Gems and jewellery industry apex body GJEPC’s decision to suspend transactions with Russian state miner Alrosa is expected to further squeeze the job market in hub Surat, which has already witnessed some 28 deaths by suicides recently
The G7, a grouping of some of the world’s most developed economies (US, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, UK and Japan), is on the verge of mandating certificates for the sale of polished diamonds to ensure that diamonds mined by Russian state mining company Alrosa do not reach the market. This is to ensure that all external funding to Russia’s war on Ukraine is effectively cut off.
While the countries, particularly the US, had declared sanctions on Alrosa immediately after the war commenced in February 2022, it was recently claimed that Surat-based firms continued to buy roughs (rough unpolished mined diamonds) from the company.
This came to the fore in a report by Ukraine’s National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP), as it compiled a list of ‘international war sponsors’—companies that do business with Russian state companies.
A Surat-based diamond trading and polishing conglomerate is alleged to have bought rough diamonds worth millions of dollars from Alrosa in the past one year. The company has denied the allegations, claiming it to be an attack on India.
For the rest of this article: https://www.indiatoday.in/india-today-insight/story/why-g7-sanctions-on-russian-diamonds-are-a-body-blow-for-surat-industry-2441333-2023-09-27