The State Bank of India (SBI) is the first Indian lender to frame a policy to fund manufacturers (cutters & polishers) of lab-grown diamonds (LGDs) that are replicas of naturally mined stones. LGDs are often looked at with suspicion by high-street banks and scoffed at by many traditional diamantaires, says a report in Economic Times.
Reflecting the slow shift in the diamond trade, the decision by SBI, the country's largest bank, comes amid some of the jewellers putting up factories in Surat to produce synthetic diamonds. Also, many diamond houses are reportedly considering relocating from the financial capital Mumbai to Surat, which has been the hub of mined diamond manufacturing for decades.
Aruna Gaitonde, Editor in Chief of the Asian Bureau, Rough&Polished
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