Geographical Indication

Also called: GI tag · Topic: Major Crops of India: Distribution and Conditions · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

A Geographical Indication (GI) is a legal label for goods whose quality, reputation or special character comes from a particular place. That place may give the product a certain soil, climate or traditional skill. It matters because only registered producers from that area can use the name. This stops copies and helps them get a higher price.

Explanation

How a GI works (cause → process → result)

• Cause: the place makes the product special.
• The special feature may come from the land, such as the soil or climate. Kashmir saffron grows on karewa soils.

• It may come from local skill passed down over generations.

• Process: the product name is registered.

• Producers apply to the GI Registry in Chennai.

• The Registry works under the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks, which is part of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

• Result: the name is legally protected.

• Only registered producers from that area can sell goods under the name.
• Copies are blocked, the product stands out in the market, and it can fetch a higher price.

The law behind it

• Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. It came into force in 2003.
• Why India made the law: to meet its duty under the WTO's TRIPS Agreement. TRIPS is the WTO's agreement on intellectual property rights, meaning legal rights over ideas, names and creations.
• How long it lasts: a GI is valid for 10 years. It can be renewed again and again with no limit.
• First GI in India: Darjeeling tea (2004-05).

What can get a GI

• Agricultural goods, such as tea, rice, fruit, spices, coffee and makhana. This page is about these.
• A GI protects the name of a product tied to a place. It does not belong to one company. Every producer in the area who registers can use it.
• What a GI needs to succeed:
• Enforcement: fake products must actually be stopped.
• Marketing: buyers must know about the label.
• Protection of the land that produces it: if the soil, water or farmland is lost, the product is lost too.

Where it occurs

Agricultural GI	Where it comes from	Why the place matters
Darjeeling tea	West Bengal. India's first GI (2004-05).	Grown on hill slopes
Basmati rice	Indo-Gangetic plain at the foot of the Himalaya: Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Uttarakhand, western Uttar Pradesh, parts of J&K	Fertile alluvial plain at the foot of the mountains
Kashmir saffron	Pampore, Pulwama district, J&K, at about 34°N. GI in 2020.	Karewa soils (flat-topped table-lands made of old lake-bed clay, silt and sand) drain well, and the cold, dry autumn suits the crocus
Nagpur orange	Maharashtra	Deccan black-soil plateau
Alphonso mango	Konkan coast, Maharashtra (Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg)	Tropical coast
Coorg orange	Kodagu, Karnataka	Hill slopes of the Western Ghats
Naga mircha (a very hot chilli)	Nagaland	North-East hills
Araku coffee	Araku Valley, Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh	Hill valley of the Eastern Ghats
Mithila makhana	North Bihar. GI in 2022.	Many old ponds and chaurs (low-lying wetlands) on the flood plains of the Kosi

• Mithila makhana in more detail:
• Bihar grows about 90% of India's makhana [2].
• The main districts are in the Kosi basin: Supaul, Saharsa and Madhepura. Nearby Mithila and Seemanchal (the Purnea–Katihar belt) also grow it [2].

• The GI legally protects the name and makes the product stand out in the market [2].

• Who runs the system: the GI Registry in Chennai, under DPIIT, using the 1999 Act. The Act has been in force across India since 2003.

• World link: the law comes from the WTO's TRIPS Agreement, which asks member countries to protect geographical indications.

Don't confuse with

• Trademark: a trademark belongs to one company or person and can be used anywhere. A GI belongs to all registered producers of one place, and the name is tied to that place.
• GIAHS (Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System): FAO gives this honour to a whole farming system for its traditional knowledge, biodiversity and landscape. It is not a legal right over a product name. Kashmir saffron has both: GIAHS in 2011 [1] and GI in 2020.
• Cluster development programme: this is a government plan to develop a crop in the belt where it grows best, for example Nashik grapes. It adds nurseries, cold storage, processing and export links. A GI gives no such help. It only gives legal protection to the name.
• Commodity boards (Spices Board, National Makhana Board): these bodies promote production and exports. A GI is a registered legal label under the 1999 Act, not an organisation.

Prelims Hooks

• GI law: Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. It came into force in 2003. It was passed to meet India's duty under WTO TRIPS.
• GI Registry: Chennai, under the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (DPIIT). It is not under the Ministry of Agriculture.
• A GI is valid for 10 years and can be renewed again and again.
• First GI in India: Darjeeling tea (2004-05).
• Match the pairs: Kashmir saffron – Pampore (karewa), GI 2020; Mithila makhana – north Bihar, GI 2022; Alphonso – Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg; Coorg orange – Kodagu; Araku coffee – Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh.
• Trap: Kashmir saffron is both a GI (2020) and part of an FAO GIAHS (2011) [1]. Do not mix up the two years or the two kinds of recognition.

Mains Points

• GI as place-based development (GS-I and GS-III): a GI turns local geography into a higher price for farmers. Examples are karewa soils for saffron, Kosi wetlands for makhana and hill slopes for Darjeeling tea. But a GI fails without enforcement, marketing and protection of the land that produces it.
• A GI cannot save a crop on its own. Kashmir saffron shows this:
• Long dry spells in autumn leave the corms (bulb-like stems) without enough moisture, so fewer flowers bloom.
• Houses and roads built on the karewas leave less land for saffron.

• Output has fallen sharply even after the GI. The National Saffron Mission (2010) responded by paying for sprinkler irrigation, tube wells and better corms.

• A GI works better with support. Mithila makhana shows this:

• The GI (2022) was followed by the National Makhana Board, launched in Purnea on 15 September 2025 [2][3].
• At the Board's first meeting, a ₹476-crore Central Sector Scheme was rolled out for the makhana sector [4].
• This turned wetland farming in flood-prone north Bihar into a source of income.

Related concepts

• Horticulture
• Spice-producing regions
• Kashmir saffron
• Makhana

Read more

• Horticulture, spices and geographical indications