Mr. Menon, Mr. Premkumar, Mr. Rajiv Bhandari, Smt. Nirupaben Bhatt, my colleagues on the dais and on the floor, students of GII and friends,

Good Morning everybody!

It gives me immense pleasure to welcome you all today on this auspicious day of Dassera to the inauguration of the National Research Centre for Diamonds and Gemstones and the Annual Convocation of GII.

I would like to accord a special welcome to our Chief Guest Shri SN Menon – Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Government of India. Shri Menon is an IAS Officer of 1969 batch of the West Bengal Cadre and has worked in various positions in West Bengal and Government of India.

I also have the pleasure to welcome Shri RM Premkumar – Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra – who has kindly agreed to preside over today’s function. Mr. Premkumar has been the Chief Executive Officer of MIDC and Managing Director of Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank Limited and Maharashtra State Financial Corporation.

May I also welcome our Guest of Honour, Shri Rajiv Bhandari, Managing Director of De Beers India Pvt Ltd. Shri Rajiv Bhandari joined DTC in London 30 years ago and was responsible for opening DTC’s liaison office in Mumbai and De Beers India Pvt. Ltd.

I am also happy to welcome our other Guest of Honour, Smt. Nirupa Bhatt, Manager – Marketing for Rio Tinto Diamonds in India. Her current responsibilities include Marketing Intelligence for diamonds and jewellery in India and USA and Product Promotion. She has been actively involved in the Indian diamond and jewellery Industry and the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council.

I also welcome Dr. M.S Rao – Jt. Secretary, Ministry of Commerce.

As you may be aware, the Gemmological Institute of India is a dream child of me and my colleagues when we conceived the idea in the early 60’s of setting up an institution for propagating the knowledge of gemstones in India . Today, our vision is being realized.

As a result, the very first Gemmological Institute was born in 1971, under the name of “Gemmological Institute of India”. I must remember today the names of my colleagues who were actively involved in the formation of this institute especially Shri Pravin M. Nanavati, Shri Rajendrakumar A. Shah, Shri Himmatbhai Jhaveri and the late Shri Padmakant Jhaveri.

During the last four decades, the global gem industry has faced many challenges and ups and downs. There have been major events in the development of science and technology, trading and marketing. The introduction of newer methods of synthesis of various gemstones such as Ramura, Kashan, Kyocera, in case of rubies, Biron, Seiko, Gilson in case of emerald and Sumitomo, GEC, Russian, HPHT process and finally the CVD process in the case of diamonds, have shaken up the industry.

Developments such as the enhancement of colour and clarity with the treatments such as heat, dye, epoxy, wax, irradiation in case of coloured gemstones and laser, glass-filling, irradiation and finally the High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) in case of diamonds have caught the industry in a whirl-wind.

Simultaneously, India is also emerging as the largest consumer of studded-jewellery in the world. The newly-developed studded-jewellery segment is facing the challenge of maintaining consumer confidence in gemstones and diamonds. Global consumers are worried about the synthetics, treatments and simulants being available in the market.

Well, the entire diamond and gemstone business is based on faith and confidence and trust between the buyers and sellers. To a great extent, the evaluation of diamonds is based on objective factors known as the 4 C’s. On the other hand, evaluation of coloured stones is very subjective and depends on factors such as origin of the stone, hue and tone of colour and above all, the genuineness of the colour itself. It is therefore necessary that the diamonds and gemstones exported from India , as well as those sold in the domestic market are supported by authentic, impartial, independent certificate by a professional laboratory.

All the factors that I have enumerated above have led to the complex nature of gem and jewellery business today and therefore, require the backing of gemmological laboratories. Such laboratories should be equipped with state-of-the-art equipments for carrying out research studies on gemstones.

Under these circumstances, I am happy to announce that the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council, Diamond Exporters’ Association Ltd, Bharat Diamond Bourse and Gem & Jewellery Exporters’ Association have come together to support the GII. The Constitution of GII has been suitably amended to incorporate the involvement of these trade bodies in the activities of the GII. The Council has adopted the Gemmological Institute of India as one of its projects.

We have thus decided to establish a National Research Centre for Gemstones and Diamonds. The Centre will be the nodal point for all the Research activities. It is proposed that the Institute will have all the facilities for pure science and applied science research studies on diamonds and gemstones. As facilities for study of gemstones are not available in the country under one roof, the Institute will also open up a scheme for PhD students from any university in India , to make use of the instruments available at the Institute. The Institute will also provide facilities for Research students from any part of the country, on any aspect of gemstones and diamonds.

We also plan to establish a data bank, information centre and commence training for scientists and gemmologists working in the country. Today, even if sophisticated instruments and equipments are available with a few gemmological laboratories, they are not in a position to identify the gemstones because they do not have the requisite database.

The Institute’s R&D Department, is also recognized by the Department of Science and Technology as a Scientific Industrial Research Organization (SIRO). We have already undertaken basic and fundamental research on causes of colour in gemstones and diamonds, particularly caused by changes in atomic structure. We also have taken up studies on the origin of gemstones, based on the study of elements and analysis of mineral inclusions.

You will appreciate that all these projects will not only require highly sophisticated instruments but also qualified competent geo-physicists, geo-chemists and gemmologists. In the absence of such facilities so far, we are unable to do much constructive work on these projects.

With the setting up of facilities under this Research Centre, we are confident that we will also be in a position to guide the world gem industry with the necessary information and data. These laboratory facilities will also add to the confidence in the end-product exported from the country.

We therefore humbly dedicate the “National Research Centre” to the development and progress of our country.

I call upon the Industry to make the best use of the facilities available at the National Research Centre and the Laboratory.

I also take this opportunity to congratulate the students who have successfully completed the Diploma in Gemmology, Diamond and Jewellery Designing. I wish them all success.