The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : The place for hallmarked silver

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 25, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

The place for hallmarked silver

Staff Reporter

BIS introduced the scheme in January

CHENNAI: The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), southern region, and Sukra Jewellery in Mylapore organised a programme recently to spread awareness about hallmarking of gold and silver jewellery among consumers.

BIS introduced the scheme for hallmarking silver jewellery and silver artefacts in January.

V. Kalyana Sundaram, Deputy Director General, Southern Region of BIS, said the scheme was introduced to help customers get better quality products. Under the scheme, there were five standards for silver, namely 970, 925, 900, 835 and 800 depending on their purity.

He said shops in Chennai have to pay Rs.25,000 as licence fee and those on the outskirts Rs.20,000. Shops in rural areas are required to pay Rs.10,000 as licence fee. The licence is valid for three years.

Sukra Jewellers had applied for the licence.

They were issued a licence, according to the BIS Standards IS 2112 last month for silver jewellery and silver artefacts. The licence is valid till February, 2009.

Paul, Director, BIS Southern Region, and Rubben Hobdey, Director, Gem and Jewellery Export Committee, congratulated the proprietor of the jewellery shop. Nitin Kalki Raju of Sukra Jewellery said that the firm had hallmarked 123 pieces.

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