Narendra Modi's toughest task yet: Cleaning India's diamond pipeline

India's diamond trade keeps exhibiting symptoms of money laundering and other illicit activities

That there was something egregiously rotten in India’s diamond trade should have been evident when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in Union Budget for 2018-19, doubled the import duty on polished diamonds to five per cent. Within a few days after Jaitley’s Budget announcement, the Narendra Modi-led central government launched a massive crackdown on the businesses of India’s diamond and jewellery magnates Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. Both are now facing investigations for alleged money laundering and swindling millions of dollars in bank loans.

Investigators are probing something that has been noticeable in India’s diamond trade – or what is referred