Baba Ramdev: Desi 'WhatsApp' now; apparel, swadeshi food chain next?

After hastily withdrawing their new messaging app amid glaring security flaws, an Indian billionaire and his penurious yoga guru partner are about to have another go at it.

Acharya Balkrishna, who collaborated with celebrity yogi Baba Ramdev to build an Indian consumer goods empire, plans a formal release of the Kimbho messenger app within weeks as he tries to create a challenger to Facebook Inc’s dominant WhatsApp. But first he has to fix it.

“We pledge not to launch the app until a team of expert hackers and security specialists plug all the security and privacy loopholes,” Balkrishna said in a phone interview as he promised more advanced features than his rival.

The hurried withdrawal of the app, whose name translates as “what’s up” in Sanskrit, a day after its release in May was a rare setback for Balkrishna and Ramdev. The pair built Patanjali Ayurved into a business with $1.6 billion of annual revenue by selling soap, skin cream and instant noodles that embrace the swadeshi, or home-grown, all-natural-and-wholesome creed. Still, in the short time it was available the app racked up 300,000 downloads, the billionaire said.

Ramdev rose to fame in India from appearances on TV, where he demonstrated the cobra, the downward dog and hundreds of other yoga poses. He used his prominence to make Patanjali Ayurved a household name, giving global players such as Nestle SA and Unilever NV a run for their money when it comes to Indian consumer spending. Balkrishna owns most of the stock, while Ramdev holds a minuscule share, in keeping with his adopted life as a ‘sanyasi’ ascetic free of material possessions.