Pattamadai mats in Tirunelveli dist, Natchiyar temple lamps in Tanjore dist to get GIS certification by February 2013

Chennai:

The mats of Pattamadai in Tirunelveli district and the famous bronze and brass lamps of Natchiyar temple in Tanjore district will get Geographical Indications (GI) certificate by February next year, according to a top state government official.

Speaking at the Post GI Initiatives for Selected Craft Indications of Tamil Nadu workshop here on Wednesday, state department of handlooms, handicrafts, textiles and khadi secretary G Santhanam said they are also expecting to get GIS certificate for Thoda tribal embroidery in Nilgiris district.

Currently, the state has five GIS in handicrafts. These include Tanjore doll, Tanjore paintings, Swamimalai Bronze icons, temple jewellery of Nagercoil and Thanjavur Art plates. It also has seven GIS in textiles, which include Kanceepuram silk sarees, Hand-woven Bhavani jamakkalams, Arani silk, Madurai Sun-gad, Coimbatore kora cotton sarees, Salem Venpattu and Salem fabrics.

It is also believed the state is taking initiatives to get GIS certificate for Mammalapuram stone carving and Thammamapattu wood carving in Salem ddistrict.

Interestingly, the workshop, which is being organized by the Development Commissioner (handicrafts) and Textiles Committee, ministry of textiles, focuses on looking beyond GIS certification, says O Nayak, secretary textiles committee, Mumbai.

He said in order to re-orient the potential benefits of GI registration, the textiles committee in collaboration with Union development commissioner (handicrafts) is implementing a project to facilitate inclusion of stakeholders in the process of GI registeration of selected crafts indications of India.

The project is being implemented after a survey was undertaken by textiles committee to re-orient the potential benefits under globalisation era. The survey felt that only registeration may not serve the purpose and there is a need to re-orient and streamline the post-GI registeration intervention for convering intellectual property rights protection into tangible benefits for stakeholders.

The project would facilitate the inclusion of stakeholders of 21 craft indications, particularly the artisans, in the process of GI registration through Part B registration as registered user under GI Act 1999.

Nayak said the workshop will address issues relating to post GI intervention of Swamimalai bronze icons, Thanjavur art plates and temple jewellery of Nagercoil. The workshop will be used as a platform for showcasing these IPR protected products and preparing the roadmap for post GI interventions so that IPR protection could be converted to tangible benefits for artisans.