Amidst controversies, ambitious projects, who’s who of the digital world present at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, emerged a favourite that had absolutely nothing to do with artificial intelligence. Google CEO Sundar Pichai was seen with it, Indian Minister of Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal was raving about it, and plenty of others seem to be curious. We are talking about the GI-tagged Indian coffee that visitors experienced at a stall at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi, where the prestigious summit is being held.
The Bharat GI Coffee Lounge in Hall 14 was an interesting stop in the middle of all things tech, and we’ll tell you why it was a great idea. From 15 September 2003, India enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999. It became an important issue as the profiteering off speciality Indian goods became more widespread. There were plenty of manufacturers who were selling random tea leaves under the name of Darjeeling tea, and if you’re old enough, we’re sure you remember what happened with the Basmati rice issue between India and the United States of America.
The logic behind the GI tag push in India was simple: if something is made in a specific region and derives its character from that place (the soil, climate, craft traditions), that origin deserves legal protection. And in a country like India, with each region offering something new, it became essential. A clear way of the country stating that our artisans, farmers, and craft communities have built these reputations over centuries, and they deserve to be the ones who benefit from it, not someone halfway across the world copying the name. It hasn’t stopped major corporations from trying, but a GI tag makes calling them out so much easier. Remember Prada trying to benefit from Kolhapuris? That.
But coffee isn’t inherently Indian
If you are not an avid coffee drinker or an enthusiast, Bharat GI coffee might confuse you. Coffee isn’t inherently Indian, and Baba Budan sneaked in a few beans in his beard from Arabia, and that is how we have coffee growing around the area of Baba Budangiri hills. If you aren’t aware of how coffee landed in India, you have to read this quick guide about coffee. We promise it is fun.
Getting back to the point, the British saw a commercial potential in the coffee that was growing in and around Chikmangalur, and decided to give it a push. They established large coffee plantations in Coorg, Nilgiris, and the Malabar coast. From here, the coffee was harvested, extracted, and then shipped to England. Now, the journey by sea around the Cape of Good Hope used to take 4 to 6 months. And during that voyage, the raw green coffee beans would be exposed to the warm, humid monsoon winds coming off the Arabian Sea as the ships passed along the Indian coast.
When these beans reached Europe, the traders noticed that they tasted different. The beans would swell up, turn pale yellow, and lose a lot of their natural acidity, making it a lot more mellow than your regular cuppa. People loved it, and most didn’t realise the massive role monsoons had to play in it till Suez Canal opened up. The journey was cut short, the beans escaped the monsoon shower, and turned up at the doorstep of Europe, bitter and strong.
Europeans hated it and wanted their old Indian coffee back. So coffee producers on the Malabar coast, particularly in Kerala, figured out how to recreate the effect intentionally. After the monsoon harvest, they'd spread the beans in open-sided warehouses and expose them to the monsoon winds for about 12 to 16 weeks, turning them regularly. The result? Swollen, golden, low-acid beans, which are what we now know as Monsoon Malabar. Or after this event, maybe even as the GI coffee.
GI tagged coffees in India
While Monsoon Malabar is the most distinct, it is not the only GI coffee in the country. There is Wayanad Robusta, Chikmangalur Arabica, Coorg Arabica, Baba Budangiri Arabica, and even Araku Valley Arabica. In addition to these GI-tagged coffees, there are plenty of other regions that are diligently experimenting with coffee, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see more of them get included in the GI tag list pretty soon.
Bharat GI Coffee Lounge at India AI Impact Summit 2026
As shared by the Union Minister Piyush Goyal on his Instagram handle, “To take this legacy global, DPIIT India (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India) has launched Bharat GI, a national umbrella IP positioned as ‘A World Exclusive', at the India AI Impact Summit 2026 today. We begin with Indian GI Coffee, inviting the world to experience Bharat through aroma, flavour, and authenticity.” It’d be exciting to see what more the department has planned for GI tags awarded to India; there are more than 600 of them, just so you know.
Caffeine-fueled ambitious tech projects are a very real thing in Silicon Valley, and we guess that the Government of India gave it a very different meaning!