Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in the United States for a three-day State visit, has gifted an eco-friendly lab-grown 7.5-carat diamond, placed in an exquisite Kashmiri papier-mâché box, to the U.S. First Lady Jill Biden.
About lab-grown diamond (LGD)
- The LGD is considered eco-friendly as resources like solar and wind power were used in its making.
- The green LGD is sculpted with precision and care using cutting-edge technology. It emits only 0.028 grams of carbon per carat and is certified by the Gemological Lab, IGI (International Gemological Institute).
- The government had announced elimination of customs duty on LGD seeds from 5% earlier.
- The government also approved a five-year research grant to the Indian Institutes of Technology, Madras to encourage the indigenous production of LGD machinery, seeds and recipe.
- Lab-grown diamonds are produced through two technologies — High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) and Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD).
- HPHT method requires extremely heavy presses that can produce up to 730,000 psi of pressure under extremely high temperatures (at least 1500 celsius). Usually graphite is used as the “diamond seed” and when subjected to these extreme conditions, the relatively inexpensive form of carbon turns into one of the most expensive carbon forms.
- India is one of the leading producers of these diamonds using CVD technology.
- LGDs are chemically, physically and optically diamond and thus are difficult to identify as “lab-grown.”
- India’s share in its global trade in the financial year 2021-22 was 25.8%. However, India has to depend on other countries for the supply of critical machinery components and seeds — which are the raw materials for producing synthetic diamonds.
- The aim of this (InCent-LGD) project is to provide, in mission mode, technical assistance to the industries and entrepreneurs in the country, in promoting indigenous manufacturing of both CVD and HPHT systems.
- Besides the jewellery industry, lab-grown diamonds are used in computer chips, satellites, and 5G networks as they can be used in extreme environments due to their potential to operate at higher speeds while using less power than silicon-based chips.
Kashmiri papier-mâché
- Known as kar-e-kalamdani, Kashmir’s exquisite papier mâché involves sakthsazi or meticulous preparation of paper pulp and naqqashi, where skilled artisans paint elaborate designs
- It has a GI (Geographical Indication) tag.
