KOLKATA/AHMEDABAD: Diamond jewellers are expecting a better performance in the second half of FY13 as there is an improved demand from the domestic market and a surge in orders from the overseas markets.A depressed export market in the first half of the current financial year had forced the diamond industry to shift its attention to the domestic market, which has started paying off and indications are that the festive season demand may go up substantially.

Though artisans and craftspeople in Afghanistan have suffered in recent years from the toll taken by border wars and internecine fighting, nearby India is attempting to help the country's fledgling diamond industry get on its feet. Fourteen Afghani artists have just completed two months at the Delhi Gem Laboratory studying diamond grading and jewelry management, Newstrack India reports.

India’s polished diamond exports fell 28 percent year on year to $1.339 billion in October ‎‎2012, according to the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC). By ‎volume, polished exports declined 27 percent to 2.834 million carats as the average price ‎of the exports dropped 2 percent to $472.57 per carat.‎

Resource-rich Afghanistan has been devastated by prolonged war. Its unique traditions of Islamic art and architecture, from tile work to calligraphy and embroidery, have also been badly affected.Recently, 14 artists from Afghanistan representing Turquoise Mountain Foundation were in India for a two-month-long course on diamond grading and jewellery management at the Delhi Gem Laboratory.

SURAT: Despite majority Kimberley Process (KP) committee members, which includes India, not endorsing the change to the definition of conflict diamonds, further calls made by the chair of KP, Ambassador Gillian Milovanovic to update the definition has not gone down well with the Indian diamond industry.

The Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), in collaboration with the Moscow Diamond Bourse (MDB), is organizing the second edition of the Indo-Russian Jewellery Summit, a networking platform for Indian jewelry manufacturers and their Russian counterparts intended to spur business opportunities and trade growth between these two countries.

The second edition of the Indo–Russian Jewellery Summit will begin on October 29, 2012 in Mumbai with a goal to boost trade ties between Indian jewelry manufacturers and their Russian counterparts

The Election Commission of India (EC) wants to stamp out money transfers within Gujarat and also into the state from overseas during the forthcoming assembly polls through traditional, informal couriers or angadias and through official channels such as banks.

Focusing on the theme of change, Eli Izhakoff, President of the World Diamond Council, has addressed the opening of the World Diamond Congress today in Mumbai, India. In his speech, he supported the principle of expanding the definition of “conflict diamonds,” but emphasized that, whatever definition is applied, it must meet he ability of participants to implement the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme effectively, and be directly associated with the trade in rough diamonds.

As the Indian diamond industry seeks to find new avenues of growth, it may soon look with increasing frequency to its neighbor to the northwest, Pakistan, Business Standard reports. Although the two nuclear powers have often traded barbs and even bullets in the Kashmir region that abuts both countries, the flow of polished diamonds may soon create economic opportunities for cross-border trade.