A tight alley in the heart of Surat leads to the basement of a worn-down building, where more than 20 motorcycles are crammed wheel-to-wheel, leaving barely any room to walk.
The building may look abandoned to a stranger, but a few steps inside the commercial complex reveal a floor that manufactures one of India’s most valuable exports: diamonds.
This nondescript diamond polishing unit is packed with 26 artisans seated shoulder-to-shoulder, armed with precision tools and magnifying loupes, facing whirling abrasive plates. These skilled men refer to pages filled with dense grids of numbers to cut raw diamonds into meticulous shapes

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