Kamal Ghorui
HYDERABAD: The Centre’s push to ensure 10,000 geographical indication (GI)-tagged products by 2030 seems to have moved into a higher gear, with the total number of GI applications finally crossing the 2,000 mark to reach 2,013 as on April 2, 2026.While Kashmir Kagzi Badam was the 2,000th application to be filed on April 2 this year, Sikkim’s Chyabrung was the 2,013th application to be filed on the same day. Since April 1, 2025, when Khavda pottery of Kutch became the 1,482nd application to be filed, the highest number of GI applications, at 510, have been filed in FY25-26 alone, the highest in a single fiscal since the first GI for Darjeeling tea was filed in Oct 2003.In fact, if the past two fiscal years saw over 780 GI applications being filed, just the past three days saw 21 GI applications being filed. Till date, as many as 724 GI-tagged products have been registered across the country. GI experts attributed the acceleration in application filing to the govt push that involved slashing the fees from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1,000 last year.
