Ayurveda has moved ahead from home remedy to serious science : Arjun Vaidya

Shahid Akhter, editor, ETHealthworld spoke to Arjun Vaidya, CEO, Dr Vaidya's new age ayurveda, Mumbai, to know more about the ayurvedic market growth and its acceptance in comparison to allopthy. Edited excerpts:

Arjun Vaidya, CEO, Dr Vaidya's new age ayurveda, Mumbai, talks about the journey and growth of his ayurveda business and how online presence has helped him evolve.

Ayurveda : Market today
Ayurveda is a 5000 year old Indian science which has been with us for a very long time. Today the ayurveda market is at a very interesting phase. The most exciting part about this is that for the next 4-7 years Ayurveda is expected to grow at a CAGR of 16-17 per cent which shows the real excitement that the industry has generated. Over the last 5 years it has been an industry that has interested a certain segment of the society for some time but what is most exciting now is to see modern consumers, the youth and the larger portion of India coming back to our roots and wanting to engage with our science.


Ayurveda: Options and opportunities
Since independence, Ayurveda has been viewed as second fiddle to allopathy because of the British influence, global trends, allopathy was the go to situation and ayurveda was something that grandparents forced you to have. Modern consumers weren't believers in science, so it was just something that seemed to consumers like a home remedy even though it was science with us for a very long time.

5 years ago things changed significantly so I believe, 2014 to 2019 was the ayurvedic renaissance, natural organic products have proliferated around the world, this trend came to India in 2014 when the new government, the ministry of ayush was created and all of these happening lead to a renewed consumer interest in Ayurveda. If you talk to someone from the older generation you would know what amla, brahmi, bhringraj is and why they are good for you.

Now you have a whole generation of consumers who want to understand the whole need for a natural organic and health lifestyle but may not know as much about the principles of ayurveda and about these herbs and why they are good for us. This for me is a big challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is that there are consumers who want to interact with science but do not understand it as much as the generation before them understood. So education of these consumers is a big challenge, but also a big opportunity because there is a huge section of the society that is excited about the science so as companies and stakeholders in an industry it is now our duty to educate the consumers both in India and outside of India about what science has to offer in an easy to understand and accessible format.

Dr Vaidya's new age ayurveda: Journey so far
Over the 150 years, our family has passed down more than 100 proprietary ayurvedic formulations. So we used to engage with consumers and give to consumers. My great grandfather believed that ayurveda should not have any barriers of access to consumers and this led them to offer free consultation so that people don't feel they don't have access to this science.

Since 1923, anyone could come in for a free consultation at Dr Vaidya's Clinic and this allowed my grandfather to engage with so many consumers. I was a kid who grew up with a lot of knowledge and access to ayurveda. I transcribed our family formulations from the scriptures on to the computer. My US experience during my graduation showed the natural organic’s revolution. I saw the consumers were willing to pay more on natural products. In 2016, I quit my job to take on my family's legacy in a new age format.

Dr Vaidya's was established as an ayurvedic products brand that makes the 5000-year-old science and 150 years of family legacy appealing and accessible to modern consumers and for that, we have launched very innovative products. As a brand we get more than 85% of our sales using the online channel, consumers have adopted the digital revolution and are using smartphones which have allowed us to access the most remote parts of this country.

We have been able to generate easy to understand content and communication in relation to ayurveda. It has been a very interesting journey to do what was very different in Ayurveda like adopting an online-first strategy and engage with consumers through this science and I think it leaves a lot yet to be done.

Dr Vaidya's new age ayurveda: Future plans
For the future, we have three main objectives at Dr Vaidya's: one is to continue to engage with consumers and teach them further about ayurveda. We have already started the process to be a thought leader in Ayurveda. Second, we plan to go deeper into online and engage with lakhs of consumers on a monthly basis. Our future goal is to take Ayurveda to the world, and we will see at least 5 markets launched in 2020.