International gems & jewellery expo begins

The four-day 7th Hitex international gems and jewellery expo 2011 began here today. The exhibition, one of the biggest in South India, has been organised by the Hyderabad International Trade Exposition Centre (Hitex). Exhibitors from across the country including Amritsar, Agra, Bangalore, Chennai, Haryana, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Ooty and Thrissur are participating in the expo. Inaugurating the event, Geeta Reddy, minister for major industries, sugar, comm-erce and export, said, the state would come up with a 200-acre gems and jewellery special economic zone (SEZ) near Rajiv Gandhi international airport at Shamshabad, where around 4,000-5,000 people would be trained in jewellery making.