Diamond business in crisis: let's know...?

India has been a leader in the diamond business for centuries. india is famous all over the world for diamond cutting and polishing. Cities like surat have given new heights to the diamond business. But due to changing times and global conditions, the diamond business is going through a crisis. According to the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), India's diamond business is facing a major crisis. In the last three years, there has been a significant decline in imports and exports. Due to this decline, many diamond business companies are defaulting, factories are closing down and people are losing jobs on a large scale. More than 60 people associated with the diamond industry of gujarat committed suicide.

How much India's diamond business has grown?

More than 7000 companies work with diamonds in India. These companies cut, polish and send diamonds out. Most of the companies are in surat (Gujarat) and mumbai (Maharashtra). Many of these are small and medium companies. Many companies are run by family members.

About 13 lakh (1.3 million) people work directly in the diamond industry. These include those who cut, polish, sell and export diamonds. About 8 lakh people are engaged in this work in surat alone. Due to this, surat is the world's largest diamond cutting and polishing center. Lakhs of people also get employment in other works related to the diamond industry. Such as transporting diamonds, selling them in shops and making diamond cutting tools.

Significant decline in diamond imports and exports

Imports of raw diamonds in india fell by 24.5% from US$ 18.5 billion in FY 2021-22 to US$ 14 billion in FY 2023-24. Exports of cut and polished diamonds fell by 34.6% from USD 24.4 billion in FY 2022 to USD 13.1 billion in FY 2024. At the same time, the difference between net imports of rough diamonds and net exports of cut and polished diamonds has increased. It has increased from USD 1.6 billion in FY 2022 to USD 4.4 billion in FY 2024.

Rough diamonds are diamonds that are still in their natural state after being extracted from the earth. Meaning those diamonds have not been shaped or polished yet. The percentage of unsold diamonds sent back to india has increased from 35% to 45.6% between FY 2022 and FY 2024.