Recently, Mumbai jewellery fraternity hosted Melanie Grant, Executive Director-Responsible Jewellery Council (RJC) for a week. According to Melanie, “I met with many fascinating individuals; RJC members, friends, artists, colleagues, and new acquaintances. I had the pleasure of visiting with Govind, Shreyans and Dhruval Dholakia from SRK, Anoop Mehta MD of Mohit Diamonds at the impressively large Bharat Diamond Bourse.
Also met with the same pleasure to Sevantilal Shah of Venus Jewel, the team at Laxmi Diamonds Surat, Milan Parikh of Mahendra Brothers Pvt., Vipul Shah and Sabyasachi and the GJEPC team, Dinesh Lakhani at Kiran Gems and the enigmatic Russel Mehta at Rosy Blue amongst others.
Finally, I sat down with one of the most famous jewellers in the world nicknamed ‘The Gem Whisperer’ Viren Bhagat at his atelier in Mumbai followed by a lively dinner with Punit Mehta and his wife who sits on the board. It was a magical trip. I must say a special thanks to our Head of Asia, Kinjal Shah for his unrelenting promotion of the RJC in India and beyond.
The RJC also recall the G7 Diamond Protocol! Earlier this year G7 leaders stated their desire to ban the import of Russian diamonds. Since then, further updates have been announced and a statement on 6th December noted import restrictions on non-industrial diamonds, mined, processed or produced in Russia will be announced by 1st January 2024.
These followed by further phased-in restrictions processed in third countries in March 2024. To further the effectiveness of these measures, those G7 members who are major importers of rough diamonds will establish a robust traceability-based verification and certification mechanism for rough diamonds within the G7 by September 1, 2024. The RJC Board has agreed that members supplying rough or polished natural diamonds, diamond jewellery and/or diamond-set watches to G7 countries must ensure that diamonds of Russian origin are not included. RJC members and authorised RJC auditors will be provided with training and support to assist implementation and verification of these special measures.