Committee to explore investment in Jems and Jewellery to meet soon

New Delhi, June 19 (UNI) The CII National Committee on Gems and Jewellery, chaired by Titan Industries Managing Director Bhaskar Bhat, will meet with Chairman of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council Dr V Krishnamurthy early next month, to explore the required investment in modern technology in the Jems and Jewellery Industry.

The meeting will ascertain as to whether, as a part of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, the Government may look at the creation of a technology fund intended to offset the required investment in modern technology.

While a combination of manual skills and semi-automatic machines have helped the Indian Gems and Jewellery industry to maintain a favourable position in the global market, China, with its modern and automatic factories enjoys the same position to manufacture jewellery at competitive prices.

Increased competition is expected to force the Indian Gems and Jewellery industry to focus on higher-end products, with the concommitant requirement of increased investment in modern technology, and this fund is expected to offer much needed relief to the Indian industry.

The other mandate for the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Gems and Jewellery Committee is to strengthen the 'Made in India' brand overseas.

According to a survey conducted by CII on the gems and jewellery industry, Indian gold jewellers have identified exports as a focus area, setting up manufacturing units and design training centres to improve quality.

The industry is also promoting Indian ornaments in the US, Hong Kong, and the Middle East, which accounts for approximately 85 per cent of exports for this sector.

However, there is a low confidence level in the global markets as to the purity of Indian gold, according to the survey. To be able to establish the purity of gold, the need of the day is an increased number of hallmarking and assaying centers.

While the Government of India introduced voluntary hallmarking of gold jewellery through the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in 2000, progress on the same has been slow with only 24 hallmarking centres in the country.

The cost of setting up one Hallmarking centre has been estimated at Rs 70 lakhs, stated the survey, and pointed out that the primary reason for the slow progress in implementing gold hallmarking has been the lack of requisite infrastructure, which needs district level assaying centres to cater to rural consumers who consume about 65-70 per cent of jewellery in India.

There is also reluctance by jewellers as the extra expenditure impacts their already slender margins as Indian gold jewellers typically work on thin margins of around 10 per cent over production cost.

The CII National Committee will be meeting senior Government officials to work out the possibility of a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) to create Gems and Jewellery Parks, where the infrastucture would be provided by the Government and the training aspects would be looked after by the industry.

UNI RA CS KN1702