The union cabinet of India took many significant decisions in its recent meeting. It has given its approval, to amend the 1985 enacted, Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) Act. 

The act was passed to regularize the exports of scheduled farm and processed food products.

The amendments would ease the process of registration of intellectual property and patent rights of some agricultural products. The government would present it in the next session of the parliament. 

Union Commerce Secretary G.K. Pilla revealed that Pakistan can not patent basmati as “Geographical Indications” as it has no Geographical Indications (GI) Act. 

He also said that the country is also interested in joint patenting of Basmati rice as GI with Pakistan. Both India and Pakistan are known for their high quality basmati. 

The Cabinet also approved new print media policy and allowed foreign magazine to start their Indian additions.