Forbes: Patanjali's Balkrishna in, Flipkart's Bansals out

September 22, 2016

Singapore, Sep 22: Yoga guru Ramdev's close associate Balkrishna has entered India's richest 100 club with USD 2.5 billion networth owing to his 97 per cent holding in Patanjali Ayurved, while new-age retailer Flipkart's co-founders Sachin and Binny Bansal made a surprise exit from the list.

Acharya Balkrishna has made his debut on the Forbes list of India's 100 Richest People at 48th position.

"... the childhood friend of politically well-connected yoga guru Baba Ramdev, makes debut thanks to his 97 per cent holding in fast-growing consumer goods outfit Patanjali Ayurved, which they co-founded in 2006," Forbes said today while releasing its annual India rich list.
"With revenue of USD 780 million, Patanjali sells everything from herbal toothpastes and cosmetics to noodles and jams. Though Ramdev holds no shares in Patanjali, he is the company's de facto brand ambassador, while Balkrishna runs operations.

"Among much else, Balkrishna also oversees 5,000 Patanjali clinics, the Patanjali University and a yoga and Ayurveda research institute. He says that Patanjali's profits are donated to various trusts and charities," the magazine said.

Balkrishna is among the six newcomers on the list, topped for the ninth consecutive year by Mukesh Ambani, while 13 persons have failed to make the cut this year.

Those moving out of the list included e-commerce giant Flipkart's co-founderAdd New Pages Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal.

Sachin and Binny Bansal were ranked 86th last year with a networth of USD 1.3 billion.
The two friends had teamed up in 2007 to found Flipkart as an online seller of books by pooling in USD 650 of their combined savings and started operating out of their apartment.

Now, Flipkart is among the country's biggest internet retailer and has attracted funds from several global investors, though things have not been very rosy of late.

This year, the minimum amount required to make to the Forbes list was USD 1.25 billion, up from USD 1.1 billion in 2015.

The 13 who dropped off also include textile figure Balkrishan Goenka.
Meanwhile, there are only 6 newcomers this year. The youngest are serial entrepreneurs Bhavin (36) and Divyank (34) Turakhia, who sold their ad tech firm Media.net for $900 million in August.

Two-wheeler tycoon Pawan Munjal takes the spot of his father, Brijmohan Lall Munjal, who died last November.

Forbes said the list was compiled using shareholding and financial information obtained from the families and individuals, stock exchanges, analysts and regulators.

The ranking lists family fortunes, including those shared among extended families such as the Godrej and Bajaj families. Public fortunes were calculated based on stock prices and exchange rates as of September 9. Private companies were valued based on similar companies that are publicly traded.

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Average age of school children picking up drugs, smoking habit in 10 Indian cities around 13 years!

News Network

December 13,2025

New Delhi: School-going children are picking up drug and smoking habits and engaging in consumption of alcohol, with the average age of introduction to such harmful substances found to be around 13 years, suggesting a need for earlier interventions as early as primary school, a multi-city survey by AIIMS-Delhi said.

The findings also showed substance use increased in higher grades, with grade XI/XII students two times more likely to report use of substances when compared with grade VIII students. This emphasised the importance of continued prevention and intervention through middle and high school.

The study led by Dr Anju Dhawan of AIIMS's National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, published in the National Medical Journal of India this month, looks at adolescent substance use across diverse regions.

The survey included 5,920 students from classes 8, 9, 11 and 12 in urban government, private and rural schools across 10 cities -- Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Delhi, Dibrugarh, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jammu, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Ranchi. The data were collected between May 2018 and June 2019.

The average age of initiation for any substance was 12.9 (2.8) years. It was lowest for inhalants (11.3 years) followed by heroin (12.3 years) and opioid pharmaceuticals (without prescription; 12.5 years).

Overall, 15.1 per cent of participants reported lifetime use, 10.3 per cent reported past year use, and 7.2 per cent reported use in the past month of any substance, the study found.

The most common substances used in the past year, after tobacco (4 per cent) and alcohol (3.8 per cent), were opioids (2.8 per cent), followed by cannabis (2 per cent) and inhalants (1.9 per cent). Use of non-prescribed pharmaceutical opioids was most common among opioid users (90.2 per cent).

On being asked, 'Do you think this substance is easily available for a person of your age' separately for each substance category, nearly half the students (46.3 per cent) endorsed that tobacco products and more than one-third of the students (36.5 per cent) agreed that a person of their age can easily procure alcohol products.

Similarly, for Bhang (21.9 per cent), ganja/charas (16.1 per cent), inhalants (15.2 per cent), sedatives (13.7 per cent), opium and heroin (10 per cent each), the students endorsed that these can be easily procured.

About 95 per cent of the children, irrespective of their grade, agreed with the statement that 'drug use is harmful'.

The rates of substance use (any) among boys were significantly higher than those of girls for substance use (ever), use in the past year and use in the past 30 days. Compared to grade VIII students, grade IX students were more likely, and grade XI/XII students were twice as likely to have used any substance (ever).

The likelihood of past-year use of any substance was also higher for grade IX students and for grade XI/XII students as compared to grade VIII students.

About 40 per cent of students mentioned that they had a family member who used tobacco or alcohol each. The use of cannabis (any product) and opioid (any product) by a family member was reported by 8.2 per cent and 3.9 per cent of students, respectively, while the use of other substances, such as inhalants/sedatives by family was 2-3 per cent, the study found.

A relatively smaller percentage of students reported use of tobacco or alcohol among peers as compared to among family members, while a higher percentage reported inhalants, sedatives, cannabis or opioid use among peers.

Children using substances (past year) compared to non-users reported significantly higher any substance use by their family members and peers.

There were 25.7 per cent students who replied 'yes' to the question 'conflicts/fights often occur in your family'. Most students also replied affirmatively to 'family members are aware of how their time is being spent' and 'damily members are aware of with whom they spend their time'.

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