Lab Grown Diamonds To Be Produced Indigenously To Reduce Import Dependency

As part of the Union Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced several initiatives for the lab grown diamond industry. R&D grants will be provided to one of the IITs to encourage indigenous production of lab grown diamonds and reduce import dependency. Further, the government has also reduced the customs duty on lab grown diamond seeds to bring down the cost of production and encourage expansion of lab grown diamond growing and production.

"Lab grown diamonds is a technology and innovation driven emerging sector with high employment potential," says FM Nirmala Sitharaman.

"With the depletion of deposits of natural diamonds, the industry is moving towards lab grown diamonds and it holds huge promise," added the Finance Minister.

Lab grown diamonds are eco-friendly diamonds that are absolutely real, but at the same time planet friendly because they are not mined but instead grown above in labs in exactly the same way. A thin layer of a natural diamond is placed in the plasma reactor and the exact environment is replicated in the reactor for the diamond to grow. Gases are infused and slowly carbon from the gases under high temperature and pressure separates and forms layers on the natural diamond seed. Exactly the same way as found below the earth. The result is a rough CVD diamond that bears the exact same properties as a mined diamond. This process is known as the CVD technology and is a completely home grown technology. This is similar to the concept of test tube babies and natural born babies where the development process is different but the output is exactly the same.

The gems and jewellery sector is thrilled to receive such recognition for lab grown diamonds and appreciates this move by the government.

Mrs. Pooja Sheth Madhavan, Founder of Limelight Lab Grown Diamonds, India's largest LGD jewellery brand says, "The government for the first time has spoken of the identity of lab grown diamonds by addressing them as (NOT ARTIFICIAL OR SYNTHETIC) but eco-friendly and bearing the same properties as natural diamonds.

This awareness created by the government in itself is going to instill huge amount of consumer confidence in lab grown diamonds and we will be seeing a huge shift in consumer preference towards LGDs in India. A huge number of retail players in India are already stocking & entering into lab grown diamonds and this will only strengthen the confidence to stock LGDs at the retail level.

This will come despite the budget announcement of reduction in import duties on seeds as its impact on the pricing of the product is minimal and a boost in demand will likely push retail prices higher. Mainly because India today has less than 10,000 growing machines and the consumption capacity of India can far outpace the current supply of LGDs. Less than 5% of Indian women wear and adorn diamonds. Lab grown diamonds will be an opportunity for even the remaining 95% of women to wear and afford diamonds. As a result, both these measures announced in the budget are only likely to further solidify and grow the entire value chain in the LGD sector and more LGDs will now be available at the retail level."

Mr. Bakul Bhai Limbasiya, Owner, Bhathwari Technologies, leading grower and producer of lab grown CVD diamonds says, "Presently lab grown diamonds is growing at a large scale in Surat. For which research is very necessary. R&D development will help grow the industry at a rapid pace. Now there is definitely no looking back for the LGD sector in India. And we are poised to establish India as a global hub in lab grown diamonds through the CVD technology and offer the purest type of diamonds."