Demand for jewellery experts peaks

While India accounts for over 92 per cent of the world's diamond cutting and polishing, only one per cent of the world's jewellery is made in India.

There is a huge demand for skilled manpower like jewellery technologists and designers in the country.

The Indian Institute of Jewellery projects an enormous potential to increase the country's jewellery production share from one per cent to 92 per cent in the coming years.

It is estimated that over 5,000 skilled manpower would be required in this sector to meet the growing demands of the domestic and exports market.

With the emergence of brands in Indian jewellery and the launch of over 28 brands in the last few years, the demand for these professionals has further gone up, resulting in over 133 per cent hike in their salary from last year's. The earlier industry average of Rs 75,000 per annum for freshers has now risen to Rs 1,75,000 per annum.

"Indian jewellery industry has been a very closely held trade, being passed from forefathers to sons, which resulted in poor growth. Unlike other industries, technological advancement has not taken place here because of the secrecy maintained by the jeweller community. But a recent phenomenon has started bringing in user friendly technologies, which has generated mass interest in the trade." Vijay Jatia, chairman, Indian Institute of Jewellery said.

The introduction of user friendly new technologies, like Digital Goldsmith 4 (DG4) and Matrix, have upgraded the Indian jewellery's quality, standards and output at par with international standards and have enabled laymen consumers to start taking interest in jewellery designing and manufacturing.

"Jewellery training institutes like IIJ have started producing a new breed of 'jewellery technologists who are much more tech savvy and have global standards. These jewellery technologists are not just designers but also manufacturing experts, which is an ideal combination for a jewelry entrepreneur. All the students of our institutes are well placed and salaries today range between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 2 lakh, which shows the ever increasing demand for these professionals," said Jatia.

Jewellery majors in India, like Uni Design, Adora, Intergold, Tara Ultimo, Sama Jewellery, KGK, Hammer Plus and Intercarat, have willingly started taking this new breed of jewellery technologists at almost twice the salary they were paid earlier.