Date:24/08/2007 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/08/24/stories/2007082452620100.htm

Back Now, Muga silk gets GI protection

Linked to Brahmaputra valley

Safe and sound
Several local families work on producing silk
Similar protection planned in US, Japan and Europe
ASTEC plans GI patent for Assam tea

P.T. Jyothi Datta

Mumbai, Aug. 23 After Madhubani painting, Alleppey coir, Mysore sandal soap, Coorg orange, Kancheepuram silk and Solapur terry towel, now Assam’s Muga silk has been added to the list of products granted the protection of geographical indication (GI).

The distinctive ‘golden thread’, linked to Assam’s Brahmaputra valley and tracing back to being traded through the Silk Route, has become the 38th product that has got protection from the GI Registry in Chennai.

The Patent Information Centre, under the aegis of Assam Science Technology and Environment Council (PIC, ASTEC), had applied for the registration and done the scientific fact-finding work to get GI on muga silk.

ASTEC is an autonomous body under the Assam Government’s Science and Technology (S&T) Department.

“The need to protect it was in case of future infringement on the natural fibre,” said Dr Ranjit Burman, ASTEC’s Head of the S&T Division.

Several local families work on producing the silk.

GI protection will bring in standardisation of processes, which in turn would help commercialisation and export of the product.

And greater demand for Muga silk will help in generating more employment and income locally, he explained.

ASTEC looks next to work towards getting protection for Assam tea, where the Tea Board has possibly taken some initiatives, he said.

Other products globally protected for being intrinsically linked to the local culture and region they come from include France’s champagne, Darjeeling tea and, of course, basmati rice.

GI is granted when a product is distinctively linked to a region or endemic to popular culture in that the process of making the product is community knowledge handed down traditionally.

The protection is granted under the Geographical Indication of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999.

Outlining Muga silk’s link to Assam, Ms Krishna Sarma, Managing Partner of Corporate Law Group (CLG), said that the worms that produce the silk feed on trees endemic to the Brahmaputra valley, among other things.

The GI protection is not international, she said, and they will seek similar protection in the US, Japan and Europe.