Making The Grade
January 30, 12
Demand from Indian consumers for certification of diamonds and gemstones is growing. However, those already owning jewelry have no way of estimating the grade of the diamonds they contain – a crucial factor when considering the value of a piece for either a buy-back deal or onward sale. But while no exact certification is possible, providing a good estimate of the range of a diamond’s color and clarity is possible with already set stones.
The Indian gem and jewelry industry recently took firm collective action to address the issue of consumer confidence by inaugurating an industry-sponsored initiative to provide objective certification of diamonds that have already been set in jewelry. In September, the Gemmological Institute of India (GII), an educational institute and gem testing laboratory sponsored by the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), inaugurated a laboratory and take-in window for loose diamond and diamond-set jewelry grading at the Indian Institute of Gems & Jewellery (IIGJ) another educational institution sponsored by the GJEPC.
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Asked how diamonds that have already been set in jewelry could be accurately graded, Ramachandran explained that the color and clarity of the diamonds set in the jewelry will be estimated in a band rather than as a specific determination. “We’ll just grade them as either VVS or VS,” he said, “there won’t be any break-up into VVS1 and VVS2 as we do for individual, unset stones. The color too will be designated as a band – G to I, for example.”
The idea, he explained, is for retailers with products set with uncertified diamonds to be able to quickly assure customers that the color and clarity grades were in the bands that they claimed. For an exact grade, Ramachandran said, a stone would have to be examined un-mounted. The GII grades and certifies un-mounted diamonds and colored gemstones at its laboratory, currently located in the Opera House diamond district of Mumbai.
Speaking at the launch, Kirtilal Doshi, the retired chairman of the De Beers Diamond Trading Company (DTC) Sightholding Shrenuj Group, who is the long-time chairman of the GII, said it was imperative for the gem and jewelry industry to take collective action to address the needs of consumers. As a non-profit organization, supported by the gem and jewelry industry, he said the GII provided the ideal platform for such an initiative.
Talking about assuring consumers in a way that made more sense to the uninitiated, Doshi said, “It will be more meaningful for consumers to see images of their jewelry on certificates along with the vital details of the diamonds and the metal. It will be the difference between generic jewelry and a prestigious jewelry product. The fact that the certification is premised on world class standards will attract consumers who have traditionally stayed away from diamond jewelry due to the lack of availability of trusted sources. With an internationally recognized certificate, this bottleneck will be overcome.”
The guest of honor at the function, Nitin Kadam, chairman and managing director of Kadam & Kadam Jewellers as well as Chintamani Jewellers and a founder-director of the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), said that the importance of consumer assurance could not be emphasized strongly enough. “The consumer doesn’t have a great deal of faith in the jeweler,” he said with surprising candor, “and a third-party certificate from an institution like the GII is something that will drive away all those doubts,” he said. He observed that wider acceptance of the practice of third-party certification would only grow consumer confidence in the industry as a whole. He praised the GII for its four-decade-long service in the industry, addressing its certification needs and providing much-needed education to those who made the industry their profession.
Kadam too felt that a non-profit organization such as the GII performing these services for consumers would go a long way towards building up overall trust and confidence in the industry.