching his own line of yoga-enabled spacecraft, is at this point, just showing off. It wouldn\u2019t come as a shock if he\u2019s the one who finally cures AIDS.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"#VALUE!\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=2648#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=2648\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"#VALUE!\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7e685cea646baa9279f67e2d4b7bb37c\"},\"headline\":\"Person of the Week: Baba Ramdev\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-16T10:38:40+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=2648\"},\"wordCount\":799,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=2648#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1527858085.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Aadhaar\",\"app\",\"ayurveda\",\"baba\",\"card\",\"Elliot Alderson\",\"Google\",\"in\",\"India\",\"khan\",\"kimbho\",\"make\",\"messaging\",\"new\",\"patanjali\",\"play\",\"products\",\"ramdev\",\"Rukh\",\"shah\",\"sim\",\"store\",\"swadeshi\",\"twitter\",\"Vodafone\",\"Whatsapp\"],\"articleSection\":[\"People\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=2648\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=2648\",\"name\":\"Person of the Week: Baba Ramdev\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=2648#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/?p=2648#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.207.105.184\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/1527858085.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-07-16T10:38:40+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/13.201.39.237\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7e685cea646baa9279f67e2d4b7bb37c\"},\"description\":\"Baba Ramdev, who is only a few business deals away from launching his own line of yoga-enabled spacecraft, is at this point, just showing off. 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