Patanjali considering bidding for IPL title sponsorship
New Delhi: Baba Ramdev's Patanjali Ayurved is considering to bid for the title sponsorship of the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL), according to a company official.
The slot of the title sponsorship of IPL was vacated after the Chinese handset maker Vivo decided to exit from it.
The move would help the Haridwar-based firm access a global marketing platform, as Patanjali is focusing on exports for its Ayurveda-based FMCG products.
Confirming the development, Patanjali spokesperson S K Tijarawala told PTI: "We are considering this".
"This is for Vocal For Local and making one Indian brand as global, this is the right platform. We are considering into that perspective," he said.
However, Tijarawala also added that the company is yet to take a final call on the issue.
"We have to take a final decision, whether we would take it or not," Tijarawala added.
According to him, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is coming with the expression of interest on Monday and it has to submit its proposal by August 14.
Last week, BCCI and Vivo decided to suspend their partnership for the 2020 IPL beginning on September 19, in the UAE, amid clamour to boycott Chinese products in the wake of the Sino-India border stand-off.
The title sponsorship is a significant part of the IPL's commercial revenue, half of which is shared equally by the franchises.
Vivo won the IPL title sponsorship rights for five years from 2018 to 2022 for a reported sum of Rs 2,190 crore, approximately Rs 440 crore per annum.
The Haridwar-based Patanjali group has an estimated turnover of around Rs 10,500 crores. It had acquired debt-ridden Ruchi Soya in a corporate insolvency resolution process for around Rs 4,350 crore after competing with Adani Group.
Patanjali Ayurved had reported a revenue of Rs 8,329 crore in FY 2018-19. However overall the group's turnover was much higher as Patanjali Ayurved consists of mainly its FMCG business and its Ayurvedic medicines.
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Los Angeles county wildfires could be costliest in US history, early estimates say
Los Angeles, Jan 11: The wildfires that erupted this week across Los Angeles County are still raging, but already are projected to be among the costliest natural disasters in US history.
The devastating blazes have killed at least 11 people and incinerated more than 12,000 structures since Tuesday, laying waste to entire neighbourhoods once home to multimillion-dollar properties.
While it's still too early for an accurate tally of the financial toll, the losses so far likely make the wildfires the costliest ever in the US, according to various estimates.
A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between USD 135 billion and USD 150 billion. By comparison, AccuWeather estimated the damage and economic losses caused by Hurricane Helene, which tore across six southeastern states last fall, at USD 225 billion to USD 250 billion.
“This will be the costliest wildfire in California modern history and also very likely the costliest wildfire in US modern history, because of the fires occurring in the densely populated areas around Los Angeles with some of the highest-valued real estate in the country,” said Jonathan Porter, the private firm's chief meteorologist.
AccuWeather factors in a multitude of variables in its estimates, including damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure and vehicles, as well as immediate and long-term health care costs, lost wages and supply chain interruptions.
The insurance broker Aon PLC also said Friday that the LA County wildfires will likely end up being the costliest in US history, although it did not issue an estimate. Aon ranks a wildfire known as the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, in 2018 as the costliest in US history up to now at USD 12.5 billion, adjusted for inflation. The Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed about 11,000 homes.
The LA County wildfires, which were fuelled by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds and an extreme drought, remained largely uncontained Saturday. That means the final tally of losses from the blazes is likely to increase, perhaps substantially.
“To put this into perspective, the total damage and economic loss from this wildfire disaster could reach nearly 4 per cent of the annual GDP of the state of California,” AccuWeather's Porter said.
In a report Friday, Moody's also concluded that the wildfires would prove to be the costliest in US history, specifically because they have ripped through densely populated areas with higher-end properties.
While the state is no stranger to major wildfires, they have generally been concentrated in inland areas that are not densely populated. That's led to less destruction per acre, and in damage to less expensive homes, Moody's noted.
That's far from the case this time, with one of the largest conflagrations destroying thousands of properties across the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, home to many Hollywood stars and executives with multimillion-dollar properties. Already, numerous celebrities have lost homes to the fires.
“The scale and intensity of the blazes, combined with their geographic footprint, suggest a staggering price tag, both in terms of the human cost and the economic toll,” Moody's analysts wrote. The report did not include a preliminary cost estimate of the wildfire damage.
It could be several months before a concrete tally of the financial losses from the wildfires will be possible.
“We're in the very early stages of this disaster,” Porter said.
