10 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INDIAN GOLD MARKET The domestic gold bullion market relies on a small cast bar weighing 10 tolas (3.75 oz). AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INDIAN GOLD MARKET
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS GIR FIELDTRIPS GIR visited New Delhi and 11 States: Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan (north), West Bengal (east), Gujarat and Maharashtra (west) and Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala (south). There was a focus on the south as it is the most important gold consuming region. GIR conducted interviews in 38 cities, towns and villages. Apart from New Delhi, the cities were Ludhiana, Panipat, Agra, Meerut, Mathura and Jaipur (north), Kolkata (east), Mumbai, Thane, Ahmedabad and Nagpur (west), and Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Cochin/Ernakulam and Trichur (south). Meetings were held with representatives of 16 government-related departments and organisations, 14 banks and other official gold importers, 31 bullion dealers, refiners and coin fabricators, 114 jewellery fabricators, wholesalers and retailers, and 16 other gold-related entities. In total, GIR interviewed more than 200 people at 191 gold-related businesses and institutions. Several were visited two and more times to try to clarify the outcome of earlier discussions. GIR is indebted to everyone for their patience and support, and especially to WGC India and Mr Daga. INDUSTRY SUPPORT The encouragement, advice and trade introductions of the dedicated WGC India team were greatly appreciated: G.S. Pillai, Hiroo Mirchandani, Kumar Shivram, Madhumita Manna Kulkarni, Manos Mukherjee and Sharmili Rajput. Madhusudan Daga, India’s leading authority on the <strong>Indian</strong> gold market since the early 1950s (50 years), acted as a consultant on many aspects of the market. His knowledge of the market and his views communicated over several days, including a fieldtrip to the remarkable rural town of Jalgaon (Maharashtra), were invaluable and enormously stimulating. GIR is particularly grateful to several leading jewellery retailers who continued to provide information after the meetings. Notably, R.K. Nagarkar and P.C. Gupte (Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri, Zaveri Bazaar, Mumbai) who also kindly sent photographs to illustrate regional gold jewellery styles, Rakesh Saraf (Girdhari Lal Saraf, New Delhi), Mukesh Kohli (Raj Jewellers, New Delhi), Dr Nawal Agrawal (Birdichand Ghanshyamdas, Jaipur), Subir Kumar Sen (B.C. Sen, Kolkata) and Biplabankur and Shibankur Roychowdhury (M.P. Jewellers, Kolkata), G.B. Umesh (Ganjam, Bangalore), and Ashwin Vummidi (Vummidi Bangaru Chetty, Chennai). D.C. Karel (D.C. Karel, Kolkata), Dinesh Zaveri (Harjivandas Juthabhai Zaveri, Ahmedabad), S. Santosh Kumar (National Institute of Jewellery Design, Ahmedabad), Senthil Kota (Kota, Coimbatore), Vr. Gunashekar (Kirtilals, Hyderabad) and S. Sanathana Pai (A. Geeri Pai, Cochin) also kindly assisted GIR to visit local towns and villages in their States. When visiting rural areas in the Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, GIR was accompanied by an interpreter, Pawan Bhardwaj. Many others also went out of their way to support the project. Professor T. Haque (Ministry of Agriculture, New Delhi) contributed greatly to GIR’s basic understanding of the rural economy. S.P. Batra (National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi) and Mita Roychowdury and A. Basu (DGCIS) provided much written information on request. Jose Alukka (Alukkas, Trichur) and Fahim Kahn (Hutti <strong>Gold</strong> Mines, Bangalore) provided supplementary photographs. V.S.A. Sury and V. Sreedhar (GJEPC, Mumbai), Dr K.K. Chatterjee (<strong>Indian</strong> Bureau of Mines, Nagpur), Dr Sneh Bhatla (Bureau of <strong>Indian</strong> Standards, New Delhi), Anand Trivedi (MMTC, New Delhi), Rajan Venkatesh (ScotiaMocatta, Mumbai) and Raghav Kamath (Corporation Bank, Mumbai) kindly reviewed relevant draft texts. The observations of Bhargava Vaidya (gold market consultant, Mumbai) were also much appreciated. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INDIAN GOLD MARKET 11
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