Varanasi: Varanasi has become one of India’s most active centres for the Geographical Indication (GI) movement, with its crafts, cuisine, music traditions and farm-based products receiving legal recognition and growing national visibility.
The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, was passed by Parliament on Dec 30, 1999, and came into effect on Sept 15, 2003. India’s GI Registry is based in Chennai, and Darjeeling Tea was the first Indian product to receive a GI tag in 2004–05. According to GI expert Padma Shri Rajni Kant—widely known as the ‘GI Man of India’—Uttar Pradesh now has 83 GI-certified products, ahead of Tamil Nadu’s 76. In 2007–08, the state had only one GI product—Allahabad Surkha Guava. The eight North-Eastern states—Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim—together had only seven state-wise GI registrations between April 2004 and March 2014. From April 2014 to March 2026, that number jumped to 97—about 1,286% growth, or nearly 13.9 times. Applications from the region rose from around 26 to nearly 300 in the same period, reflecting roughly 1,054% growth.
He said Kashi has been central to this rise, evolving into one of the country’s strongest GI clusters. Kant said the North-East has witnessed a particularly sharp rise in GI recognition. The law safeguards agricultural, natural and manufactured products whose quality, reputation or identity is tied to a specific region. Kant noted that Uttar Pradesh’s progress has been striking.
Since then, coordinated efforts by artisans, farmer groups, institutions, experts, government bodies and organisations such as NABARD have helped identify, secure certification for and promote many of the state’s unique products.