Impure Indian gold jewellery? Not anymore! Hallmarking jumps to 80%

Of the 621 tonnes of gold jewellery manufactured in India in 2018-19, 494 tonnes were hallmarked for purity, show data analysed by GFMS

There are doubts in the organised gold jewellery trade on the official data, which says around 80 per cent of the sales in 2018-19 were of the hallmarked variety, up from 50 per cent in 2013-14.

Noting the number of unlicensed jewellers are a multiple of the licensed ones, they say they find it difficult to believe the latter sold only a fifth of the total.

Compulsory hallmarking of jewellery is not in place but the central government is aiming to gradually get there. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) oversees this and also provides the data in this regard. Analysis by