India Cuts the Cost of Registering a GI Tag by 80%

A cheaper filing process is meant to pull thousands of lesser known crafts into a system that has mostly rewarded the already famous.

A wooden toy from Channapatna, a small town in Karnataka, carries a seal most shoppers never notice. Since 2006, only toys made there, using the town's traditional lacquer technique, are allowed to call themselves Channapatna toys. That seal is a GI tag, and as of this month, getting one just got a lot cheaper.

What Changed

The government has cut the fee for filing a new GI application by 80%, and dropped the renewal fee from Rs 3,000 to just Rs 500, according to an official factsheet released this month. 

The change comes through a 2025 amendment, and officials have set a target of 10,000 registered GIs across India by 2030, more than ten times what exists today.

India currently has around 800 registered GI products, and 607 of those have come through since 2014. The fee cut is aimed squarely at the cost barrier that has kept smaller cooperatives and lesser known crafts out of the system, producers who often have a strong local reputation but never had the resources to file for national recognition. 

The factsheet describes India's GI ecosystem as expanding steadily over the years, helped along by a stronger legal framework and growing public awareness of what the tag actually protects.

Registration Is Not the Same as Use

But registering a GI is only the first step. A product also needs authorised users, the actual artisans and producers legally allowed to use the name once it is registered. That number has grown from 365 in 2015 to over 29,000 by January 2025, which is the real sign that more artisans are putting the tag to use, rather than simply that more tags exist on paper.

The Money Behind a Tag

According to the Ministry of Textiles, a GI tag can raise a rural artisan's income by 20 to 30%, since it gives buyers a reason to trust a product's origin and pay accordingly. 

Beyond the income effect, officials say GI protection also helps preserve traditional knowledge, prevent misuse of a craft's name, and build consumer trust, all of which help artisans, weavers and farmer groups gain better market recognition and reach premium buyers they otherwise could not.

The government is also linking GI names into trade agreements, so a recognised product gets easier access to markets abroad, not only recognition at home. Support does not stop there either. Officials point to financial assistance, export help and dedicated marketing spaces, including outlets at railway stations and airports, as part of a wider push to turn GI tags into something artisans can actually build a livelihood around.

Where the Next 10,000 Might Come From

The push is already visible in smaller, less commercially prominent regions. 

In June, four products from Jharkhand, Bhagaiya silk, Kuchai silk, Munda jewellery and a bamboo craft tradition, received GI status with filing and documentation support from NABARD. It is the kind of pattern officials are hoping to repeat: tribal and regional clusters that were previously unregistered, now being formally brought into a system that was, until recently, dominated by a handful of well known names.

Key Takeaways

1. Cheaper fees make it easier for small, lesser known crafts to get registered.
2. Registration alone does not help an artisan. Being an authorised user does.
3. Hitting 10,000 tags depends on smaller, regional crafts coming forward, not the famous ones.