Discuss About The Recent Steps Taken By Government To Promote the Marketability of GI Tagged Goods in India. (150 Words / 10 M) (GS-1 Culture & Heritage)

Approach:

1. Introduction – current state of India’s GI tagged products.
2. Pointwise mention the steps taken by government to induce GI goods marketability.

India enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 to give protection for GI through unique legislation. To facilitate this process, the Geographical Indications Registry of India was set up in Chennai.

Till now, 370 products have been registered as GIs by the GI Registry of India. The list comprises handicraft (214), agricultural (112), foodstuff (16), foreign foodstuff, and manufactured (14), Indian manufactured (12), and natural goods (2). Among the states, Karnataka has the highest number of GI tags with 47 products, followed by Tamil Nadu (39).

Steps taken by Government:

• Grape Net: It is a first of its kind initiative by the Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce, the Government of India. It is an internet-based Residue traceability software system, for monitoring fresh grapes exported from India to the European Union.
• Besides grapes, traceability initiatives have also been completed for Horti Net, Net, Basmati.Net, Meat.Net, etc., by APEDA.
• Trace Net: It works under the APEDA. The platform collects, stores, and reports forward and backward traces, as well as maintains authentic information and related data by the operators/producer groups and certification bodies within the organic supply chain in India.
• New Logo and New tagline: To popularise India’s GI-tagged products and works of artisans in international markets, the government has announced a new logo for the GI products, a new tagline ‘Invaluable Treasure of Incredible India’ has been selected.
• GI Stores: India’s very first Geographical Indications (GI) Store of Cashew Export Promotion Council of India (CEPCI) was launched in 2019, at the departure terminal of Goa. With that success, the government is planning to open GI stores in other airports as well.
• Government e-Marketplace (GeM) Start-up Runway: It is an initiative of GeM to provide access to the public procurement market and sell innovative products and services to government buyers.
• Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) 2021-2026: It recognised GI-tagged Agri commodities as one of the growth drivers in the draft export policy, which will help to gain a competitive advantage in buyer-driven global markets.
• The new FTP also includes promoting ‘District Export Hubs‘ in each district and setting up district export promotion panels and preparing district export action plan to target small businesses and farmers.
• India adopted Toys (Quality Control) Second Amendment Order, 2020. This exempts goods manufactured and sold by artisans and those registered as Geographical Indication (GI) from Quality Control Orders.