The Gold & Jewellery Summit 2018 commenced today in New Delhi at JW Marriott, Aerocity amidst industry veterans and think tanks, to address issues surrounding gold industry, technology and innovation, standards in the gold industry and so on.

The summit was inaugurated by Suresh Prabhu, Honourable Minister of Industry and Commerce. Also present at the event were Pramod Agrawal, Chairman GJEPC, Aram Shishmanian, CEO, WGC, Anup Wadhwan, Commerce Secretary, K Srinivasan, Convener, JPC, Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog amidst other dignitaries.

In his welcome address, Pramod Agrawal insisted on the importance of reducing the import duty, “The Council has been promoting ethical business practices to promote transparency in the industry. We have been setting up gems and jewellery institutes everywhere in India to promote the skill of jewellery making. A sum of Rs. 13,800 crore will be invested in the jewellery park which will create one lakh additional jobs. The sector may be unorganized, but we have certainly made a mark in the world. We have the capability and skill to achieve the set targets but we need the Government’s support for a level-playing field. The industry has been requesting the Government to lower import duty and it should not be more than 4 per cent.”

Suresh Prabhu stressed on focusing on exports being the need of the hour, “This is a time we can think about how to use this opportunity of having such a huge ecosystem to strengthen our business in the global market. Our department of ministry is already working towards setting up a Gold Council. We will think about integrated gold policies which will think about solving all the problems in a holistic way. But we have to ensure that we embrace certain standards and norms when it comes to the quality of gold. Human Resources are very important for this sector and we need to work towards skill upgradation for the betterment of the workers in this industry. We have to exploit the export side of the business. We can make customized and handmade jewellery so we can use this to enter the global market further. For this, we should have some strategies in place. We will be happy to work with the GJEPC in this regard and governments of other countries as well. I am in talks with the Ministry of Finance regarding the financing troubles the industry has been facing. I hope we can together strive towards working for the development of this sector that has immense potential.”

The first day of the session will witness industry experts debating and discussing over how to transform India’s gold industry, improving technology to double exports, creating robust standards for the gold industry and more.