5 Madhya Pradesh handicraft products receive GI tag

Bhopal: Five Madhya Pradesh handicraft products have received Geographical Indication (GI) tag, the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoC&I) recently announced. These are Gond (tribal) paintings of Dindori, carpets of Gwalior, Batik print of Ujjain, Jabalpur’s Bhedaghat stone craft and Balaghat’sWaraseoni saris.

Besides, Sundarja mangoes of Rewa district and gazak (a kind of sweet) of Morena have also been extended the GI tag by the MoC&I.

MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan extended congratulations to the people of the Chambal and Vindhya regions on getting GI tags for the gazak and Sundarja mangoes. “Both the regions have been going forward on the way of the progress. The taste of Morena’s gazak is being exported in the world, breaking the international boundaries and the sweetness of Rewa’sSundarja mangoes is amazing, now, a new identity will be got to both the products at the international level”, Chouhan said.

GI tag, a sign used on products with a specific geographical origin and possess qualities due to that origin, is a type of label in which a product is given a special identity globally.

This is the first time that so many products of handicrafts of the state have received the GI tag simultaneously. Additionally, the number of GI-tagged products has increased to 19 in the state.

“With the GI tagging, the state’s traditional products will get an international identity and it will also promote the culture of the state across the world”, MP Minister for Cottage and Rural Industries Gopal Bhargava, who also holds PWD portfolio, said.

With receiving the GI tag, the state’s handicraft products have created a new history.

“This success has been achieved in coordination with the cottage and village industries department of the state and local producer organisations with the cooperation of NABARD (national bank for agriculture and rural development) and Textile Committee of Union Ministry of Textiles,” Anubha Shrivastava, Managing Director of MP Khadi Village Industries Board and CEO of Sant Ravidas Handicrafts Development Corporation (SRHDC), said.

For getting the GI tag to the state’s traditional handloom products, a tripartite MoU (memorandum of undertaking) was signed

among the Textile Committee, SRHDC and NABARD, during the Global Investors Summit held in Indore in January this year.

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal congratulated the state on receiving the GI tag after scrutiny and a select committee.