Ee Mannu Chinna: A Karnataka Cornucopia
After the first Indian GI tag was awarded to Darjeeling Tea in 2004, Mysore Silk became, in 2005, the first product from Karnataka to get a tag
Four days to go before the curtains come down on Karnataka’s birthday month, which offers the perfect opportunity to celebrate the state once again. But today, November 26, is also Samvidhan Divas, or Constitution Day, the day when, 125 years ago, India adopted her brilliantly crafted, almost flawless Constitution.
Almost flawless, because the Indian Constitution, while it grants legal protection where material property is concerned, is silent on intellectual property (IP), which includes ‘inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names and images used in commerce.’ In the 21st century, with ‘creations of the mind’ becoming the currency of power, the campaign for making IP Rights a Fundamental Right in the Constitution has been dialled up. Alongside, Indian IP law is also coming of age.
The trigger for the acceleration of Indian IP lawmaking was the Trade-Related Aspects of IP Rights (TRIPS) Agreement, the most comprehensive multilateral agreement on IP rights to date, which came into effect on Jan 1, 1995 under the World Trade Organisation (WTO). As a member of the WTO, India quickly aligned its laws to meet TRIPS’s standards. In 1996, India challenged a patent that had been granted to the University of Mississippi Medical Centre for the use of turmeric to treat wounds. Declaring that turmeric was a centuries-old traditional Indian remedy (patents are only awarded to new discoveries), India won a landmark case, the very first instance of a developing country overturning a US patent for a traditional remedy.
Apart from patent rights, TRIPS requires WTO members to provide and enforce copyright rights, trademarks, trade names, and other IP rights, including – here it comes – geographical indications (GI). Scarred by the patent on turmeric and a 1997 US patent on basmati rice (which was also challenged and significantly altered in India’s favour), India enacted the Geographical Indication of Goods Act, which came into effect in September 2003, and began GI-tagging furiously. When a product, agricultural or otherwise, is ‘GI tagged,’ none but the producers of that good, from that geographical region, is allowed to use that name to brand or sell their product. The tag also protects the consumer, assuring her of the good’s authenticity.
Right. What does all of this have to do with Karnataka’s birthday? Well, until 2021, Karnataka had the largest number of GI tagged products of any state in India! After the first Indian GI tag was awarded to Darjeeling Tea in 2004, Mysore Silk became, in 2005, the first product from Karnataka to get a tag. Today, of a total of 643 GI tags awarded, Karnataka has 48, making it third on the list behind UP and Tamil Nadu. The Mysuru region alone has over a dozen GI tagged products, including, apart from Mysore silk, Mysore betel leaf, Mysore sandalwood oil, Mysore sandal soap, Mysore jasmine, and Nanjangud bananas. Karnataka’s other GI tagged products include Coorg oranges, the 14th century metal handicraft from Bidar, Bidriware, rangoli-inspired Kasuti embroidery, hand-woven Navalgund durries featuring bird and animal designs, Dharwad peda, Sirsi supari, Gulbarga toor dal, Molakalmuru sarees (‘Karnataka Kanchipuram’) from the Chitradurga region, Udupi mattu gulla brinjals, byadgi chilli from Haveri, and dozens more.
Does any Bangalore product feature among this bounty? Yes – two! Bangalore Rose Onion, the flat-based, spherical, pungent, deep pink gulabi eerulli (GI tagged 2015), cultivated in the districts of Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Chikkaballapur and Kolar; and Bangalore Blue, a variety of eminently juice-able soft-skinned grape (GI tagged 2013) cultivated in the same districts. The next time you order grape juice at your local juice shop, know that you are very likely downing a draught of Bangalore Blue!
