Page 19 - Bullion World Volume 02 Issue 08 September 2022

Bullion World | Volume 2 | Issue 09 | September 2022

has been and will always remain Diamonds’ has engaged with the
to be a pressing need of the hour likes of IBM, Deloitte and Accenture
for the second largest jewellery- to explore and exploit this avenue.
consuming country, such as India.
When the international spot rate What are the factors you
required to arrive at the gold rate think accelerate the growth of
is uniform, the customs duty is the Organized Jewellery Retail in
same in the country, and GST also India?
being consistent, we thought, why The answer is in the very question,
can’t the gold rate also be uniform, having unorganised players
in the country? This gave birth to in the market is the first and
the Malabar Gold’s “One India One foremost incumbent that needs
International Brand” goes hand in Gold rate”. to be done away with, for the
hand with the government’s “Make organised sectors to accelerate
in India” programme. Though India has come a long way growth, amongst others. The
in regulating certain aspects of this gems and jewellery sector plays
Malabar has announced industry such as single Taxation on a significant role in the Indian
huge investments of around Gold (Pan India), Quality Standards economy, contributing around
9500 crores. Where and how of Jewellery (to compete in the 7% to the country’s GDP and
the investments would be International Markets), we are still 15% to India’s total merchandise
distributed? far away from being regulated export. It employs over 4.64 million
The investments are panned out and having a standardised trading people and is expected to grow
to be utilised (a) Set up of a state- platform exponentially. One of the fastest
of-the-art manufacturing plant (b) growing sectors, it is extremely
Retail expansions-In India and Role of e-commerce growing in export-oriented and labour-
Globally (c) Workforce Investment complementing Brick and Mortar intensive. But even as Indians
Jewellery Retailing? prefer to invest in the yellow metal,
You had planned for investments It is an undoubted fact that the a battle between the organised and
for establishing gold jewellery craze for online shopping is at unorganised players is intense and
manufacturing units in an all-time high in the jewellery is picking up pace. At present 5%–
Telangana? What motivated industry and is trending upward. 10% of India’s gold manufacturing
Malabar to invest in such a Many consumers opt to shop online sector could be deemed as being
facility when most retail jewellers today not only because of the time “organised” large-scale facilities;
prefer asset-light models? convenience but also due to the 10 years ago these would have
For us the end justifies the means. variety of options they can get. barely existed. The government
By that we imply, that when a state There is a general sense of saving needs to lay emphasis on (a) the
government is forthcoming in terms money while shopping online. An reduction of import duty – amongst
of (a) ease of doing business, (b) Online store is Pandora’s Box of the highest in the world (b) a Curb
exemptions/incentives conducive Collections, combined. on Smuggling via the introduction
to our industry and business (c) job of various e-governance norms and
creativity (d) Infrastructure support, If a potential customer visiting the procedures (c) the Utilisation of
then why not? These factors play online store does not make any house-held jewellery for cheaper
a vital role in ascertaining the purchases immediately, an online material sourcing (d)Government
business models one needs to brand can still influence their intervention on robust pricing
undertake. buying decisions in the future. The methodologies/ introduction pricing
concept of driving quality traffic to platforms like Gold Exchanges, to
Can you tell me about the 'One one’s store cannot be overlooked mention a few.
India One Rate' initiative for with the amount of competition in
gold? the retail jewellery industry. In view
“One India One Price” for Gold rate of the above, Malabar Gold and

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