India adopts IS 19469:2025 on January 15, 2026, reserving the term “diamond” exclusively for natural diamonds, mandating clear disclosure for laboratory-grown diamonds to address consumer confusion and standardize trade practices.

BIS has notified IS 19469:2025 in Mumbai, adopting the ISO diamond disclosure norms, following the GJEPC initiative, to strengthen consumer transparency as India’s diamond jewellery demand expands nationwide.

The Indian Government has rolled out the third phase of mandatory hallmarking in its ongoing endeavour to ensure the authenticity and purity of gold jewellery and artefacts. Effective as of 8th September, 2023, this development aims to cover an additional 55 districts under the hallmarking system

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the budget on the Parliament on February 1, 2023. With the approaching central elections, popular consensus on this year’s budget is that it would be growth-oriented, with a focus on infrastructure, inflation, manufacturing and rural economy

Earlier exempted forms of gold jewellery like Kundan, Polki, Jadau proposed to be hallmarked

The second phase of the mandatory hallmarking will cover additional three caratages of gold jewellery/artefacts such as 20, 23 and 24 carats, as mentioned in the Indian Standard IS 1417

BIS has now made provision to allow a common consumer to get the purity of their un-hallmarked gold jewellery tested at any of the BIS recognized Assaying and Hallmarking Centres

Nearly 150 market samples are being lifted from registered jewellers in Chennai and its neighbouring districts and Puducherry every month and tested

Consumers can view the details of hallmarked jewellery, such as type of jewellery, purity, name of AHC, name of the jeweller, date of hallmarking, through the BIS Care app

The new BIS will strengthen the gold jewellery trade and provide boost to the gold jewellery exports from India

The government had made hallmarking mandatory from June 23 in 256 districts

The ripple effects of mandatory hallmarking are already being felt by the retail industry as the move has boosted consumer confidence in gold

Industry players feel the move is ill-advised and ill-timed, as they are already grappling with challenges caused by the pandemic and HUID issues. If the proposal goes through, it will add a huge burden to the industry, finds out Suneeta Kaul

Jewellers say hallmarking should be based on POS, and all other applications of storage, display, transit, and so forth, except sale, should be removed from the BIS Act