How many Geographical Indications are registered in India?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 1, 2019
A number of GIs are
registered in India for varied products. But what type of products hold the
most GIs? Which state has the maximum number of registered GIs?
From Kashmir Pashmina to Kerala’s AranmulaKannadi, Mizo Chilli to Makrana Marble of Rajasthan, there are hundreds ofunique products registered in India holding the Geographical Indication (GI)tag. Not only are these products are the origin’s claim to fame, they alsoattract consumers from different parts of the globe because of theirdistinctive features. In an earlier story, we explained what GIsare, their significance and the relevant rules in India. This story attempts toanalyse the different GIs registered in India across various regions andcategories.
A total of 361 products have been registered in India’s GI Registry
The Geographical Indications Registry has a total of 361 GIs registered in India as of September 2019. Theregistration of GIs began in the financial year 2004-05 after the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act, 1999 came into effect fromSeptember 2003. The first applicant for the status was West Bengal for DarjeelingTea. Darjeeling Tea has received the GI status for both the product name aswell as the logo. The latest additions to the list are Srivilliputtur Palkovawhich is a sweet made of milk from Tamil Nadu and Kaji Nemu, a variant of lemonfrom Assam. As of 10 May 2019, the GI Registry had received a total of 646 applications since thebeginning.
Maximum number of GIs were registered in the year 2008-09
The data on registration of GIs in India is maintained for each financial year. In the first financial year 2004-05, when the registrations began, only Darjeeling Tea, Aranmula mirror and Pochampalli Ikkat were registered. The greatest number of entries to the registry was witnessed in 2008-09 with 45 products securing the GI tag. Between April 2016 and March 2017, 33 products have received the GI tag. In the year 2019-20, as of September 2019, 18 products have been registered under GI. The following chart shows the number of products that received the GI tag in India every year.
Products from foreign countries have also been registered in India
There are 15 products in the register, outof the total 361, whose origin is another country. These products areregistered in India to ensure recognition and protection of their rights. Theseproducts are mainly wines and spirits. A total of 9 countries- UK, USA,Ireland, France, Italy, Mexico, Thailand, Peru and Portugal have registeredproducts in India. The number of GIs from each of these countries and the listof products is given in the table below.
Karnataka with 45, has the largest number of GI tags in India
GIs from just a single state have beenregistered from almost all the states in India except Haryana, Jharkhand andPunjab. If the origin of a GI is from multiple states, these have been recordedas India for the purpose of this analysis. There are 11 products which havebeen marked as India. A few examples are Monsooned Malabar Arabica Coffee andMonsooned Malabar Robusta Coffee from Kerala and Karnataka, Warli Paintingalong the Western states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Dadra and Nager Haveli andDaman & Diu and Phulkari handicraft from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
Karnataka has the largest number of registeredGI tags. 42 products have been registered from Karnataka in addition to 4products registered from multiple states where Karnataka is one of the states. FollowingKarnataka is Tamil Nadu with 35 products and Maharashtra with 30 products.While Haryana and Punjab have products registered along with other states,Jharkhand has no GIs registered under its name either singly or with otherstates. The chart below shows the number of GIs from each state and unionterritories in India as of September 2019.
209 GIs registered in India are handicrafts followed by 109 agricultural
products
GI registry has classified the productsinto four categories- agricultural, manufactured, handicraft, natural and foodstuff. The category wise analysis of the registered GIs shows that 209 of themare handicrafts and 109 are agricultural products. These two categories alongamount to 58% and 30% of all the GIs registered respectively in India tilldate.  The remaining 12% constitutes 24manufactured products, 17 food stuff and 2 natural products. The two naturalproducts are Makrana Marble of Rajasthan and Chunar Balua Patthar from UttarPradesh.
The Common GI logo
The Department for Promotion of Industryand Internal Trade under Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in June 2019released a notification stating the guidelines of the common GI logo and tagline on all GIsof India. The logo consists of a ‘G’ and ‘I’ bearing the three colours of theIndian flag. The tagline in English is ‘Invaluable Treasures of IncredibleIndia’ along with the same in Hindi.
The usage of this logo helps consumersacross the globe to identify the authentic GI products of India. It also helpsin promotion and marketing of Indian products. Foreign GI products are notpermitted to use this logo.