Protecting India's IP

When we say “Intellectual Property” or IP, we usually associate it with medicines. But really speaking, medicines are only one part of the entire gamut of IP. In fact in our day-to-day life, we encounter and use IP in various forms – the ‘Kolhapuri’ chappals we wear, the ‘Kanchipuram’ saree which mother draped, or the ‘Darjeeling’ tea which you sip everyday,  the ‘Mysore sandal soap’ you use for bathing, the ‘madhubani’ and ‘Thnajvur’ painting which adorn the walls of your home, the ‘Dharwad pedha’ which you so relish, the ‘Nasik graoes’, the ‘Nagpur Orange’, the ‘Bikaner bhujia’….the list is endless.

Each and every product mentioned above and some 200 products more have got the Geographical Indications or GI and this is a genre of IP which indicates India’s strength. Almost every region in India has a unique product – agriculture, food, handicraft, manufactured. And this is an IP – after all it is a form of creativity.  Each and every of these product needs to be protected. Merely granting a GI status is not enough.

Take the case of various handicrafts –  be it Banaras silk or weavers of Kancheepuram silk. Though these products have a GI status, looms are growing quieter by the day as weavers are abandoning the art for earning a livelihood to merely get food on the table. What is the point of granting this status when those in the art are not protected? If all of our art and handicraft is sacrificed at the altar of producing standardized goods, what is the tradition and rich heritage that we are talking about today? Maybe if USA starts recognizing these arts, like the way it did yoga, these GIs will become ageless, timeless.