GI tags cross 600-mark in India; UP leads with 69 followed by TN

There has been a spurt in registration of geographical indications (GIs) in the country, as the total number recently crossed the 600-mark with as many as 60 GI registrations being issued by the Intellectual Property Office on a single day – March 30, 2024.

Of the 1,158 GI tag applications filed over the past 20 years, 635 are now registered. The IP office granted 160 GI tags, a three-fold jump in registration as compared to FY23, said Unnat P Pandit, controller general of patents, designs and trademarks, while talking to The Times of India.

“Of the GIs registered in the financial year 2024, the handicrafts category accounts for the highest at 30 followed by agriculture at 16, 11 in textiles and three each for food stuff and manufactured category,” he said in a social media post. Of these 157 were India’s GI applications and the remaining three were foreign applications.

A GI is a distinctive sign used to identify a product whose quality, reputation and or other such characteristics relate to its geographical origin. As far as the IP office’s March 30 milestone of issuing 63 GIs is concerned, Assam registered the highest number of GIs during FY24 at 19 followed by UP and Maharashtra with 16 each, Gujarat with five, Meghalaya with four, and Tripura with two, he said.

With this Uttar Pradesh has now overtaken Tamil Nadu as the state with highest number of GIs registered at 69, while TN now has 58 GIs. Telangana now has 17 GI tagged products with famed Hyderabad Lac bangles getting their GI certification.

Telangana has another product under process for the GI tag --- Warangal chapata chilli – and has also identified four horticulture products – Balanagar custard apple, Nalgonda oriental pickling melon, Nizamabad turmeric and Kollapur mangoes from Nagarkurnool district of the state.