India’s premier public sector miner has auctioned rough diamonds worth over Rs 110 cr via e-auction, beating a slowdown in India’s gems and jewellery sector.
It is “a significant development amidst the global slowdown in diamond industry,” said mjunction, an e-auction company that also helped with India’s spectrum sales. “The e-auction process has successfully overcome the challenges in the gem and jewellery sector.”
“The online process ensured complete transparency, safety from unfair practices and efficient time management,” said mjunction CEO Vinaya Varma.
mjunction reached out to a large number of buyers and undertook several measures to make the e-auction process successful, the company said.
“The widening of the bidder base was done with the help of social media marketing,” it said.
“Two offices were setup, one at the company’s diamond mining project site and another one at Mumbai. The offices were established for a better tripartite co-ordination between the PSU company, mjunction and the buyers. A robust auction platform was created by providing customer centric facilities to bidders.”
In the last five years the diamond industry’s growth has been declining because of recessive demand in European markets and Chinese economic slowdown.
The 2016 financial year saw a 60% slump in imports of cut and polished diamonds and a 16.17 percent fall in imports of rough diamonds.
The gem and jewellery sector contributes about 6-7 % of our GDP and forms an important source of employment.
Recently the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has requested international miners to explore mining opportunities in India to keep up with the changing global scenario.
Reports have appeared that a private entity is also open to taking charge of the diamond mine which Rio Tinto gave up in Madhya Pradesh.