The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), in association with Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB) successfully concluded The Diamond Detection Expo and Symposium (DDES) on 16th December. DDES, an initiative by GJEPC was organized with an objective to impart knowledge on synthetic diamonds, its detection using various technologies available. The 2 day event included display of latest equipment/machinery and service providers’ active in Diamond Detection business, along with proficient talks and panel discussions with renowned experts from the trade.
The 2 day event featured all prominent laboratories/institutes involved in detection of synthetics including GIA India, HRD Antwerp, IGI, IIDGR (De Beers), GII, DRC Techno, GSI, Bruker and IDI-DDRC as the exhibitors. The Expert talks and Panel Discussions covered important topics pertaining to Synthetic diamonds, its detection & available technology. Introducing DDES and welcoming all the participants and visitors at the Inaugural ceremony Praveenshankar Pandya, Chairman, GJEPC said, "The main motive for this industry is to ensure that we preserve consumer confidence in diamonds and we safeguard ourselves against any undisclosed mixing of Synthetics.
Mr. Pandya announced that based on success of NDMC in Mumbai, we would soon be forming a Natural Diamond Monitoring Committee (NDMC) in Surat. Mr. Anoop Mehta, President BDB added “The industry is working to ensure that every business would be able to install detection machines within their offices. This is very much possible if demand for the technology increases bringing the unit cost of each machine within reach for even the smallest businesses. It is very essential to draw a parallel with digital technology that had completely replaced the old diamond weighing scales in a matter of a little more than a decade."
Mr. Russell Mehta, Vice Chairman, GJEPC said "At this point it's not about the size of Diamond for detection but the main issue is how quickly we can detect it and how affordable it is." Mr. Ashish Mehta, Convener NDMC, said “As per the comprehensive report commissioned by GJEPC, synthetic diamond accounts for only 0.3% of the Natural Diamond industry. But it is important that we protect diamond industry from undisclosed mixing. Affordable and quick detection is an important pre requisite for this. The industry players must collaborate to find solution to this problem.”
The Day1 of the Expo included seminars addressed by Industry experts as Speakers & Panelists, the prominent and renowned one’s like Dr. Philip Martineau from IIDGR (De Beers) who spoke about the current situation in diamond detection industry, Dr. Jean Pierre Chalain from SSEF who addressed about the Melle size, large throughput and even spoke about ASDI automated spectral diamond inspection, Dr. Thomas Hainschwang from GGTL who spoke about coloured diamond detection and identification of the lab grown diamond, Mr. Wuyi Wang from GIA spoke about the advances in CVD technology and the challenges associated for detection, Mrs. Seema Ashish Athavale from GSI shared the information on manmade diamond and the natural diamond, Mr. Kaushal Sharma from Bruker Optik spoke about Infra-Red spectroscopy.
