By Fiza Masoodi

Afiya Khan had spent months designing a unique Pashmina pattern for her small textile startup when she saw a near-identical version being sold elsewhere.

Her creation, deeply rooted in Kashmiri tradition, had no legal protection.

“I realized ideas can disappear if there is no shield around them,” she said.

Afiya was one of more than seventy entrepreneurs, researchers, and startup founders who attended an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) awareness workshop at the Atal Incubation Centre of the CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine on November 13.

The session, organized by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises under its National Outreach Mission, emphasized that innovation alone is not enough. Protecting it is crucial for growth.

Dr. Shahid Jib

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