Being aSaamaanya: Prof. Ganesh Hingmire.

Prof. Ganesh Hingmire.

Dear Friends,

We just had the Saraswati Puja on 29th January 2020. And on this auspicious occasion, here is a story of a person who specialises in Intellectual Property matters

Professor Ganesh Hingmire,

A man who studied under the municipal lights and became a leading practitioner in IPR and got over 28 Geo Indicators for India.

He began his life in the great city of Pune which is also called as the 'Oxford of the East'

Like some of our other aSaamaanya personalities, the young Ganesh had very humble beginnings.

He lost his father at a very early age of 6 after which he was painstakingly brought up by his mother. Ganesh stayed with his Uncle who himself had difficult time supporting his family due to a handicap from an accident.

His Uncle had been a freedom fighter, but felt it improper to take any personal advantage of that contribution. Unable to do any strenous work Ganesh's Uncle started a 'Pan shop' near a popular cinema hall in Pune.

As a member of the family, Ganesh would help out his Uncle in their Pan shop. But his mother and his Uncle wanted him to get educated. With a big family in a very small house, few of the family members would have to sleep out in the open.

Ganesh would use this opportunity to study under the municipal light poles. After selling cigarettes and other miscellaneous items to the cinema goers of last show, Ganesh would start his studies under the municipal lights.

The income of his family was so low that they did not have money to even pay a small monthly school fee of Rs.7-. The school, looking at their poverty waived off Rs.5- of it and charged only Rs.2/- (Even today Ganesh is so grateful towards his school and the nation that he feels obliged to serve it and payback to the country through his efforts as a IPR practitioner.)

Ganesh did 3 of his degrees by doing odd jobs like selling cigarettes, doing surveys for researcg agencies and studying under the municipal lights.

Though he faced hardships due to poverty, Ganesh was lucky to have very good friends and their parents were also very supportive of Ganesh.

Looking at his intellect & perseverance, his teachers insisted that he should go to UK to study law.

With their poor financial situation it was almost impossible for him to put up the money for a foreign education.

But he had a strong desire and an indomitable spirit in place of money. Ganesh arranged for loans from various sources like government loans, funding and finally made it to the University of Cardiff in London.

Once in London, he faced dual problem of language and lack of money for day-to-day expenses. The obvious fallout was that many times he would have to stay hungry. The chilling climate of London made matters worse.

But again, Ganesh was not one to give up his hunger for knowledge so easily. After overcoming the handicaps on language, food, climate Ganesh proved himself by standing in the top students and was one of the first to submit his theses.

Following the patriotic spirit of his family, he wanted to come back to India and serve his country rather than work in UK and be in the lap of luxury.

In his final years of education, he had specialised in matters WTO, IPR, TRIPS, etc.

He had seen the struggle made by Indian lawyers in reclaiming India's IPR rights to Turmeric.

So he put in hard work in getting various Geographical Indication for items like - Puneri Pagdi, Turmeric, Jaggery, Ambemohar variety of Rice, Kokam from Konkan and many other items of Maharashtra.

Today, Prof. Ganesh Hingmire, a boy who made a 'Saamaanya' beginning as a student who would study at night, under municipal lights is a legal luminary. He is the force behind 'Great Mission Group Consultancy which specialises in Geographical Indications, Patents, Trademarks, Copyrights. He is a person who has got more than 26 Geographical Indications, out of which almost 25 are for farmers of India.

He is the recipient of the IPR Special Mention National Award (2015) and “Best Facilitation of Registration of Geographical Indications and Promotion of Registered GI in India” at the hands of Ms.Nirmal Sitharaman, the Commerce and Industry Minister of India. And, now with this strong base in GI field, the primary purpose at Indian Geographical Indication (Indian GI) is to provide a platform for buyers to buy original and genuine GI products from Maharashtra.

a Saamaanya person becoming ASaamaanya.

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Some important links to the Mr.Ganesh Hingmire and his work:

Story of Mr.Hingmire in his own words: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVJIAjczan0

An interesting lecture on IPR : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHFMaeTitrc

Website of Great Mission Group Consultancy: https://gmgc.co.in/