The Government is putting finishing touches on a legislation to protect "geographical appellations" in this country, in a bid to prevent incidents like the patenting of basmati rice in the United States. Urgency has been imparted to the bill as a result of this incident, but the draft had been formulated quite some ago. The Commerce Ministry had sought to push through the legislation as soon as possible, but sources say it was delayed by the normal consultation process as ministries took their own time to give comments.