India’s prestigious defence research organisation, DRDO, has entered into licensing agreements with yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurveda Limited to manufacture and market some herbal supplements and food products developed by it.
Under the agreement, the Seabuckthorn technology based products developed by Defence Institute of High Altitude Research has now been transferred to Baba Ramdev’s company.
The official statement said that the technology had been transferred under the DRDO FICCI ATAC (Accelerated Technology Assessment&Commercialisation) programme, established to primarily identify spin-off technologies for commercial markets within India and abroad.
Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar and the Chief of the Army Staff, General Dalbir Suhag too were present for this event, held in Leh on Sunday.
DIHAR, a frontier laboratory of DRDO which is located in Leh, has pioneered cold arid-agro animal technologies for augmenting local availability of fresh food in the region.
Parrikar was quoted by PTI as saying, “Apart from what has been commercialised, there are many more applications which Patanjali Ayurveda could explore to exploit the full potential of Seabuckthorn.”
Parrikar added that he wanted Patanjali Ayurveda to bring many more health products to exploit the full potential of the technologies beyond what DIHAR has found out.
This decision by the DRDO has, however, not gone down well with many social media users with many ridiculing the move.
Such was the criticism that Ramdev was trending nationally on Sunday evening
User Kapil wrote;
India's Defense Minister & Army Chief launching products with Ramdev while Ex-army men are fighting for #OROP at JM pic.twitter.com/oKPR0XH2s6
— Kapil (@kapsology) August 23, 2015
Another user Joy tweeted;
DRDO has tied up with Baba Ramdev. No punchline can be funnier than this news
— Joy (@Joydas) August 23, 2015
User BJPScams questioned why no tendered was floated for this tie-up
https://twitter.com/BJPScams/status/635510818252046336
User MediaWatcher sarcastically suggested that ISRO should consider sending Baba Ramdev’s products to Mars
https://twitter.com/India_MSM/status/635510570381217793
NDTV journalist Sreenavasan Jain tweeted,
After IIT, a DRDO-Baba Ramdev tie up ? http://t.co/L6wADxKrBr
— Sreenivasan Jain (@SreenivasanJain) August 23, 2015
Journalist Rana Ayyub’s tweet too questioned the government’s priorities;
Have a feeling Baba Ramdev will succeed in getting #OROP for our men in uniform. Govt has got its priorities right https://t.co/dKM2Pmoyts
— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) August 23, 2015
Another journalist Manu Pubby tweeted;
Who ever thought would get to see the Army Chief, Defence Minister, DRDO head and S Ramdev on the same table 🙂 https://t.co/kNC9fLHTHn
— Manu Pubby (@manupubby) August 23, 2015
Then there was this from a user called BhayankarLog:
Ramdev has joined DRDO team.
Soon DRDO will develop Ayurvedic missiles which can reach up to next galaxy 😛— भयंकर लोग (@BhayankarLog) August 23, 2015