Jewelers Association Holds Conference to Discuss Hallmarking

In a unique first for the jewelry industry in India, the All India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF) organized on July 12 a video conference in which 28 organization directors and other senior trade members from 16 cities took part. The conference discussed the draft representation that the federation will present to the Government of India on gold jewelry hallmarking.

The Government has proposed making gold jewelry hallmarking mandatory in India and, as a first step, reportedly plans to introduce it in the metro cities by January 1, 2008.

The conference began with a brief presentation by Ashok Minawala, chairman of GJF, who highlighted the key points in the draft representation. The participants later expressed their views and made further suggestions.

Conference participants included jewelers from Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Rajkot, Ranchi, Surat and Vadodara.

Following the success of this conference, the GJF plans to hold interactive conferences of this type all across India, involving a larger number of cities and more members.