National News
Retail Gold Sales Drop 25% Amid Rising Prices, Lightweight Jewelry in Demand
A 4% rise in gold prices in March has led to a significant 25% decline in retail gold sales at jewelers and a 60% drop in Zaveri Bazaar. Indian families with upcoming weddings are feeling the pinch of higher gold prices, turning to lighter, lower-carat jewelry to meet bridal jewelry demands. Despite this, demand is expected to pick up during Akshay Tritiya in April, though lightweight jewelry remains the preferred choice.
Gold prices saw a near-4% increase in the first half of March, bringing down retail sales by 25% compared to the same period last year. Zaveri Bazaar, a hub where retail jewellers buy bullion and jewelry in bulk, saw a 60% drop in sales.
Senco Gold & Diamonds, Joy Alukkas, PNG Jewellers, Mamraj Musaddilal Jewellers, and senior executives from the India Bullion & Jewellers Association mentioned that Indian families, especially those with weddings planned for the upcoming season, are stressed by the escalating prices. As a result, they are opting for lightweight jewelry, as high prices make it difficult to stick to the traditional gold jewelry budgets.

Suvankar Sen, the chief of Senco Gold, shared that sales of small-ticket gold jewelry in the ₹30,000 – ₹40,000 price range have dried up. “The high prices are keeping customers away from spending on gold,” he said. On March 18, gold was priced at ₹88,256 per 10 gm in the physical market, with a 3% Goods and Services Tax (GST), pushing the cost to ₹90,903 per 10 gm.
“Those who have weddings in the family are buying lightweight jewellery as they cannot stretch the budget. Demand has dropped by 15% beginning from March and if this rally continues, the recovery in demand may not happen. The next big sales can only happen during Akshay Tritiya, which falls on April 30,” said the MD of Senco Gold & Diamond.
Despite the rise in prices, the demand has remained sluggish in South India too. “Compared to last March, demand is down by up to 25%. While the high price is a big factor in this demand drop, other things like board exams have slowed down demand as well,” said Baby George, CEO of Joy Alukkas.
Saurabh Gadgil, chairman of PNG Jewellers, also highlighted the shift in preferences. “People are buying lightweight jewellery, and many are exchanging old gold jewellery with new ones. The volumes are getting impacted but value-wise the jewellers are not facing any issue.”


Avinash Gupta, partner at Hyderabad-based Mamraj Musaddilal Jewellers, noted that while demand has softened, it hasn’t reached alarming levels. “Demand will bounce back in April due to weddings and Akshaya Tritiya, but definitely the preference will shift to lightweight and lower caratage jewellery.”
National News
Lukson Builds India’s Sustainability Benchmark For LGD With A Fully Solar Powered Manufacturing Facility
Lukson Combines A Solar Powered CVD Facility With 500 Reactors, Internationally Certified Stones and A Group Legacy Of Over 1 Lakh Trees Planted Across Gujarat
As India’s lab grown diamond market accelerates, most brands in the category lean on a single claim, that a diamond grown in a lab is kinder to the planet than one pulled out of it. Lukson, the vertically integrated lab grown diamond jewellery brand from the JK Star Group, is going several steps further, backing that claim at the infrastructure level with one of the few fully solar powered diamond growing operations in the country.
At the heart of this story is the Group’s CVD diamond growing facility in Surat, Gujarat, operated under AVP Star, the JK Star Group’s lab grown diamond manufacturing arm. The facility runs entirely on solar power drawn from the Group’s dedicated solar plant in Navsari, Gujarat, and houses 500 CVD reactors, where every Lukson diamond begins its journey as a tiny seed. From growing and coring to slicing, laser processing, cutting, polishing and grading, every stage is handled in house, giving the brand an unbroken chain of quality control and traceability that few players in the category can match.
The commitment extends well beyond the factory. The Group has planted over 1 lakh trees across Gujarat as part of its environmental programme, while its philanthropic arm, the JK Star Charitable Trust, has contributed over 10 percent of net profits from all five group companies since 2019 towards education, healthcare, tree plantation, environmental sustainability and food distribution.
The stones themselves carry independent proof. Lukson’s lab grown diamonds are certified by leading international laboratories including IGI, GIA and GCAL, with an inventory of around 40,000 certified stones held across the Group’s New York and India offices.
Vedant Lukhi, Co-Founder, Lukson Who leads the Group’s CVD diamond growing technology and operations, Said:

“Lab grown does not automatically mean sustainable. A diamond grown in a lab still needs energy, and if that energy comes from fossil fuels, the sustainability story falls apart”
“That is why we invested in making our facility solar powered. When the factory growing your diamond runs on the sun, sustainability stops being a marketing line and becomes something you can walk into, measure and verify. That is the standard we believe the entire industry should be held to.”
Anand Lukhi, CEO and Co-Founder, Lukson Said:
“For us, sustainability was never an afterthought or a trend to ride, it is the inheritance we chose to build on.”

“We come from a family that has spent over three decades in diamonds, and when we imagined Lukson, we were clear that the next generation of Indian consumers deserves jewellery they can feel genuinely good about, in how it looks, how it is priced and how it is made. Our customers should never have to choose between beauty and responsibility. With Lukson, they get both, backed by proof at every step from the reactor to the retail shelf.”
Launched in January 2025 by Anand Lukhi and Vedant Lukhi as the JK Star Group’s first D2C venture, Lukson brings this manufacturing depth directly to the modern Indian consumer, offering certified lab grown diamond jewellery crafted in 9KT, 14KT and 18KT gold, backed by BIS hallmarking and a lifetime buyback policy. The brand retails across ten cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Jaipur and Guwahati, alongside Amazon, AJIO, Pernia’s Pop Up Shop, Eternz and lukson.co, with try at home and video shopping convenience across key cities.
-
National News58 minutes agoLukson Builds India’s Sustainability Benchmark For LGD With A Fully Solar Powered Manufacturing Facility
-
BrandBuzz24 minutes agoIrasva Fine Jewellery- This Raksha Bandhan, Gift Her A Little Something That Lasts Forever
-
New Premises22 hours agoChitrangada Singh Inaugurates PNG Jewellers’ New Store In Gurugram
-
National News3 hours agoPNG Jewellers Celebrates Shravan With The Return Of Its Signature Mangalsutra Mahotsav

