GJEPC inks pact with ALROSA to increase ties in diamond sector

Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) and Russia's largest diamond mining company PJSC ALROSA today signed an agreement to enhance cooperation in the sector.
The Memorandum of Co-operation (MoC) was inked in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg.
The MoC covers areas like trade development, generic promotion of diamond and synthetic diamond detection, GJEPC said in a statement.
"The MoC outlines GJEPC's intention to strive to establish a special tax regime so that direct sales can be conducted out of the India Diamond Trading Centre and for ALROSA to explore the ways of establishing a representative office within the Bharat Diamond Bourse in Mumbai, with the possibility of transitioning it to a sales office," it said.

It also said the council will share information on the specifics of consumer demand for diamonds in India, while supporting ALROSA's international efforts for generic marketing campaigns.
ALROSA and the GJEPC also resolved to make stringent efforts to maintain separate pipelines for natural and synthetic diamonds.
"The need for generic marketing of diamonds has been felt by the industry for some time now," GJEPC Chairman Praveenshankar Pandya said.
India is the largest diamond cutting and polishing centre in the world with the greatest share in both value and volume terms of the market.