By Porter Lang
A GI tag is a label with a legal job. Knowing the job helps.
Wikipedia says India passed the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act in 1999 and brought it into operation on 15 September 2003, following its WTO obligations. It quotes the TRIPS definition: indications that identify a good as originating in a territory, or a region or locality in it, where a given quality, reputation or other characteristic is essentially attributable to its geographic origin. It says the tag restricts use of the name to authorised registered users or those within the designated territory. It says India had registered 822 geographical indications as of 2026, across agricultural products, handicrafts, manufactured goods, food, natural goods and textiles. We have not checked that count against the registry.
The first one
Wikipedia says Darjeeling tea received the first GI recognition from the Government of India, in 2004 to 2005. That year range is how the article on GIs gives it. Other articles say 2004 or 2005, so we are using the range.
The Tea Board of India’s page on Darjeeling tea describes what the protection means in practice. It says the Board administers tea production in Darjeeling under the Tea Act of 1953, that authentic tea must be cultivated, grown or produced in one of 87 listed gardens and processed in facilities within the defined area, and that only 100 percent Darjeeling tea may carry the official logo. It tells consumers to verify the certification and licence number. Wikipedia’s article on Darjeeling tea says the tea has been subject to undisclosed blending with other teas or deliberate mislabelling, which prompted licensing requirements and certificates of origin in 2000, and that the Tea Board’s logo, created in 1983, shows the profile of a woman holding two leaves and a bud. It also says the EU gave protected status in 2011.
So the tag here is backed by a body that licenses the use of a logo. That is a particular kind of arrangement, and we should not assume that every GI has one.
A textile
Wikipedia says Banarasi products secured GI rights in 2009, and that the tag legally restricts authentic Banarasi sari production to six specified districts of Uttar Pradesh. We come back to the district count below. A second article says weavers’ associations and cooperatives secured the GI, for the registered name Banaras Brocades and Sarees. The same article says the weaver population fell from 300,000 to about 40,000 as of 2015. A GI can say where a thing was made. On the sources we found, it does not say how many people still make it, or whether they are paid well. Those are separate questions.
A closer look at Banaras
The GI profile for Banaras Brocades and Sarees, published on an information site, says the protected region covers four districts of Uttar Pradesh, which differs from the six named by Wikipedia. It lists four product classes: silk brocades, textile goods such as bed and table covers, silk saris in styles including jamdani, tanchoi, tissue and cutwork, and silk embroidery saris. It describes the distinguishing features as heavy gold work, compact weaving, small figure details and a metallic visual effect, and it describes designs drawn by hand and punched onto cards for jacquard machines. That detail is worth noting: the profile counts a jacquard process as part of the tradition. We have not seen the registry’s own text.
A shoe
Wikipedia says Kolhapuri chappals received a GI tag in July 2019 covering eight districts in two states. In 2025 Prada showed sandals resembling them in Milan and, per Onmanorama, later acknowledged that they were inspired by traditional Indian handcrafted footwear. A GI protects a name and a place. A design that looks similar but does not use the name is a different problem, and we are not offering a legal view on it.
Three tags, three situations
Here is a plain way to compare. For Darjeeling tea, there is a named regulator, a logo and a licence number you can check. For Banarasi saris, there is a registered name and either six districts or four, depending on the source, and a craft whose workforce has reportedly shrunk. For Kolhapuri chappals, there is a registered name and eight districts, and a public argument about who gets credit. The same word, GI, covers all three. It does not tell you the same thing in each case.
When a tag gets a second layer
Business Standard reports that a state leather corporation introduced QR-coded certification for Kolhapuri chappals in July 2025, to combat counterfeiting and verify artisan identity, and that a scan shows the craftsperson, location, techniques and materials. That is an extra layer on top of the tag, and it answers some of the questions a tag alone cannot. We have not seen the system in use.
What a tag cannot tell you
It cannot tell you who made the item. It cannot tell you whether a particular pair of hands, in a particular workshop, did the work. It cannot tell you whether the maker was paid well. It cannot tell you whether the item you are holding is old or new, handmade or machine-made, unless the rules for that product say so. We have not seen the full rules for each of these tags and are not describing them.
What we do with it
At Sephari we read a GI as a starting point. If something is sold with the tag, we would ask for the registration, the district and the maker’s own account. We would ask whether a licence number or certificate is available. We would also want to know what the seller means by the name. We have not profiled any producer for this piece, and we will not name one we cannot source.
If you are travelling in a region with a GI product, ask the person selling it where it was made and by whom. If they can answer in two sentences, that is a good sign. It is not proof, and a tag is not either.
Roam first. Shop later.
Indian makers with GI-registered products can find out what’s involved at /sell-with-sephari/