Panjikar Gem Research & Tech Institute, Pune had its second annual convocation on Saturday the 1st December 2012. The Chief Guest at this occasion was a prominent consultant from Germany, Herr Guenter Lorenz owner of a company called “So!lutions”, which provides technical advice and consultancy services in various fields. There were 11 students who received Basic Gemmology certificates, 10 students got Advanced Gemmology, 12 students qualified in Diamond Grading and 8 students got the Diploma certificate of “Professional Gemmologist”.

Speaking at the occasion the Chief Guest Herr Guenter Lorenz, told the graduating students that India has a rich culture and students should take advantage of this and create designs which showcase the Indian Culture. Blindly copying the western designs is like having mass produced item

available in any mall or supermarket. Make use of the variety of colours and colour combinations available in India that are rarely seen elsewhere. Second thing he stressed on was time schedule, if one can do a jewellery piece in 10 days add two more days when you promise your client. Do not work under time pressure, but once promised deliver on time, as per design consistently recheck quality so that the client is more than satisfied, was the advice given by Herrn Guenter Lorenz.

The program began with a seminar organized by PAN-GEMS (Alumni Association) on Crystal Healing by Mrs. Meghana Thite. Mrs. Thite is an expert on crystal therapy and enthralled the audience with simple techniques to relieve stress and to empower oneself. Using crystals like Rock crystal, Rose Quartz, Amethyst Mrs. Thite actually demonstrated how one can get energy from crystals and gemstones. Ailments can be cured much faster if the proper gemstone is used side by side with the prescribed medicines, as gemstones continuously emit positive radiations which have an effect on the human body. Among the gemstones used for the healing were red garnet, aquamarine, citrine, carnelian, aventurine, lapis lazuli, rose- quartz, amethyst and clear rock crystal.

The crystal healing seminar was followed a detailed power-point presentation by Dr. Jayshree Panjikar on synthetic CVD diamonds. Students were shown synthetic CVD diamonds. It is now established that CVD synthetic diamonds are slowly flooding the market as the technology to produce the synthetic diamond has developed in leaps and bounds. Methane gas can be converted into synthetic diamond within few hours is something one should take note of. One must remember that Methane gas is a regular by-product of Biogas plants and if the know-how is made available CVD synthetic diamonds could be produced in large quantity in India as well. Therefore gemmologists have a challenging future ahead!