Tirupati Venkateswara Temple: Commonly known as Tirupati temple, this is the

second richest pilgrim located at Andhra Pradesh. More than 60,000 devotees visit
this temple every day and treasures of more than Rs 650 crore is stored in the
temple. This brings this temple under the list of richest temples of India.

Padmanabha swamy Temple

Recently treasures worth $20 billion were found in Padmanabhaswamy temple,
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Six vaults piled with gold and jewels have been discovered in the
temple that belonged to Travancore royalty. There were sacks of diamonds and tonnes of gold
coins and jewellery that were lying untouched for hundreds of years. This makes the temple the
richest in India.

Shirdi Saibaba shrine

Shrine to Saibaba, the Shirdi temple is the third richest in India. It sees millions of devotees
from different religions and castes everyday. The temple has gold and silver jewellery worth
approximately Rs 32 crore and silver coins worth more than Rs 6 lakh. The temple gets
donations worth Rs 350 crore every year.

Mata Vaishno Devi shrine

Mata Vaishno Devi is not only one of the oldest, but richest temples of India. Millions of
devotees visit this shrine to take the blessings of Mata Vaishno Devi. An estimate income of Rs
500 crore is collected every year.

Siddhivinayak Temple, Mumbai

This is another richest temple in India. It is not just a place for Bollywood celebrities to seek
blessings but devotees around the world visit this Lord Ganesha temple. The dome over the
temple is coated with 3.7 kilograms of gold that was donated by a Kolkata based businessman.

Indias spiritual and religious market is estimated to be over $30 billion

(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Indias-spiritual-and-religious-market-is-estimated-tobe-over-30-billion/articleshow/30881651.cms)

That opportunity is now spawning a whole variety of startups and online ventures. And many are
taking advantage of the market's fragmentation and low technology penetration.
In God's own country, Kerala, there's Waves Hair that collects temple hair to create wigs and hair
extensions for international markets. The company processes remy hair, the highest grade of
human hair and which is synonymous with Indian temple hair, to stitch machine wefted hair
extensions. These Indian locks are treated and styled to adorn the heads of customers overseas.
"We source temple hair from Tirupati and other South Indian temples. It costs anywhere between
Rs 5,000 and Rs 25,000 for a kg of raw remy hair," said Mallika Sreekumar, proprietor of Waves
Hair. These hair extensions rake in big bucks in markets like the US and Europe.
Goonjan Mall, founder of Online Prasad, not only now brings you prasad from different temples,
but has also launched a first-of-its-kind private label brand, Zevotion, of hand-picked Rudraksha
beads and yantras, connecting people to their faith. "Our research showed that about 80% of
religious products sold in the country is counterfeit. Zevotion offers certified products assuring
customers true value for their money," said Mall, who quit his job as a senior analyst in
consulting firm Bain & Co to launch Onlineprasad.com.
Serial entrepreneur K Ganesh, who picked up 35% stake in Onlineprasad.com and is planning to
participate in a fresh round of funding in the venture very soon, said that with 1.2 billion people
and 330 million gods and goddesses in India, faith was price inelastic. "Devotees don't take a
decision to make a pilgrimage or visit a temple based on price," he said.
Online Prasad has a network of 50 temples, including Vaishno Devi, Shirdi Sai and Jagannath
Puri, and charges Rs 501 to deliver prasad anywhere in the country in 7-10 working days. "We
want to create a spiritual ecosystem to cater to devotional aspirations of people. Many temples in
the country are not well managed, leading to leakage in the system," Mall said.
Vedic Vaani, founded by Mayank Goyal and Ashish Gandhi, is a similar venture, offering items
related to Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism on a single platform. Online Prasad does
over 200 bookings daily and the number sees a sharp rise during festivals.
For Muslims, there's ProudUmmah. Hyderabad-based mechanical engineer Abid Khan quit
Google to launch this startup that provides customized kits with 24 products related to Islamic
pilgrimages Hajj and Umrah. The kits are priced between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,500 and contain

prayer beads, maps of the pilgrimage, prayer mat, cloth etc.

"We sold around 400 kits in the first year of operation and this year, we plan to do over a 1,000
kits," said Khan, who sees a large opportunity in the US, UK and Australian markets.
Ganesh said the country's top 20 temples, including Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanam and Vaishno
Devi, collect Rs 5,000 crore as donations annually, while 500 mid-sized temples collect Rs
20,000 crore in donations every year. "There are another 1 lakh small temples and 10 lakh
roadside temples collecting Rs 50,000 crore and Rs 1 lakh crore as donations each year," he said.
That's a phenomenal market that startups can disrupt with technology, and in some ways bring
God closer to people. Mall came up with a solution: online ordering. "The idea that religion must
be simplified and technology was the perfect tool came in a flash," he said.
The senior analyst at Bain & Company quit his job and launched OnlinePrasad.com a website
that enables devotees to get prasad from more than 50 temples delivered to their homes. They
can also organize a pooja a prayer ritual at any temple and buy any of the 300 religious
symbols and products.
Onlineprasad.com now boasts over 2,500 daily visitors, has 120,000 Facebook followers,
backing from angel investors and mentoring from startup accelerator Morpheus.
Bringing faith and technology together
As India's religious market grows entrepreneurs are using technology to tap into niche segments
and differentiate themselves from competitors.