I have stood in communities built by diamonds. I have visited schools where children learn because a mine exists nearby, and schools in India where families thrive because of the cutting and polishing factories that have shaped entire cities. I have seen hospitals, roads, conservation programmes, and formalised livelihoods that simply would not be there without this industry. I have never seen any other product do what natural diamonds do for the communities and countries where they are found and transformed.
That is not a marketing line. It is a reality I have witnessed firsthand, from the artisanal mining communities of sub-Saharan Africa to the boardrooms of global governments. Natural diamonds are one of the most powerful instruments of development that the world has ever quietly produced.
And yet, wider society still judges us by a definition written more than two decades ago.
That is the contradiction at the heart of where we stand today. And it is one this industry must now resolve.
The Cutting and Polishing Heartbeat of the World
The Kimberley Process meeting in Mumbai could not be better placed. India is not just the cutting and polishing heartbeat of the global diamond trade. It is also one of the most vivid demonstrations of what this industry makes possible.
Walk through Surat and you see a city shaped by diamonds. The social initiatives supported by the diamond industry here, in education, healthcare, community development and skills training, are among the most significant of any industry in any country. These are not corporate social responsibility footnotes. They are structural contributions to the fabric of Indian society.
India’s chairmanship of the KP brings to the table not just commercial expertise, but a lived understanding of what diamonds give back. That matters enormously for the work ahead.
The Definition That Does Not Match the Reality
The Kimberley Process was created to address a genuine crisis. It did so. The flow of conflict diamonds, as originally defined, has been significantly reduced. That is a real achievement, built through two decades of cooperation between governments, industry, and civil society.
But the world has not stood still, and neither has the definition of conflict.
Today, when consumers, journalists, and policymakers speak about responsible sourcing, they are asking questions that go well beyond the original KP framework. They are asking about human rights, about community benefit, about environmental stewardship, about governance. We have answers and evidence to show how advanced this industry is, yet we are still judged by an outdated definition. The definition has not kept pace. And so, a system that is doing genuinely good work is being held to a standard that no longer reflects what the world needs it to do.
This is not a criticism of the KP. It is an argument for its evolution.
During my presidency of the World Diamond Council, I have pushed hard for the conflict diamond definition to be updated. Not because the original definition was wrong, but because an institution that does not evolve cannot protect the industry it was designed to serve.
We have made progress. And what better place to accelerate it than India, a nation whose leadership in sustainability and digital innovation is already shaping the future of this trade.
The Story We Are Not Telling
Here is what troubles me most.
The phrase “blood diamonds” still shapes how many consumers think about our industry. A film, a moment in history, a definition that was written when the world looked very different. That narrative has not been updated, because we as an industry have not updated it with the same energy and consistency that we have applied to the technical work of compliance.
We have been building schools. We have been funding hospitals. We have been supporting conservation, formalising artisanal miners, training young people, and sustaining national economies. We have been doing the work. We have not been telling the story.
That has to change.
Communication is not separate from compliance. It is how compliance delivers value. A system that is not understood cannot build confidence, no matter how robust it is. And an industry that does not tell its own story will always be defined by someone else’s.
What Alignment Actually Means
The framework for India’s chairmanship, credibility, confidence, and compliance, is exactly right. These three things are interdependent, and they are all, ultimately, about alignment.
Alignment between what we do and what we say. Alignment between the standards we uphold and the definitions that underpin them. Alignment between the progress this industry has made and the perception that exists in the world.
Natural diamonds are a force for good. The evidence is overwhelming. The communities that depend on this trade, the nations that have built infrastructure and institutions around it, the millions of people whose livelihoods it sustains, all of this is the real story of natural diamonds.
It is a brilliant story. And it is time we told it.
There is no more fitting place to begin than India. A nation that has known for generations what the world is only beginning to understand: the brilliance of a diamond is not only in the stone, but in the people behind it.