JB Insights
We have away played conservatively….we have been flexible enough to change and flow with 20-30 percent of our business. We understand the trends and phases of the diamond sector – Rushabh Turakhia
R. Kirti & Co is a manufacturer, exporter and wholesaler of solitaires, loose diamonds and certified diamonds. With more than 45+ years in the industry, they have their finger on the pulse of the diamond industry.Rushabh Turakhia, Partner-R. Kirti & Co. speaks to JEWELBUZZ on various aspects of the diamond sector: challenges, opportunities, LGDs, consumer trends… and more
The geopolitical tensions, G7 sanctions, and drop in diamond demand in US, the China are major concerns for the Indian diamond industry. What in your opinion needs to be done to overcome these adverse conditions?
Yes, it does affect our market very badly, especially being the luxury segment, over the war in Russia which is one of the important sources of rough diamonds, and Israel one of the leading trading hubs of our industry. The sanctions do affect us and the livelihood of thousands who are polishing 90 percent of the diamonds of the world, especially SMEs. I am completely against the war, and would want peace across, but at the same time how much do these sanctions affect the countries at war? With so many sanctions on Russia, it’s still at it, and with America aiding Israel, the war isn’t going to stop soon. G7 holds 70 percent of the global market for diamonds, so eventually it’s going to affect the industry as a whole. The Council needs to be more aggressive with its policy and talk with the Government or when it comes to marketing the product.
What is your outlook for the diamond sector- both domestic and global this year? What are the challenges, and opportunities?
The outlook for domestic is about two things, one is India is a huge market and has enough money for this industry to grow, second is the awareness and knowledge about Natural and LGD needs to be shared aggressively. Globally even with the conflicts and economic crisis, there are always buyers, even during Covid times, with very few getting married or with people saying GDP had negative growth, there was still enough demand for the industry. The challenge that our industry is going to face is about misinformation to the younger new buyers. Social media plays a major role on how we take this market ahead.
The natural diamonds vs LGD (lab grown diamonds) debates and discussions continue. Your comments on how both segments can co-exist in the market place.
Yes, both have their place, both will run parallel, but at the same time what’s important is the knowledge needs to be shared openly. Random influencers who don’t understand diamonds, never purchased have started giving false information and affecting the buyers with half knowledge. For some small amount they would mar the industry which has been providing livelihood to millions. Be part of industry but not by cutting down each other. State the facts, than let buyer choose, there’s market for everyone.
Lab-grown diamonds prices continue to fall. Paul Zimnisky, leading diamond analyst, foresees jewellers scaling back their business in LGDs. In India, LGD segment is being encouraged by favourable governmentt policies and sops. Do you see the international LGD market slumping and the Indian LGD segment rising? Your comments on overall LGD scenario?
Yes LGD prices are falling, at one time they used to be 70 percent of the natural diamonds and now at 4-5 percent. Internationally they can be substituted by the lowest quality real diamonds, but not the better ones. LGD is growing but I would feel it’s like any other branded purses, shoes or clothes, like once you out of the store, don’t expect it to give you that value later on. I would call them more of an expense than an investment. Again my only emphasis is on disclosure: giving the customer the right information.
What are consumer trends you are observing in the solitaire segments and diamond jewellery segment, vis-à-vis designs, price points etc?
With increasing gold prices, the designers and the makers now need to work on the diamond component in the jewellery. Gone are the days when even a first time buyer could afford a small ring/pendant within the budget. But, I must say there are these die hard diamond buyers, come what may the solitaire market is run by them. At the same time would like to say how the travel and automobile industry giving a huge challenge, as one can show off on their social media where they traveling or which car they have bought but you will hardly see someone showing off a solitaire or jewellery they have purchased. The next generation wants validation, want those likes and comments, than what they actually need.
Please comment on R Kirti & Co’s strategy, roadmap going forward.
We have away played conservatively, and with the moving market have been flexible enough to change and flow with 20-30 percent of our business, while our major business of solitaires remains intact. Yes times are not good for the industry, but being in the industry for more than 45+ years we understand the trends and phases of the same.
JB Insights
The Woman Wearing The Diamond Was Never The One The Ad Was Talking To
Disha Shah, Founder & Designer, DiAi Designs Says That The Brands That Shift From “She Deserves It” to “She Chose It” Won’t Just Win Cultural Relevance – They’ll Own The Future Of Jewellery Marketing.
Indian jewellery advertising has always centred the woman. She has been the face of every campaign, draped in gold, luminous at the occasion, receiving the gift with practised grace. What she rarely was, until recently, was the intended audience.
The creative language of the category was built around a genuine economic reality. For decades, the buyer in Indian fine jewellery was the patriarch, the husband, the father, the family elder making a financial decision on behalf of a woman whose purchasing autonomy was limited. Advertising followed the money. The gift reveal, the bridal close-up, the family approval shot: these were not arbitrary creative choices. They reflected who held the purse strings, and they became so embedded in the category’s visual grammar that they outlasted the conditions that created them by an entire generation.
That structural reality has now reversed. Jewellery purchases now extend beyond weddings and festivals to daily wear, driven by financially independent working women. The self-purchasing woman is no longer an emerging segment; she is the category’s fastest-growing buyer, approaching the decision differently from the buyer the industry originally designed itself around. She is not waiting for an occasion. She is not waiting for someone to present a box. She researched the piece, chose it, and bought it because she wanted it.
The advertising, for the most part, has not caught up.
Some brands are beginning to recognise this. CaratLane’s #WearYourWins movement and Tanishq’s sustained push toward the “woman as decision-maker” are meaningful steps. But what makes these campaigns commercially smart is not just cultural alignment. Research from Harvard Business School finds that women systematically provide less favourable assessments of their own performance and potential than equally performing men. This documented self-promotion gap persists even when women know they have outperformed others. Campaigns that actively celebrate female self-recognition are not just filling a creative gap. They are responding to a behavioural reality that has gone largely unaddressed in the category. The brands doing this well are not being progressive for their own sake. They are being accurate about who their buyer is and what she needs to hear.
Look at the Women’s Day 2026 campaigns across the industry. The conversation is clearly starting to pivot. Brands are finally stepping away from the usual gifting tropes and reframing jewellery as a tool for personal milestones and self-expression. But these remain exceptions. The dominant campaign language of Indian jewellery- the gesture, the reveal, the woman being seen rather than deciding- has not structurally changed.
The media mix tells the same story. Titan leaned heavily on television in FY25, with ad volume surging to 77% of its mix, a broadcast medium built for household reach rather than the individual, financially independent woman who now represents the category’s fastest-growing buyer.
Meanwhile, digitally native BlueStone achieved 50% of online jewellery ad volumes on a budget nearly ten times smaller than Titan’s. The channel that reaches the self-purchasing woman directly is delivering outsized results on a fraction of the spend. The implication for where the industry should be directing its creative attention is fairly clear.
Consider what a brief genuinely written for this buyer would look like. No occasion in the shot. No second person in the frame presents anything. The opening line is not “for the woman who deserves to be celebrated.” It is “she saw it, she wanted it, she bought it.” The product earns its place not through sentiment but through desire. The copy does not explain why she is worth it. It assumes she already knows. That is not a tonal adjustment. It is a fundamentally different creative architecture, and very few briefs in this category have been written that way.
The LGD category has a specific opportunity here that established houses do not. Without decades of legacy campaign language to protect, an independent designer in this space can build advertising from a blank page, one written entirely around the woman who is actually making the purchase. The brief does not have to accommodate inherited assumptions about who the buyer is or what she is waiting for. That is not a small advantage. In a category where the dominant creative language was built around a buyer who is no longer the one making the decision, starting without that inheritance may be the most powerful creative position available.
The woman wearing the diamond has always been visible. What is changing now is who gets to decide. The brands that build their creative around that reality will not just be more culturally relevant. They will be better positioned for every year that follows. The advertising has not caught up yet. But the buyer already has.
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