Exploring the potential of lab-grown diamonds and other top stories of the week
This week, SMBStory explored the growing popularity of lab-grown diamonds in the export market and its purchasing trend in the domestic market, along with other stories.
Lab-grown diamonds are gaining traction as an eco-friendly and cost-effective alternative to mined diamonds. According to the Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) report, India witnessed a remarkable 27.85% surge in polished lab-grown diamond exports, reaching $1.6 billion, while traditional polished mined diamond exports declined by 39% year-on-year to $1.32 billion.
This rise in exports can be attributed to several factors.
When India imports rough diamonds and processes them for export, the value addition is only around 3% to 5%. However, in the case of lab-grown diamonds, the value addition increases significantly to around 17% to 18%, as stated by Smit Patel, Director of Greenlab Diamonds.
India's position as a processing hub for lab-grown diamonds, with ample access to raw materials and cutting-edge machinery, contributes to the competitive pricing in the market.
Moreover, the government's active support and promotion of lab-grown diamonds are expected to further boost consumer awareness and acceptance, leading to overall market growth in this innovative and sustainable industry.
Countries such as the United States, UAE, Hong Kong, and Singapore import lab-grown diamonds from India.
Other top picks of the week
Gem-Udyam tie-up
GeM (Government e-Marketplace) and Udyam have joined hands to support more micro and small businesses in India. Now, the Ministry of MSME will share data of businesses registered on Udyam with GeM, making it easier for MSMEs to be a part of public procurement actively.
Whether or not this partnership will help more MSEs join GeM remains anyone’s guess. However, stakeholders are optimistic about GeM's potential to support the growth of small businesses in India.
Kalavathy Sridharan, the MD of Shree Apparels, says GeM brings together all the opportunities and orders from different government departments in one place, making things convenient for her.
GeM is also taking steps to assist Udyam-registered businesses by organising workshops and training sessions. It is also making it easier for small businesses to participate in public procurement by creating online market linkages.
Vinod Kumar, President of India SME Forum, believes that this partnership will help the ministry keep better track of the orders placed with MSE sellers, women-owned, and SC/ST-owned enterprises.
According to Anjenay Agarwal, Founder of Royal Bee Natural Products, because of GeM small producers can now receive good orders from government departments that were previously only available to registered old suppliers.
Attitudist
Attitudist is a vegan men's footwear brand that has gathered a customer base of over three lakh in three years and dispatches around 30,000 orders every month.
The brand was founded by Haritima Mishra when she was just 18-years-old. Hailing from Agra, UP, she noticed the hardships faced by small-scale leather artisans during the pandemic, as they struggled due to unfair trade practices.
Wanting to make a positive change, she came up with the idea of a vegan footwear business to empower artisans and promote cruelty-free fashion. Haritima's vision was to uplift artisans while avoiding any harm to animals in the leather industry.
Embracing the concept of vegan leather, she aimed to offer new and affordable designs that cater to customers' desire for stylish footwear while providing more work opportunities for the artisans.
To bring her idea to life, she teamed up with her brother Shivam Mishra, who worked in performance marketing, and her sister-in-law, Sneh Verma, a National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) graduate. Together, they launched Attitudist as an online vegan direct-to-consumer (D2C) footwear brand in 2020.
Attitudist generated a revenue of Rs 25 crore in FY 22-23.
Edited by Megha Reddy