Here is to the Farmers/Producers/Traders of GI Products..!
The definition of producers in the geographical indications Act is wide enough to include the above-mentioned categories of applicants.
However, going by the statistical data there are very few authorized user applications in India. Why is this so? Various factors contribute to that e.g. Lack of awareness, expectation that such things are head ache of government blah blah...
All I have to say is 'there are no free lunches' and there should not be any. Reason being we get used to easy money and don't dare to venture into new potential things. We human beings are equally responsible for the droughts and famines. But all we do is blame the nature which we are incessantly exploiting without realising the consequences. Government is habituated to pay the drought hit farmers and majority of the farmers are doing nothing to alleviate the circumstances. Every single year we face the same situation and burden on Government is increasing severe fold.
By writing this post, I don't want to blame any farmer but whatever narrated is the hard truth. While we can ease the situation with simple efforts such rain water harvesting, avoiding rampant usage of water, increasing the green cover, drip irrigation among others, but what we choose is to sit back and do nothing about it. With this mindset, I don't think we will be able to survive longer.
Desole! Deviated a bit from the topic of the blog post..But the discussion was not irrelevant since Agricultural GI products also need water and other regular farming methods. I feel excited to inform that Maharashtra is placed on top in India in the Agriculture GI and my organization has the lion's share in doing that.
The question comes.. What Next..?
The answer is simple. We take care of the products nurtured, cultured for centuries like our family and do anything possible to take them across the ocean to reach out the communities deprived of this golden heritage of India.
However, past one year we have been striving to get farmers' attention to this GI Reality. At some places, we succeeded and other places still lagging behind. The task is huge multiple times of a mammoth size but we are slowly leading towards revolution.
All we have been asking farmers to come forward and identify themselves as cultivators of genuine GI products so that they can be registered as Authorised Users with GI Registry and we can enter the European market by way of PGI.
We must realise that there is no time and room of evolution here.. we must forge the revolution out of this and that will only fetch the premium price to the product.
Meanwhile, I am glad to announce that my organization and my boss Prof. Ganesh S. Hingmire have won the National IP Award for the year 2016 in the category "National IP Award for Best Facilitation of Registration of GI and Promotion of Registered GI in the country". The award will be given away on 26th April, 2016 by Hon'ble Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Govt. of India, at a function jointly organised by Indian Intellectual Property Office and Confederation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (CII) at Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi.
The responsibility has doubled with this recognition. We will keep striving until we realise the dream Prof. Hingmire has been incessantly working for...
~ until next time ~
All I have to say is 'there are no free lunches' and there should not be any. Reason being we get used to easy money and don't dare to venture into new potential things. We human beings are equally responsible for the droughts and famines. But all we do is blame the nature which we are incessantly exploiting without realising the consequences. Government is habituated to pay the drought hit farmers and majority of the farmers are doing nothing to alleviate the circumstances. Every single year we face the same situation and burden on Government is increasing severe fold.
By writing this post, I don't want to blame any farmer but whatever narrated is the hard truth. While we can ease the situation with simple efforts such rain water harvesting, avoiding rampant usage of water, increasing the green cover, drip irrigation among others, but what we choose is to sit back and do nothing about it. With this mindset, I don't think we will be able to survive longer.
Desole! Deviated a bit from the topic of the blog post..But the discussion was not irrelevant since Agricultural GI products also need water and other regular farming methods. I feel excited to inform that Maharashtra is placed on top in India in the Agriculture GI and my organization has the lion's share in doing that.
The question comes.. What Next..?
The answer is simple. We take care of the products nurtured, cultured for centuries like our family and do anything possible to take them across the ocean to reach out the communities deprived of this golden heritage of India.
However, past one year we have been striving to get farmers' attention to this GI Reality. At some places, we succeeded and other places still lagging behind. The task is huge multiple times of a mammoth size but we are slowly leading towards revolution.
All we have been asking farmers to come forward and identify themselves as cultivators of genuine GI products so that they can be registered as Authorised Users with GI Registry and we can enter the European market by way of PGI.
We must realise that there is no time and room of evolution here.. we must forge the revolution out of this and that will only fetch the premium price to the product.
Meanwhile, I am glad to announce that my organization and my boss Prof. Ganesh S. Hingmire have won the National IP Award for the year 2016 in the category "National IP Award for Best Facilitation of Registration of GI and Promotion of Registered GI in the country". The award will be given away on 26th April, 2016 by Hon'ble Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Govt. of India, at a function jointly organised by Indian Intellectual Property Office and Confederation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (CII) at Hotel Le Meridien, New Delhi.
The responsibility has doubled with this recognition. We will keep striving until we realise the dream Prof. Hingmire has been incessantly working for...
~ until next time ~
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