India’s MSME ministry and DPIIT have signed an agreement to expand the global and domestic visibility of GI products through digital platforms, branding efforts, and market integration, strengthening support for artisan and traditional industries.
India’s Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade have signed an agreement aimed at widening the commercial reach of the country’s geographical indication products, with a particular focus on quality standards, branding and access to markets. The memorandum was signed on August 5 at Vanijya Bhawan in New Delhi by Md. Salik Parwaiz, director in the MSME ministry, and Karan Thapar, director in DPIIT’s IPR division, in the presence of senior officials from both sides.
The deal is intended to link the One District One Product programme more closely with initiatives supporting GI goods, which are items tied to a specific place and recognised for qualities or reputation linked to that origin. According to DPIIT, its GI promotion work already includes support for intellectual property awareness among MSMEs, along with assistance for registering patents, trademarks, designs and geographical indications through broader facilitation measures.
Under the new arrangement, GI collectives and authorised users are expected to be brought on to the Open Network for Digital Commerce and the government’s GeM procurement platform under a dedicated “Bharat GI” label. The two departments also plan to work together on GI pavilions at trade fairs, buyer-seller meetings and exhibitions in India and abroad, part of a push to make products from artisans, weavers and other traditional producers more visible in domestic and overseas markets.
The memorandum also covers capacity building and digital enablement, reflecting the MSME ministry’s wider role in supporting traditional industries as well as small businesses. The ministry has in the past used such agreements to advance cooperation on skills, technology and market access, while DPIIT has separately developed digital tools such as a GI catalogue to showcase registered products and their authorised users.
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