Indian Jewelry » Gemstone Jewelry Jaipur

The transformation that Jaipur has been witnessing can be attributed in no small measure to the energetic younger generation that has brought dynamism and internationalism to this sector. Younger gemsmen have taken keen interest in not only modernising manufacturing, but are also concentrating on marketing which has become vitally important in modern business. While there was closed circuit functioning in the past, openness is discernible now. In the past, traditional jewellers did business at their gaddis mostly with their regular clientele; the dynamic new generation is not only covering all parts of the globe by paying personal visits, displaying choicest goods at international Expos and developing new contacts, but has also established branch offices overseas, thereby broadening the horizons of this business.

Jaipur already has a Gem Testing Laboratory, which conducts training too, and a regional office of India's apex body Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council. A Gem Industrial Park was also started, although it has not clicked. The Industrial Development Corporation of Rajasthan has taken it over and proposes to resurrect it. Jaipur, which has diversified into modern automatic jewellery making, now has a Jewellery Product Development Centre too which has commenced training jewellery designers. The aim of the GJEPC in founding this much needed facility is to provide trained designers for the city's developing jewellery industry.

More than half a dozen modern jewellery manufacturing units have also come up in the industrial area of Jaipur. Jaipur is India's second important gems and jewellery exporting centre and the first for sales to 'foreign tourists'. Jaipur was chosen for hosting the biennial Congress of the International Colored Gemstone Association (LC.A.) in 2003. This week long global conference 'Jewel in the Crown' was held here in the beginning of January-2003 and delegates from all over the world acknowledged it as the best so far.

Khambhat:
The other important centre for colored gems processing is Khambhat. The town undertakes the processing of jade, amethyst, tiger's eye, rose quartz, etc., but it is best known for its agates, which are produced in a fascinating variety of shapes, sizes and colors. In Khambhat also gem processing is a cottage undertaking which still clings to age-old traditional methods.