DiamondBuzz
New Indian Standard Removes Ambiguity, Reserves “Diamond” for Natural Diamonds
This new BIS standard ensures that consumers can clearly distinguish between natural diamonds and laboratory-grown alternatives through mandatory disclosure and standardised terminology.
The Indian gem and jewellery industry has long faced challenges arising from the use of multiple, inconsistent, and often ambiguous terms to describe diamonds and their alternatives—particularly in digital and e-commerce environments. This lack of formal guidance has contributed to consumer confusion and inconsistent disclosure practices across the market.
The Natural Diamond Council (NDC) welcomes the adoption of IS 19469:2025 by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), a modified adoption of ISO 18323:2015 – Jewellery: Consumer Confidence in the Diamond Industry. The new standard introduces a clear and enforceable framework for diamond terminology, establishing a definitive distinction between natural diamonds and laboratory-grown diamonds. By doing so, it strengthens consumer protection and supports the long-term credibility and integrity of the Indian diamond jewellery sector.

The new mandate claims that the term “diamond” applies exclusively to natural diamonds, as the word used alone always implies a natural origin. Under these rules, traders are permitted to use qualifiers such as “natural,” “real,” “genuine,” or “precious” to describe natural diamonds. The use of other terms like mined diamond, earth-mined diamond etc, are not permitted.
For laboratory-grown diamonds, the standard requires explicit and immediate disclosure at all times. Only the terms “laboratory-grown diamond” or “laboratory-created diamond” are permitted for commercial use. The standard expressly prohibits the use of misleading or promotional qualifiers—including nature’s, earth-friendly, conflict-free pure, cultured, or similar terms—that may imply equivalence with natural diamonds. The term “Synthetic Diamond” may be used in commercial documents or import/export documents, if so, required, under the laws or the regulation of any country, which such diamonds are to be exported, or from which such diamonds are to be imported.

Commenting on the development, Richa Singh, Managing Director, Natural Diamond Council, said: “Consumer protection is central to everything we do at the Natural Diamond Council. Clear, consistent terminology is essential to maintaining trust. By eliminating ambiguity and mandating full disclosure, these standards protect industry integrity and ensure consumers can confidently distinguish between a natural diamond and a laboratory-grown diamond.”
The Natural Diamond Council remains committed to working closely with BIS, Indian authorities, trade bodies, and industry stakeholders to support the correct implementation and enforcement of this terminology framework. By eliminating misleading descriptors and establishing consistent disclosure, the industry collectively safeguards the emotional and financial integrity of the diamond-buying experience.
DiamondBuzz
De Beers Group Sets Out Portfolio and Organisational Actions to Support Long-Term Value Creation
Company outlines strategic cost optimisation, portfolio streamlining and operational changes to strengthen resilience while positioning for long-term growth in the natural diamond industry.
De Beers Group is advancing delivery of its business streamlining by setting out a number of planned portfolio and organisational changes to ensure an efficient cost base that strengthens resilience in the near-term while enhancing future competitiveness and retaining optionality as industry conditions improve.
Since 2024, De Beers has been streamlining its business in line with its Origins strategy to reduce costs, divest non-core assets and prioritise investment in activities that create the most value. Significant progress has been made, with more than $100 million of annual overhead costs removed from the business, the sale or closure of a number of non-core assets and significant capital and cost reconfigurations to asset expansion projects.
Simultaneously, De Beers has reinvested in natural diamond category marketing to support the industry’s efforts to grow natural diamond demand, launching new large-scale campaigns and collaborating with key stakeholders across the value chain to foster industry-wide investment. Global consumer demand for natural diamond jewellery returned to growth in 2025, while natural diamond sales increased across US independent jewellers in 2025 and into Q1 2026, led by higher value diamonds and those promoted by De Beers’ Desert Diamonds marketing campaign.
On the supply side, global rough diamond production is now decreasing, with several producers closing mines during 2026. Whilst the increasing rarity of diamonds and the emerging signs of improvement in consumer demand are likely to support longer-term value creation, rough diamond trading conditions are expected to remain challenging in the near-term due to cyclical and industry-specific factors.
Consistent with recent actions to improve business resilience, De Beers intends to pause production at the Venetia mine in South Africa for two years to reduce costs while also rephasing capital expenditure on its underground project. This will involve critical infrastructure investment to enhance the capacity and efficiency of the mine, with the intention to support future production growth as business and industry conditions improve.
De Beers is engaging with stakeholders in accordance with relevant requirements and the company’s values as it moves through this process, and will both support impacted employees and continue to invest in its community and Social and Labour Plan commitments.
This proposed action at Venetia Mine follows the decision earlier this year to pause the Tuzo Phase 3 expansion project at the Gahcho Kué Mine in Canada.
In parallel, De Beers plans to reconfigure its global operating model to refocus and prioritise resources on the core operational businesses and reduce its central corporate cost base.
Al Cook, CEO of De Beers Group, said:

“In line with our commitment to focus and streamline our business, we are making a number of changes to De Beers to ensure greater business resilience in the near-term, while supporting long-term value creation. We recognise the protracted challenging conditions as the diamond industry evolves, though we are encouraged by signs of consumer demand growth in the US and beyond, particularly in higher quality diamonds.
Global rough diamond supply is falling, bringing more support to the market. The changes we are making to our business are focused on underpinning our efficiency now and into the future, favourably positioning De Beers in its leadership role.”
De Beers Group will maintain current production levels through its other operations, and previous production guidance remains unchanged.
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