As India’s first major jewellery show of the year, IIJS Bharat Signature offers early cues on shifting consumer sentiment and demand patterns. In this conversation, Sachin Jain, Regional CEO – India, World Gold Council, shares how the show helps decode gold demand, evolving consumer preferences, and the metal’s expanding role across jewellery and investment.
IIJS Signature acts as an early indicator of shifting demand patterns. Will the show help WGC gauge the direction of gold demand in FY26?
The IIJS Bharat Signature Show, with its dual venues and significant scale encompassing over 1,600 exhibitors and more than 25,000 expected trade visitors, serves as a critical barometer for the industry. It is a comprehensive display of market offerings that provides invaluable, real-time intelligence on evolving design trends, product innovations, and overall industry sentiment. This direct observation is instrumental in helping us forecast consumer demand patterns and anticipate the direction of gold consumption for the forthcoming wedding season.
As gold competes with a wider universe of lifestyle and investment choices, what shifts are you seeing in how younger Indians define the emotional and aesthetic value of gold?
We are witnessing a notable evolution in how younger Indians perceive gold. While its traditional significance endures, there is an increasing demand for gold jewellery that offers versatility, contemporary design, and personal expression. This segment values lighter, modern pieces suitable for daily wear, effectively blending gold’s inherent emotional and aesthetic appeal with its practical utility and intrinsic value. To resonate with these evolving preferences and maintain gold’s relevance, our ‘The Moment Is Gold’ campaign directly addresses Gen Z and Millennials, repositioning gold jewellery as an integral part of everyday celebrations and a reflection of modern, aspirational lifestyles, thereby fostering a deeper emotional connection in new contexts.
How do you view the interplay between gold’s appeal as a high-performing financial asset and its role as a jewellery purchase? Are they moving in opposite directions, or evolving along parallel tracks?
Our Q3 2025 Gold Demand Trends report for India illustrates the interconnected and complementary nature of gold’s dual appeal. The investment demand for gold grew robustly by 20% in volume and a significant 74% in value. This strong investment performance occurred even as gold jewellery volumes experienced a 31% decline, though its value remained largely stable. These figures underscore that, in India, gold’s appeal as a high-performing financial asset and its cherished role as a jewellery purchase are not moving in opposite directions; rather, they are deeply intertwined and evolve along highly parallel tracks.
For the majority of Indian consumers, acquiring gold jewellery inherently represents a significant means of wealth preservation and investment. Its enduring financial value, liquidity, and status as a reliable store of value fundamentally underpin its desirability as an aesthetic acquisition, providing both emotional satisfaction and tangible financial security, thus demonstrating gold’s enduring dual appeal.
With consumers increasingly influenced by social storytelling, how is the World Gold Council evolving its creative playbook to keep gold culturally visible in new-age online spaces?
To ensure gold’s continued cultural visibility and sustained relevance within contemporary online spaces, we are dynamically evolving our creative playbook through a deliberate digital-first strategy that leverages social storytelling. This evolution is distinctly exemplified by our two recent, purpose-driven campaigns: ‘The Moment Is Gold’ and ‘It’s Aaj Ka Gold.’
The ‘Moment Is Gold’ campaign specifically targets Gen Z and Millennials, utilising storytelling to portray gold jewellery as meaningful for everyday moments, thereby expanding its cultural narrative beyond traditional milestones.
Concurrently, ‘It’s Aaj Ka Gold’ Today’s Gold focuses on educating digitally-savvy young investors about Gold ETFs, promoting them as an investment option suited for modern wealth creation that is regulated, backed by physical gold and easily accessible.
Both initiatives are comprehensively deployed across television, digital, OTT, and key social media platforms ensuring tailored messaging and fostering engagement within these critical younger demographics where social storytelling thrives. This approach is vital as India’s younger generation, comfortable with new, accessible forms of gold investment, represents a significant growth area for the market, necessitating modern, digital-first engagement strategies.
As digital finance becomes mainstream, what role do you see Gold ETFs playing in a future where wealth creation is app-led, personalised and algorithm-driven?
Gold ETFs are exceptionally well-positioned for substantial growth within a future characterised by app-led, personalised, and algorithm-driven wealth creation. Their inherent liquidity, transparency, and ease of digital accessibility make them a preferred investment vehicle for modern investors. They democratise gold ownership, enabling convenient and cost-effective portfolio diversification through integrated digital platforms, thereby allowing investors to seamlessly leverage gold’s traditional benefits within a sophisticated financial ecosystem.
We at the World Gold Council actively championed this modern approach in India through our ‘It’s Aaj Ka Gold’ campaign, specifically targeting young, digital-first investors aged 20-35. This initiative highlights Gold ETFs as an affordable, regulated, and physically-backed investment solution, reinforcing their strategic relevance in today’s app-led financial landscape, and addressing the awareness-action gap among digital natives.
How can India carve out a distinct identity for contemporary gold jewellery design that appeals to both domestic buyers and international tastemakers?
India can establish a truly distinct identity by masterfully integrating its unparalleled legacy of intricate craftsmanship and rich cultural motifs with innovative, contemporary design principles. With market trends already showing a shift towards modern aesthetics, with lighter-weight pieces and 24-karat hard pure gold, and plain jewellery gaining traction over studded pieces, this approach entails reinterpreting traditional aesthetics into versatile, modern forms that resonate globally while retaining their authentic Indian character.
Has there been any progress on the regulation of Digital Gold, which you had previously mentioned as a focus area for WGC?
The regulation of Digital Gold remains a significant and active focus area for us. We continue to engage actively with relevant policymakers and stakeholders to advocate for the establishment of a clear, robust, and comprehensive regulatory framework for Digital Gold. Such a framework is deemed essential for protecting consumer interests, enhancing market integrity, ensuring fair practices, and supporting the responsible and sustainable expansion of this increasingly popular segment of gold investment.
Are there any other priorities in terms of policy reforms for the Indian gold sector?
Beyond Digital Gold, our policy priorities for the Indian gold sector are multifaceted. Firstly, we advocate for optimising the overall tax and duty structure to promote greater formalisation and reduce fragmentation, building on lessons from past policy impacts on demand.
Secondly, strengthening and expanding hallmarking standards is crucial, as hallmarking is unequivocally a good decision that provides essential trust and transparency for both consumers and the trade.
Thirdly, a significant priority is identifying ways to effectively monetise India’s vast domestic gold assets, leveraging this pool within the Indian economy by allowing people to collateralise or lend against their gold holdings.
Finally, ensuring the integrity of gold supply chains, encompassing trust and transparency in sourcing and ethical conditions that artisans work in, is paramount, especially for India’s evolving investment market.
Any other message you’d like to send to the trade?
Our core message to the trade emphasises the continuous pursuit of innovation, the fostering of transparency, and collectively working to enhance consumer trust. Large-scale events such as IIJS Bharat Signature, which unite the entire global jewellery community and offer significant networking opportunities, underscore the critical importance of collaboration.
By adapting to new consumer preferences, upholding ethical business practices, and investing in skill development and advanced technologies, we can collectively strengthen gold’s position and unlock its full potential for sustainable growth within the Indian and global markets.