It’s been a long time coming but it’s finally happened! The Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB) now has a functioning office! What’s more, we may actually see the entire diamond trade make the move at last!

At a ceremony yesterday, the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) formally inaugurated its office at the sprawling facility in suburban Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla complex. Sanjay Kothari, who until recently was the chairman of the GJEPC, had got fed up with all the delays and feet-dragging by the industry and took the decision to move major elements of the GJEPC whether or not the trade showed any signs of moving. The exhibitions cell, which organises and coordinates the India International Jewellery Show (IIJS) as well as the GJEPC’s participation in some 25 trade shows around the world, has moved as has the Promotion, Marketing and Business Development cell, which Sanjay Kothari now heads.

The rest of the GJEPC’s divisions will follow shortly. In fact, at yesterday’s function, BDB president Anoop Mehta said the bourse had decided to let the GJEPC have one of three possible locations to house its Kimberley Process division. Kothari’s reasoning was simple, let everyone start coming out to the BDB for essential meetings and they’ll get the necessary push to make the move themselves. Customs and some of the first industry offices are likely to follow by December 15th.

The project has been in the pipeline nearly two decades. I attended the first meeting – it was in 1989 I think – at which then sightholder London Star’s S.G. Jhaveri announced that he would undertake the project to set up a diamond bourse. The land for the bourse was acquired in 1992 but Jhaveri’s untimely passing away derailed the project and then one thing after another kept it off the tracks.