At least two such IPR facilitation centres will come up in the state in the next three years, said Jawhar Sircar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises on Saturday. “The retail revolution is bypassing the small and medium industries. Hence, we will have to come up with bar coding that will help them enter the malls and superior markets,” said Sircar.

“We want the chambers of commerce to set up IPR facilitation centers as they are techno-savvy and have a ready customer base,” the secretary said. Each IPR facilitation centre will come up at a cost of about Rs 40 lakh for a period of three years and the Centre will bear about 70-80 per cent cost in the first year.

“We are planning to set up 30 to 40 such centres throughout the country, 10 centres each year in 10 different cities,” Sircar said. Citing examples of popular local products in West Bengal such as rosogolla, he said that for a Geographical Identification (GI) certificate somebody has to “hold hand and fill in the form. The secretary also noted that there were no IPR facilitation centres in the country at present.