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Q26 (IAS/2018) Economy › External Sector & Trade › Intellectual property rights Official Key

India enacted The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 in order to comply with the obligations to

Result
Your answer: —  ·  Correct: D
Explanation

India, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act, 1999 and has come into force with effect from 15th September 2003.[1] This Act was enacted to fulfill India's obligations under the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement, which is the most comprehensive agreement on intellectual property, signed by all the WTO members.[2] It contains rules governing how copyrights, patents, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs, etc. will be used to identify products and how they should be protected once trade in them is involved.[2] Geographical indications are place names (in some countries also words associated with a place) used to identify products with particular characteristics because they come from specific places.[3] Therefore, the enactment was specifically to comply with WTO obligations, making option D the correct answer.

Sources
  1. [1] Indian Economy, Vivek Singh (7th ed. 2023-24) > Chapter 13: International Organizations > 13.8 Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) > p. 387
  2. [2] Indian Economy, Nitin Singhania .(ed 2nd 2021-22) > Chapter 18: International Economic Institutions > Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights > p. 542
  3. [3] https://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/tif_e/understanding_e.pdf
How others answered
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PROVENANCE & STUDY PATTERN
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Don’t just practise – reverse-engineer the question. This panel shows where this PYQ came from (books / web), how the examiner broke it into hidden statements, and which nearby micro-concepts you were supposed to learn from it. Treat it like an autopsy of the question: what might have triggered it, which exact lines in the book matter, and what linked ideas you should carry forward to future questions.
Q. India enacted The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 in order to comply with the obligations to […
At a glance
Origin: Books + Current Affairs Fairness: Low / Borderline fairness Books / CA: 2.5/10 · 2.5/10
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This is a textbook 'Sitter' found in every standard Economy resource (Vivek Singh, Nitin Singhania, Ramesh Singh). It tests the fundamental link between the WTO's TRIPS agreement and India's domestic IPR legislation. If you missed this, you are skipping the 'International Organizations' chapter basics.

How this question is built

This question can be broken into the following sub-statements. Tap a statement sentence to jump into its detailed analysis.

Statement 1
Was The Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999 enacted in India to comply with obligations to the International Labour Organization (ILO)?
Origin: Web / Current Affairs Fairness: CA heavy Web-answerable

Web source
Presence: 5/5
"Geographical indications — the registration system. Geographical indications are place names (in some countries also words associated with a place) used to identify products with particular characteristics because they come from specific places. The WTO TRIPS Council has already started work on a multilateral registration system for geographical indications for wines and spirits."
Why this source?
  • Explicitly links geographical indications and their registration system to the WTO/TRIPS process, not to the ILO.
  • Shows the TRIPS Council and WTO are the bodies negotiating multilateral GI registration, implying GI lawmaking responds to WTO/TRIPS obligations.
Web source
Presence: 4/5
"Symposium on the International Protection of Geographical Indications, organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in cooperation with the South African Patents and Trade Marks Office (SAPTO), Somerset West, Cape Province, South Africa, 1-2 September 1999, Geneva: WIPO."
Why this source?
  • Shows international protection of geographical indications is handled in forums such as WIPO, linking GI protection to intellectual property bodies.
  • Reinforces that GI protection is an IP/trade issue (WIPO/WTO) rather than a labour/ILO matter.
Web source
Presence: 3/5
"At the 1996 Singapore Ministerial Conference, WTO members defined the organization’s role more clearly, identifying the International Labour Organization (ILO) as the competent body to deal with labour standards."
Why this source?
  • Identifies the ILO as the competent body to deal with labour standards, indicating that labour obligations fall under ILO remit.
  • By showing ILO’s domain is labour standards, it separates ILO responsibilities from GI/IP matters handled by WTO/WIPO.

Indian Economy, Vivek Singh (7th ed. 2023-24) > Chapter 13: International Organizations > 13.8 Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) > p. 387
Strength: 5/5
“However, a protected geographical indication does not enable the holder to prevent someone from making a product using the same techniques as those set out in the standards for that indication. Protection for a geographical indication is usually obtained by acquiring a right over the sign that constitutes the indication. The registration of a geographical indication shall be for a period of ten years, but may be renewed from time to time. The Controller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks appointed under the Trade Marks Act, 1999, shall be the Registrar of Geographical Indications. India, as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act, 1999 and has come into force with effect from 15th September 2003.”
Why relevant

States explicitly that India enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act, 1999 as a WTO member; links the Act to India's WTO membership.

How to extend

A student could combine this with basic knowledge that WTO/TRIPS, not ILO, deals with intellectual property to infer the Act likely responded to WTO/TRIPS obligations rather than ILO.

Indian Economy, Vivek Singh (7th ed. 2023-24) > Chapter 13: International Organizations > 13.9 Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) > p. 388
Strength: 5/5
“Negotiated during the Uruguay round, TRIPS came into effect on 1st Jan 1995and the deadline for complying with TRIPS obligations for India (a developing country) was January 1st 2005. Accordingly, The Patents Act, 1970 (of India) was amended twice in 2002 and 2005 to make it fully TRIPS compliant by 2005. Through the Patents (Amendment) Act of 2002, the provisions related to compulsory license which was there in the 1970 Act was substituted with a completely new one (section 84). And by the Patents (Amendment) Act, 2005 product patents were allowed to be granted for drugs, which were not allowed under the 1970 Act.”
Why relevant

Explains TRIPS obligations under WTO and gives an example of India amending patent law to comply with TRIPS deadlines.

How to extend

Use this pattern (India amends IP laws to meet TRIPS deadlines) to hypothesize that the GI Act was part of similar TRIPS-related compliance rather than ILO-driven action.

Indian Polity, M. Laxmikanth(7th ed.) > Chapter 9: Directive Principles of State Policy > IMPLEMENTATION OF DIRECTIVE PRINCIPLES > p. 115
Strength: 3/5
“In 2015, the Planning Commission was replaced by a new body called NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India).• 2 Directive Principles of State Policy '!1 15 • The Minimum Wages Act (1948), the Payment of Wages Act (1936), the Payment of Bonus Act (1965), the Contract Labour Regulation and Abolition Act ( 1970), the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act (1986), the Bonded Labour System Abolition Act (1976), the Trade Unions Act (1926), the Factories Act (1948), the Mines Act (1952), the Industrial Disputes Act ( 1947), the Workmen's Compensation Act (1923) and so on have been enacted to protect the interests of the labour sections.”
Why relevant

Lists many domestic labour statutes enacted to protect labour interests, illustrating that labour law responses are generally tied to labour-focused mandates.

How to extend

A student could contrast this pattern—labour laws responding to labour obligations—with the GI Act being an IP measure, making an ILO origin (a labour body) less plausible.

Indian Economy, Nitin Singhania .(ed 2nd 2021-22) > Chapter 12: Indian Industry > RECENT REFORMS IN INDUSTRIAL LABOUR LAWS > p. 392
Strength: 3/5
“Rampant legislative reforms were undertaken by GOI to simplify, amalgamate and rationalise a large number of existing labour laws into four simplified labour codes. This has been done as per the recommendations of the 2<sup>nd</sup> National Commission on Labour. The four recently enacted labour codes are as follows: • The Code on Wages, 2019 (by subsuming 4 labour laws, namely: the Minimum Wages Act, 1948; the Payment of Wages Act, 1936; the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965; the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976)• 2.The Code on Industrial Relations, 2020 (by subsuming 3 labour laws, namely: the Trade Union Act, 1926; the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946; the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947)• 3.”
Why relevant

Describes recent consolidation of Indian labour laws and mentions national commissions driving labour-law reform, showing labour legislation is often domestically motivated or tied to labour policy bodies.

How to extend

A student might use this to argue that major labour-related reforms come from labour commissions/ILO linkages, whereas the GI Act’s text and timing fit an IP/WTO compliance pattern instead.

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