6 August 2007 - 14:30

Diamonds Increase Love in Life

Jewellery and diamonds have always been very important in India, now the business is set to grow even further

Diamonds were first recorded in India over 5,000 years ago, but were reserved for royalty for thousands of years. It was only with the discovery of rich reserves in South Africa in the late 19th century that diamonds filtered down to the populace.

According to ancient Vedic traditions, diamonds (Heera) represent the planet Venus (Shukra), the planet that represents love and all comforts in life. Wearing a diamond is said to increase this force of nature in your life.

On a more mundane level market traders are anticpating big growth in the sales of branded diamond jewellery following the restructuring of Diamond Trading Company, a subsidiary of global leader De Beers

... Thompson Diamonds

The company will concentrate on creating demand for diamond jewellery, launching innovative brands such as Forevermark and gaining consumer confidence. DTC has allocated Rs 500 million this year for marketing its brands throughout India.

The company already has a global luxury brand Nakshatra, and is now planning to focus on strengthening Forevermark in India over the next two years.

This restructuring is designed to increase demand for diamonds in countries such as India which are witnessing an economic boom.

Diamond jewellery accounts for 12 per cent of the Rs 96 billion Indian retail jewellery market. The company sees huge potential in mini metros and smaller cities as well as towns that are growing faster than the metros.

Antwerp in Belgium is traditionally the centre of diamond cutting and trading, but the industry is slowly shifting to India due to the immense reserves of low-cost labour. In the 1970s there were more than 25,000 diamond workers around Antwerp, today there are fewer than 800. India today accounts for 66% of Antwerp's $26 billion diamond trade, while the once-dominant Jewish dealers now represent only 25%.


diamond trade in india
diamond jewellery
jewelry
diamond trading centre
de beers
nakshatra forevermark