Wellness to grow rapidly, say FICCI- FROST & SULLIVAN

In what maybe regarded as an extremely positive outlook, FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry) Wellness Forum and Business Research & Consulting firm, Frost & Sullivan have released the Wellness Report pegging the industry growth rate at 30 percent annually to reach a INR 510.7 Billion by 2014 from a current 136.9 Billion. Speaking on the occasion of the third edition of FICCI Wellness conference, the movers and shakers of the industry including Harsh Mariwala, CMD – Marico Ltd., Jesper Hougaard – Serena Spa, Ram Ramchandran – Gold’s Gym, Sandeep Ahuja – VLCC, Shilpa Shetty – IOSIS Spa, amongst others, re-affirmed the case for emphasising on the wellness industry. The issue of lack of regulation in this evolving industry was discussed, and as per Jesper Hougaard “self regulation” would be a better option compared to the top-down approach of clamping regulations through government bodies. Various technologies in the slimming and fitness segments were also discussed, including invasive procedures highlighted by Dr. Mohan Thomas and Dr. Mufazal Lakdawalla. The spiritual aspect of Indian wellness was not ignored as speakers like Rajita Kulkarni (Art of Living) and Rajvi Mehta of BKS Iyengar School of Yoga shared their thoughts on the subject. The conference, however, also had a cautious note coming from Ram Ramchandran and Jesper Hougaard who asserted the fact that to succeed in the wellness business in India, one needa to be here for the long term and not expect big RoIs (Return on Investment).