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Project INDRA Set to Transform India’s Natural Diamond Retail Landscape

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When De Beers Group and the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) introduced their collaborative vision – the Indian Natural Diamond Retailer Alliance (INDRA) – at IIJS Signature 2025 earlier this year, their mission was clear: to deepen the reach of natural diamonds in India, now the world’s second-largest diamond jewellery retail market.

Following the concept’s unveiling, INDRA officially launched at IIJS Premiere 2025 and is now gaining momentum. With leading retailers already joining the initiative and Retail Jeweller India onboard as the official trade partner, INDRA is set to become a transformative digital platform for the industry.

Designed as a comprehensive digital ecosystem, INDRA is tailored to enhance how natural diamond jewellery is marketed and sold in India. The platform offers retailers and manufacturers access to advanced tools including AI-based campaign creation, globally designed multilingual marketing templates, and a wide spectrum of training programs — from foundational knowledge to advanced diamond expertise. Real-time updates, role-based dashboards, customer engagement tools, and even store design guidance are part of its rich offering, helping jewellers elevate their overall retail experience.

One of INDRA’s core strengths is its focus on the unique needs of traditional jewellers in Tier II and Tier III cities. Market research conducted before the platform’s development revealed that while these jewellers often have a loyal customer base, they frequently lack the training, certification knowledge, and marketing infrastructure necessary to confidently promote and sell diamond jewellery. Many also struggle with product complexity and consumer hesitation around diamond purchases.

“INDRA is designed to bridge these gaps with a full-fledged digital ecosystem,” explained Amit Pratihari, Managing Director, De Beers India. “It enables retailers to establish their brand identity, access curated merchandising recommendations, connect with verified suppliers, and upskill their staff in nine Indian languages. Jewellers can also seamlessly plug their own products into marketing creatives provided by De Beers, making localised digital campaigns more accessible than ever.”

Calling INDRA a “game-changer,” GJEPC Chairman Kirit Bhansali highlighted the broader vision behind the platform. “Through marketing support, training, and strategic tools, INDRA is enabling retailers to tell the story of natural diamonds in every part of India. This initiative demonstrates our commitment to sustainable industry growth, strengthening consumer confidence, and positioning India as a global leader in diamond jewellery.”

The launch of INDRA aligns with De Beers’ continued investment in category marketing for natural diamonds. The brand’s recent ‘Second Piercing’ campaign led to a notable 20% increase in brand awareness. Building on that momentum, the latest campaign ‘Love, From Bestie’ celebrates friendships with meaningful diamond pieces. Both campaigns are part of De Beers’ overarching ‘Rituals’ platform, aimed at embedding natural diamonds deeper into India’s cultural and emotional fabric.

“This initiative goes far beyond boosting sales,” said Pratihari. “It’s about protecting and promoting the legacy of natural diamonds — celebrating their role in our memories, emotions, and identities.”

With India’s precious jewellery market expected to grow to $120 billion by 2030 and potentially reach $200–250 billion by 2035, natural diamonds are poised to become a key aspiration for the country’s expanding consumer base. Project INDRA is set to play a pivotal role in driving this growth, empowering retailers with everything they need to meet the evolving demand.

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DiamondBuzz

Gemfair and De Beers London have launched a capsule jewellery collection featuring ethically sourced artisanal diamonds.

This launch marks the first time that GemFair’s ethically sourced, artisanal-mined diamonds are featured in jewellery, bringing their story of supporting livelihoods to consumers

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De Beers Group is pleased to announce a collaboration between GemFair, the company’s programme to help formalise the artisanal and small-scale diamond mining (ASM) sector, and its luxury jewellery brand, De Beers London, to bring the story and beauty of GemFair’s ethically sourced, artisanal diamonds to consumers for the first time.

GemFair is a first-of-its-kind sourcing initiative that aims to transform standards and livelihoods for artisanal diamond miners by providing fair value purchasing, training to improve mining and working practices and a formal and traceable route-to-market for ethically sourced artisanal diamonds. Through GemFair’s proprietary digital tools and third‑party‑verified assurance programme, eligible diamonds can be traced from mine site to market.

GemFair is also part of Building Forever – De Beers Group’s industry-leading commitment to sustainabilitytransforming rarity into responsibility by supporting meaningful impact that endures beyond diamonds for countries, communities and ecosystems. The programme’s success is measured through improvements in standards, support of livelihoods in both mining and alternative livelihoods like farming and fishing, and traceability rather than production volume, reflecting its long-term, systems-based approach.

The capsule collection with De Beers London translates this journey into a series of creations that pair rough and polished GemFair diamonds, offering a rare and tangible expression of transformation. Comprising twelve unique pieces, the capsule collection celebrates the House’s intimate relationship with the source. Sculpted by the quiet force of rivers, each diamond was individually selected for its character and quality. The polished diamonds were handcrafted exclusively for the capsule, while the rough diamonds remain as nature intended – an authentic and powerful tribute to the Earth’s raw beauty. Through ‘Toi & Moi’ rings and the ‘Modern Lines’ set, each piece reflects a continuous dialogue between discovery and craftsmanship, honouring both the origin of the diamond and the artistry that reveals it.

Beyond this capsule, GemFair is now a registered supplier to De Beers London for future collections, having met the House’s rigorous standards for quality and responsible sourcing. This partnership marks an important step in strengthening the connection between exceptional diamonds, the people who discover them, and the finished jewellery piece.

Emmanuelle Nodale, CEO of De Beers London, said: “We’re proud to be the first jeweller to launch a collection featuring GemFair ethically sourced diamonds, bringing not just their beauty but also the powerful story of artisanal miners to our clients. By introducing both rough and polished diamonds within the same creation, we offer a rare and tangible connection to each diamond’s path, from its discovery in ancient riverbeds to its transformation into a jewel.

These pieces carry not only the beauty of the diamond itself, but also the human stories behind it — stories of pride, opportunity and meaningful impact for artisanal mining communities. This collection marks an important step in our ongoing commitment to GemFair and to raising awareness of the programme’s important work.”

De Beers Group launched GemFair to lead industry efforts to formalise a transparent route to market for artisanal diamond miners, which accounts for around 10 per cent of global diamond supply by value and provides a vital source of livelihood for millions of people in some of the poorest parts of the world.

The programme launched in 2018 in the Kono region of Sierra Leone, where it continues to operate today. De Beers chose Sierra Leone to establish the GemFair programme because the government has made substantial efforts to include artisanal mining in its regulation and the country has transformed following the civil conflict that ended more than two decades ago.

Sandrine Conseiller, CEO of De Beers Brands & Diamond Desirability said: “Today’s luxury is defined not only by craftsmanship but by conscience. As part of our commitment to Building Forever, GemFair plays a vital role in supporting livelihoods by formalising artisanal mining and creating fair, traceable routes to market. For the first time, we are bringing these diamonds to consumers through this new collection with De Beers London with pieces that celebrate the beauty of natural diamonds while telling a story of the producers’ empowerment and transformation.

It’s an important step in our efforts to translate rarity to responsibility and create meaningful impacts that endure beyond diamonds.”

Today, there are more than 500 artisanal mine sites participating in GemFair, which in turn support approximately 7,000 direct and many more indirect livelihoods. Since launching, GemFair has purchased more than 20,000 diamonds from participating miners and conducted more than 5,700 compliance visits to participating sites. GemFair has also launched a programme to reclaim artisanal mine sites once mining has ended to help improve safety and environmental practices within the sector. Since 2020, the programme has converted almost 160 abandoned mine pits to agricultural use and donated over 1,000 kilograms of rice, fruit and vegetable seedlings for local communities, supporting food security and providing an alternative source of livelihoods.

Steve Allan, Head of GemFair, said: “The collaboration with De Beers London marks a significant milestone for GemFair as our beautiful, ethically-sourced artisanal diamonds are sold in a dedicated jewellery collection for the first time. GemFair makes a tangible difference to the lives of the artisanal miners involved in the programme and it’s a great privilege to help tell their stories through the diamonds that we source and sell.

We’ve come a long way since starting out as a pilot programme trying to establish a model for something that had never been done before. It’s very rewarding to see GemFair diamonds set in such stunning jewellery pieces, representing a real full circle moment.”

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JewelBuzz is Asia’s First Digital Jewellery Media & India’s No.1 B2B Jewellery Magazine, published by AM Media House. Since 2016, we’ve been the trusted source for jewellery news, market trends, trade insights, exhibitions, podcasts, and brand stories, connecting jewellers, retailers, and industry professionals worldwide.

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