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Diamond World (DW) May - June 2020

Why Covid-19 will make people fall in love with diamonds all over again | Ban is good - Industry welcomes ban on rough imports | Hong Kong jewellery industry show mettle| An Irrevocable Loss - Arun R. Mehta, Rosy Blue Group

Why Covid-19 will make people fall in love with diamonds all over again | Ban is good - Industry welcomes ban on rough imports | Hong Kong jewellery industry show mettle| An Irrevocable Loss - Arun R. Mehta, Rosy Blue Group

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Cover Story<br />

We should learn a<br />

lot from the mutual<br />

fund industry. In 4<br />

years, mutual fund<br />

hasn’t given anyone<br />

any returns. But<br />

the way people<br />

are being pulled<br />

towards investing<br />

in mutual funds<br />

is great because<br />

their marketing is<br />

so good. Now every<br />

graduate, fresh out<br />

of college, with<br />

his first job, wants<br />

to open a mutual<br />

fund account. This<br />

kind of initiative<br />

is not there in the<br />

diamond industry<br />

Sunit Hirawat,<br />

Sunvim Exports<br />

timeless resonate more with them.<br />

We have not seen a downward<br />

trend in terms of ticket size for our<br />

diamond products, it has stayed<br />

where it was pre-Covid,” says<br />

Dipu Mehta of Orra. The diamond<br />

industry world over needs to<br />

capitalise on this and gain back its<br />

market share. “<strong>Diamond</strong>s do the<br />

same thing that exercise, alcohol,<br />

drugs, sugar/sweets, sex, luxury<br />

spending does - they give people<br />

pleasure - that daily sought after<br />

dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, and<br />

endorphins. If a pandemic threatens<br />

to take away each individual’s<br />

happiness, what does the brain do?<br />

It goes treasure hunting for pleasure<br />

“pleasure hunting”, which is why<br />

alcohol sales are up and the rich<br />

are still spending and in some cases<br />

even more frivolously than before,”<br />

adds Michelle.<br />

<strong>Diamond</strong>s – a solid<br />

investment vehicle<br />

Any luxury item one buys, be it a<br />

handbag or a car, the minute one<br />

makes the purchase, the value<br />

of the item depreciates by 15-20<br />

per cent. This is not the case with<br />

diamonds. Alkesh Shah of Gold<br />

Star Jewellery believes that the<br />

industry needs to go back to basics.<br />

70 | may-june <strong>2020</strong> | DiamonD WorlD

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