The art of crafting which item in Meerut has received a GI tag?

Question

UnlockIAS · Accepted Answer

Correct — D, Scissors. The registered indication is 'Meerut Scissors', geographical indication application no. 389, granted in the 2014–15 GI year in the 'Manufactured' class for Uttar Pradesh. Meerut is traditionally known for handloom work and for its hand-forged scissors, and it is that older craft — not any of the city's larger modern industries — that carries the tag. Being precise here matters, because the other three options are not filler. Meerut genuinely is one of the two centres of sports-goods manufacturing in India, the other being Jalandhar; Sanspareils Greenlands (SG), Sareen Sports (SS) and BDM are all based in the city, and bats used by M. S. Dhoni and Virat Kohli have been made there. Meerut also produces a large share of India's musical instruments. Neither industry holds a geographical indication — in fact no sports-goods GI has been registered anywhere in India. That is the whole lesson of this question. A GI is not a certificate of fame or of output; it is a registered right under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, in force from 15 September 2003, protecting a name whose qualities or reputation are essentially attributable to its geographical origin. Somebody has to file an application, prove the link between the good and the place, and get the name entered on the register. Meerut's scissor-makers did that; its bat-makers and instrument-makers did not. The register settles it: 'Meerut Scissors' sits at application no. 389, and there is no sports-goods entry against Meerut or against Uttar Pradesh at all.

Why the other options are wrong — (a) The most dangerous option on the paper, because the premise is true and only the conclusion is false. Meerut is one of India's two sports-goods hubs alongside Jalandhar, home to SG, Sareen Sports and BDM, and its bats have been used by international cricketers. But no sports-goods GI exists for Meerut — or, on the register, anywhere in India. Industrial fame is not a geographical indication.  (b) Also a real Meerut industry — the city produces a large number of India's musical instruments — and also unregistered. It is the second true-but-irrelevant option on the list, and it works precisely because a candidate who has heard of Meerut's instrument trade treats that familiarity as evidence of a tag that was never applied for.  (c) There is a famous GI-tagged laddu in India, but it belongs to Andhra Pradesh: the Tirupathi Laddu, application no. 121, registered in the 2009–10 GI year in the 'Food stuff' class. No sweet from Meerut is on the register. The option works by lifting a genuine food GI off one map and dropping it onto another.

Concept: A geographical indication is a sign used on goods that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation essentially due to that origin. India protects them through the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999, which came into force on 15 September 2003 and was enacted to meet the country's obligations under the WTO's TRIPS Agreement. Registration lasts ten years and is renewable, and the register covers agricultural goods, natural goods, manufactured goods, handicrafts and foodstuffs — so an industrial article such as a pair of scissors is fully eligible and sits in the 'Manufactured' class. The defining feature of a GI, and the sharpest contrast with a trade mark, is that it is a community right rather than an individual one: under section 24 a registered geographical indication cannot be transferred, mortgaged, assigned or licensed, except where an authorised user's rights pass by inheritance on death. India's first GI was Darjeeling tea, in 2004–05.

State PCS 2025 Q110 — Art & Culture PYQ with Answer

State PCS 2025 Q110 — Art & Culture PYQ with Answer