Chennai
Two more Tamil Nadu traditions have been awarded the Geographical Indication (GI) tags last week – the handcrafted Dindigul lock, with its 200-year-old method of manufacturing, and the colourful checked cotton Kandangi sarees of Chettinadu.
Mention of the Dindigul locks has been traced to 19th century British Gazettes. Says craftsman Murugesan (49), who took to lock making as a career in his father’s workshop at the age of 10 and is still in the same trade. In the1980s, there were around 200 people making this unique lock; today there are less than 20. Locks are made in steel, brass and copper and are available from Rs 400-Rs 2,000 range. Demand comes from prisons, godowns and colleges. He says the lock is unique because it cannot be opened with a duplicate key. He expects that the GI will improve sales and bring back the people who left the trade.
Tamil Nadu has 33 GI tags. Puducherry, which is culturally an extension of Tamil Nadu, has two products, taking the total count to 35, a testimony to the unique culture, tradition, craftsmanship and geographic peculiarity of the region.
GIs have been awarded for a variety of Indian products such as Darjeeling tea, Basmati rice, Kashmiri pashmina shawl, Kancheepuram silk sarees, Kangra tea, Goan feni, Alphonso mango, Alleppey green cardamom, Coorg cardamom, Kolhapuri chappal and Rasgulla. India has 359 GI approved products, of which 14 are from countries like Italy, France, Portugal, Mexico, the UK and USA (see graphics for full list).
For GI approval, products are divided into five types -- agricultural, handicrafts, natural, manufactured and food stuff. In India, most products fall under the handicrafts and agricultural categories.
If all the applications are in order and the product meets all criteria, it takes six months to get approval. Chinnaraja G Naidu, Deputy Registrar, Geographical Indication Registry, says there are around 100 products in the pipeline for GI approval, 20 of them from TN.
There are hundreds of banana varieties in India from every State, each unique due to the climatic conditions, soil quality or aromatic value or medicinal property. Nanhanagud banana (Andhra Pradesh), Virupakshi hill banana (Tamil Nadu), Sirumalai hill banana (Tamil Nadu), Kamalapur red banana (Karnataka), Chengalikodan Nentran banana (Kerala), Jalgoan banana (Maharashtra) are all awarded GI tag.
Thanjavur veenai, a traditional musical instrument made out of jack fruit wood is popular among musicians due to its unique sound. Since its GI approval 10 years ago, the product has seen 50 per cent more sales. Sreenivasan, a member of the Thanjavur Veenai Manufacturers’ group says that more families are now involved in veenai making and they plan to get a GI tag for another type of veenai from the same instrument family.
The Thanjavur art plate is another product which was granted a GI tag in 2013 and saw sales increase by 70 per cent after that. According to A Raja of the Art Cooperative Society of Thanjavur, fake art plates from Andhra Pradesh, which had become popular were sued by the cooperative society. About 70 people are creating this unique art plate. It is three-metal product made out of bronze, copper and silver. In most cases, silver images are placed on copper plate. He says the images are “not pasting but fitting.”
The European Union, especially France, Italy, and the UK are pioneers in GI and have tagged scores of globally popular products and benefitted immensely from this process. GI tagged French wine and rum, are quite popular across the world and the Scotch whisky from Scotland, another popular spirit, has a multi-billion dollar market. India has Goan feni in the spirit category, but the anachronistic excise law in the State, limits the quantity of feni that can be bought, restricting its market.
Given India’s cultural mosaic and geographic peculiarities, there are hundreds of established unique traditional manufacturing techniques and methods that depend upon local know-how, materials and climatic conditions. “India has huge potential to bring in numerous products under the GI tag. Like Kashmiri pashmina, there is a traditional and unique shawl from Kullu (Himachal Pradesh) with huge marketing potential. The local societies engaged in such activities should register for GI. That will improve their economy,” says Supreme Court lawyer, Vijay Pal Dalmia.
Tirvunelveli halwa is a product with a specific process, making it a unique food product. Similarly, Kovilpatti kadalaimittai (peanut candy) and the Lonawala chikki (peanut candy) deserve the GI tag, says Naidu.
Dalmia cautions that the GI tag is not enough to ensure a place in the national or international markets. “There are certain goods that cannot be popularised beyond Indian boundaries. For products that have potential in the international markets, societies should participate in exhibitions, distribute free samples and create awareness”.
There is a problem in India. Even if a product is GI tagged, how would a buyer be able to judge how genuine it is? To address the issue, the department for promotion of Industry and Internal Trade plans to launch a common GI logo and tagline. “The logo will act as a certifying mark that can be used to identify all Indian products registered as GIs, making it convenient to recognise authentic GI products,” a July 24, 2019 government circular said.
Naidu is confident that the logo initiative will address the issue and help in marketing GI products in a bigger way.
How GI tagging can help preserve ancient art and craft, expand market globally
What does a GI tag imply? The Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, one of the most comprehensive international agreements on intellectual property rights between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization (WTO), prescribes minimum standards of protection of GI and additional protection for wines and spirits.
As a WTO member, India passed a legislation to protect its ‘unique traditional products.’ Says Supreme Court lawyer, Vijay Pal Dalmia, specialist in patents and the GI process, “A geographical indication is an indication, whether in the form of a name or sign, used on goods that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or reputation that are due to its place or origin.”
“A product eligible for GI should have the quality to distinguish it from other similar products. It could be climatic condition, soil peculiarity (for agriculture products) or unique process methodology or human factors like traditionally developed skills in a specific area that is consistently maintained,” said Naidu.
For example, Kancheepuram silk sarees, from Tamil Nadu, has been GI tagged for its unique tradition. It is woven from pure mulberry silk thread using the tri-weaving method with three shuttles. “It’s difficult to duplicate the weaving process using machines. It has been developed through years of hard work in Kancheepuram and we have been traditionally maintaining the same quality for hundreds of years” says Naidu.
Sanjay Gandhi, GI specialist lawyer, who was instrumental in getting GI tags for 18 State-based products, says, “Once the tag is procured, similar products of lower quality can be banned from the market. This will give the original tagged products, developed in the rural areas a better market, eventually increasing the overall economic growth of the area”.
GI approval is granted to produce organisations, cooperative societies or a group of skilled people; not to any single individual. The onus is on the organisation or society to maintain the prescribed quality and also bring infringements to the notice of the Registry.
TN: GI TAGGED PRODUCTS
Agricultural
Manufactured
Food stuff
Foreign products in india
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