A special rice variety of West Bengal named as Gobindobhog rice has got the status geographical indication (GI) by The Geographical Indications Registry (GIR). This variety of rice is specially grown in Burdwan District of West Bengal. It was back in August 2015 when the state government had applied for geographical indication (GI) status for this rice variety and got it after a long period of two years.
Benefits of the geographical indication (GI) status:
The benefit of getting this status is that now no other region or state of the country can give their rice the brand name as ‘Gobindobhog’. It will also help this rice variety to be identified as a special brand in local, national and international markets.
Burdwan is also known as rice bowl of West Bengal. It is mainly grown in the east Burdwan district in the southern basin of the Damodar river in the Raina 1, Raina 2 and Khandaghosh blocks.
About Geographical Indication (GI):-
It is the kind of badge on a product to identify it based on a particular Geographical origin. It makes it sure that only the registered authorised user can use the name of the product.
The registration of GI in India is applied under Geographical Indications of goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. This act was started in or came into force September 2003. The first product to get the GI status was Darjeeling Tea.
Geographical Indications Registry (GIR) head office is in Chennai.
