Dr. Chetan Kumar Mehta, President of the newly created Jewellery Division, India, IBJA spoke to JEWELBUZZ on its objectives, priorities and the roadmap to ensure a bright future for the small and medium jewellery segment. Given under are his comments:

The Jewellery Division, India – a new arm of IBJA – has been created with the express purpose of working for the welfare and upliftment of the small and medium level players in the jewellery industry. IBJA has in place a focused and structured approach for the bullion sector; it is the small and medium jewellers who need handholding, mentoring and guidance.

We will all work together to address various issues: GST, PMLA and other issues of compliance, taxation etc. Also, we will focus greatly on education, training and skill upgradation. We will ensure that critical enablers for success in the current business ecosystem, like digitalization of operations, technology upgradation in manufacturing, marketing, harnessing social media etc. are incorporated in the businesses of the small and medium level jewellers.

We will work closely with small, medium retailers and provide them with tools for growth. And, more importantly, instill in them the confidence to grow from a single store to multi-store chains.

Working closely with these jewellers will help us understand the challenges and pain points; this will be communicated to the government and bureaucracy, which in turn will help in framing policies that contribute to ease of doing business for the small and medium level jewellers.

In order to streamline operations and reach out to maximum players, we will be creating North, South, West and East zones, each with a zonal head. As President – Jewellery Division, India I am confident that collectively we will work together as a team with passion and dedication, and ensure a bright future for the small and medium jewellery segment.