Indian exports: All that glitters is gold

by AMIT ROY

JEWELLERY IN FOCUS AT LONDON SEMINAR

JEWELLERY and textiles, which consti­tute vital export business for India, were the subject of a recent seminar at India House in London.

It was chaired by Girija Sinha, wife of the Indian high commissioner, Yash Sin­ha, who focused on two companies – Amra­pali, a Jaipur-based jewellery firm, and Raw Mango, which describes itself as “a brand of contemporary Indian hand-woven tex­tiles crafted using traditional techniques”.

Amrapali has designed jewellery for “70 movies”, its owner, Rajiv Arora, told Eastern Eye. In Hollywood, it has been for such films as Warner Bros’ Troy, starring Orlando Bloom and Diane Kruger.

In Bollywood, it has been for a number of blockbusters, among them Bahubali 1 and 2, with a cast that included Prabhas and Anushka Shetty, and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Goliyon Ki Rasleela Ram-Leela, starring Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh.

“We are doing Manikarnika,” he said, referring to a biographical film based on the life of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi.

He explained how Amrapali collaborates with “the people who do the styling or costume design­ing – they work with us. So we create jewellery ac­cording to the requirement of the period if it is a period film or, if it is a contemporary film, accord­ing to the clothes the stars are going to wear.”

The cost of jewellery can go from “a few pounds to a million”, if the latter involves using diamonds.

“Normally for films, we use silver and gold and semi-precious stones such as garnet, turquoise, tourmaline, moonstone,” added Arora.

Celebrity endorsement is very important for the firm, which says its clients includes “Brad Pitt, An­gelina Jolie, Rihanna, Shakira, Halle Berry, Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce, Frieda Pinto, Lucy Liu, Jennifer Hawk­ins, Padma Lakshmi, Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra, Twinkle Khanna, Rekha and Konkana Sen Sharma”.

India’s gems and jewellery exports were worth $35.55 billion in 2016-17, a rise from $29.44bn in 2009-10.

According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, “in the coming years, growth in the gems and jewel­lery sector would be largely contributed by the de­velopment of large retailers and brands. Estab­lished brands are guiding the organised market and are opening opportunities to grow.”

The foundation is an organisation set up by the government to promote Indian brands, mainly in overseas markets. It says: “India is deemed to be the hub of the global jewellery market because of its low costs and availability of high-skilled labour.”

The gems and jewellery sector “plays a signifi­cant role in the Indian economy, contributing around seven per cent of the country’s GDP and 15.71 per cent to India’s total merchandise exports. It also employs over 4.64 million workers.”

“The UAE, US, Russia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Latin America and China are the biggest importers of Indian jewellery,” it points out.

Textiles are equally important to India. The in­dustry employs about 105 million people directly and indirectly and the country’s overall textile ex­ports in 2017-18 stood at $37.74bn.

The Indian textiles industry, estimated at around $150bn, is expected to reach $230bn by 2020.

Girija Sinha will be at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in west London on June 29 to inaugurate an exhibition of saris, jewellery and pashmina featur­ing the work of designer Booblie Banerjee from West Bengal.

There is one downside to wearing attractive and expensive Indian jewellery not just in London but all over Europe, as the Indian high commissioner’s wife discovered when she recently attended a desti­nation wedding in Barcelona.

Police have repeatedly warned Asian women to beware of burglars and violent street assaults.

Girija Sinha revealed she and her husband were staying at a “fancy” hotel in Barcelona, which is popularly (and not entirely inaccurately) dubbed “the thieving capital of Europe”.

On the day of the wedding between an Indian groom and Irish bride, Girija found she could not open the safe in her hotel room, where she had de­posited her jewellery plus cash and passports. “When someone fiddles with it, you can’t open the safe. And I was, like, everything’s gone.”

Although the safe wasn’t broken into, “they stole all my shopping – they took new clothes with the tags on and everything. That’s Spain now.”