In Sweet Victory for Odisha, Its Rasagola Gets Much-awaited GI Tag

It's a sweet victory for Odisha as it has finally got Geographical Indications (GI) tag for its rasagola. The much-awaited GI recognition comes a year after West Bengal walked away with the tag. A GI tag recognises a product as distinctive to a particular locality or region or country.

The sweet has been registered under GI of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 2019 as ‘Odisha Rasagola’.

A certificate from the Geographical Indication Registry, Government of India, said that the GI tag for “Odisha Rasagola” has been registered in the name of The Odisha Small Industries Corporation Limited and Utkala Mistanna Byabasayee Samiti (Utkala Sweetmakers Business Body).

According to Odishatv.in, the state has been granted GI tag certificate that will be valid till February 22, 2028.

Odisha moved the GI Registry for its own version of rasagola after West Bengal was awarded the GI tag for its own 'Banglara Rasgulla' on November 14, 2017.

Odisha had submitted various documents sought by the GI Registry office including the chemical composition, moisture and nutrient contents of the sweet along with the general practices adopted during the production process as well as its quality and hygiene standards at various stages of production.

West Bengal and Odisha have been engaged in a bitter legal battle over the origin of the Rasgulla since June 2015.

The battle took a turn for the worse when Odisha’s former Science and Technology Minister Pradip Kumar Panigrahi set up several committees in 2015 to trace the origin of the sweet delicacy. They even went a step further to declare July 30 as ‘Rasagolla Dibasa’, to celebrate its origin.

Then Bengal government, too, set up a committee and decided to fight the Odisha government's claims legally, and, while referring to 19th century origin of Rasagulla argued that the quintessential Bengali delicacy was created by Nabin Chandra Das, a famous sweetmeat-maker in 1868.

Here's how Twitter has welcomed the GI tag Odisha has received for rasgulla: