Gems and jewelry

India is one of the world s largest diamonds and gem polishing and jewelry manufacturing center; it is also one of the two largest consumers of gold. After crude oil and petroleum products, the export and import of gold, precious metals, precious stones, gems and jewelry accounts for the largest portion of India s global trade. The industry contributes about 7 Percent of India s GDP, employs millions, and is a major source of its foreign exchange earnings. The gems and jewellery industry, in 2013, created INR251000 crore US$39 billion in economic output on value added basis. It is growing sector of Indian economy, and A.T. Kearney projects it to grow to INR500000 crore US$79 billion by 2018. The gems and jewelry industry has been an ancient art and continuous economic activity in India, traced over several thousand years. Till 18th century, India was the world s only known major reliable source of diamond mining and its processing. Now, South Africa and Australia are the major sources of diamonds and precious metals, but along with Antwerp, New York, and Ramat Gan, Indian cities such as Surat and Mumbai are the hubs of world s jewelry polishing, cutting, precision finishing, supply and trade. Unlike other centers, the gems and jewelry economic activity in India is primarily artisans driven, is manual, the sector is highly fragmented, and 96 Percent of the industry is served by family owned operations. Indian gem and jewelry economy s particular strength is in precision cutting, polishing and processing small diamonds below one carat . Yet, India is also a hub for processing of larger diamonds, pearls and other precious stones. About 11 out of 12 diamonds set in any jewellery in the world are cut and polished in India. It is also a major hub of gold and other precious metal based precision jewelry industry. Its domestic demand for gold and jewelry products is another driver of India s GDP.