Efforts of city-based law students make the prized Pune headgear the latest traditional product to acquire the Geographical Indication tag
Efforts of city-based law students make the prized Pune headgear the latest traditional product to acquire the Geographical Indication tag
After the Tirupati laddus and Banarasi saris, it is now the turn of the Puneri Pagadi to get the Geographical Indication (GI) status from the government. And this has been made possible only due to the untiring research and efforts of some Pune-based law students.
The move to acquire the GI tag for the famous headgear, which is considered Pune's pride, was initiated by the city's Shree Puneri Pagadi Sangh. After the grant of GI, no turban made outside Pune region can be legally sold under the name of Puneri Pagadi. This will benefit local artisans.
Ganesh Hingmire of the Great Mission Group Consultancy (GMGC) told MiD DAY, "We got the GI tag last week.
The credit for this should mainly go to the law students who were studying Intellectual Property Rights with us."
GMGC is working in the field of intellectual property and had helped the Sangh file the GI application.
The sangh had sought GI status for Puneri Pagadi under Class 25, which deals with clothing, footwear and headgear products.
The application claimed that Mahadev Govind Ranade introduced the pagadi nearly two centuries ago. Since then, it has been worn by great leaders and famous personalities like Lokmanya Tilak, J S Karandikar, D D Sathye, Tatyasaheb Kelkar and Dato Waman Pottdar.
16 other goods
Added Hingmire, "We have sought the GI tag for 16 other things from Maharashta. Besides these there are 30 products from Madhya Pradesh and seven from Uttaranchal for which we are seeking the tag." He, however, refused to disclose what the things were, saying it could hamper their endeavour.
The GI tag aims at promoting the economic prosperity of producers of goods in a geographical area. Usually, the tag is granted to goods that essentially originate and are produced in a defined geographical locality and region. Geographical indications are covered as part of intellectual property rights.
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