In a recent Budget speech Union finance Minister announced that the Customs duty on the seeds used in lab-grown diamond manufacturing will be reduced.
About the Lab-made diamonds –
- Lab-made diamonds are developed from a carbon seed placed in a microwave chamber and superheated into a glowing plasma ball.
- The process creates particles that crystallise into diamonds in weeks.
- The only difference between lab-grown diamond and natural diamond is that instead of digging the earth, it is created in a lab under a machine.
- This tech-based manufacturing directly cuts down the capital and labour-intensive factors of the mined diamond chain and so lab-grown diamonds cost 30-40 per cent cheaper than mined despite being 100 per cent diamond.
- There are two types of lab-grown diamonds –
- India particularly specialises and leads in the chemical vapour decomposition (CVD) technology that is certified as the purest type of diamonds.
- According to the report, the Gemological Institute of America predicted the total annual sales of laboratory diamonds will be well over $100 billion in the not too distant future, from about $20 billion today.
- This segment of the diamond is growing at an annual growth rate of 15-20 per cent.
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