GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATION (GI) is a form of certification that recognises unique products based on their origin, which is often attributed to agro-climatic variations and traditional cultivation practices. This certification is also extended to non-agricultural products, such as handicrafts, based on human skills, materials and resources available in certain areas that make the product unique. Consumers prefer genuine products, and GI provides the assurance of authenticity while also promoting community development.
Trade reforms, legal protection and consumer acceptance are necessary to commercialise local products and gain premium prices in domestic and international markets. Empirical evidence from many developing and developed countries shows that GI helps economic enhancement at the producer’s level. But this is not true to the same extent in India, perhaps due to flaws in the GI registration system and market inefficiencies. Therefore, India’s journey of over two decades—the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Rules was enacted in 1999—with GI has had limited outcomes and requires more popularisation to achieve its full economic potential. This article seeks to provide a perspective on the efforts and attention towards GI from national and international lenses and draw policymakers’ attention to this issue.
INDIA VIS A VIS WORLD
This story is from the January 16, 2024 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the January 16, 2024 edition of Down To Earth.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
TURN OVER A NEW LEAF
The young leaves of pilkhan free are a worthy alternative to leafy vegetables in the spring season
The pill that's roiling US drug regulation
The hard right is challenging FDA's authority to regulate drugs with its lawsuit to ban America's most used abortion pill
FAIR PRICE
Using a calculator, Uttar Pradesh scientifically fixes fee for transporting faecal sludge to treatment plants
THE FOREVER POLLUTANT
From production to usage to disposal, plastic is a threat to those who come in its contact SIDDHARTH GHANSHYAM SINGH
Seeds from the past
For a decade,200 villages in Odisha have conserved and grown 190 indigenous rice and millet varieties with proven climate resilience
TESTING TIMES
While the world is trying to identify uniform tests to measure soil biodiversity, it still needs investment and infrastructure to make them available to all
BREAKING NEW GROUND
Soil health is typically measured by its nutrient content, by presence of elements like nitrogen and phosphorus. No country in the world measures it in terms of soil biodiversity-a counting of underground faunal populations and microorganisms.
PRIME TRIGGER
Heat stress dominates debate on the causes of a mysterious chronic kidney disease that continues to baffle health experts and is on the rise globally
Coral catastrophe
Consistent ocean heating puts global corals at risk of mass bleaching in 2024
CHIPKO A DISTANT MEMORY
Whenever a dictionary of green terms is written, no matter in what language, it will contain at least one Hindi word-Chipko, which means to hug.