The Ad Hoc National Committee set up to prepare for the formation of the Domestic Council for the gem and jewellery sector, mooted by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, held a meeting on April 23, 2019 at New Delhi to discuss the Articles of Association of the Council, with a view to finalising the same.

The objective of the Domestic Council is to ensure growth of the domestic industry which would be immensely benefited from such a representative body for highlighting the issues and concerns of the industry that require redressal through policy measures.

The Ad Hoc National Committeecomprises 16 associations of the gems and jewellery industry. Its members have been conducting meetings regularly to draft the required constitutional documents viz. the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Domestic Council for the approval of the Ministry.

In this regard, an important meeting was held on Tuesday, 23rd April 2019 in Udyog Bhavan, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, New Delhi to discuss and finalise the Articles of Association of the Domestic Council under the guidance of Ms. Rupa Dutta, Economic Adviser, Ministry of Commerce & Industry.

The meeting was chaired by the Chairman of The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) Pramod Agrawal in his capacity as the Convener of the Ad Hoc National Committee.

Apart from GJEPC, the meeting was attended by the representatives of:

• All India Gems and Jewellery Domestic Council, Mumbai
• Association of Gold Refineries and Mints (AGRM) Cochin
• Bharat Diamond Bourse, (BDB) Mumbai
• Bhartiya Swarnkar Sangh, Jaipur
• Indian Bullion and Jewellers Association
• India Jewellers Forum, Amritsar
• India Association of Hallmarking Centres, Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
• National Gold, Silver, Refiners & Jewellers Association, Vita, Maharashtra
• Rajkot Gems and Jewellery Association, Rajkot
• Tamil Nadu Jewellers’ Federation, Chennai

While the meeting on April 23rd, made significant progress, some minor changes remain to be finalised.

“We are trying our best to complete all formalities at the soonest, so that the Domestic Council can begin functioning as a properly constituted body at the earliest,” said Agrawal.

The Ad Hoc Committee is confident of keeping the commitment made to Hon’ble Union Minister of Commerce & Industries and Civil AviationShri Suresh Prabhu to ensure that the inauguration of the Council takes place in the month of May.

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