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Weaving diamond dreams

We're keen on convincing more Indians to buy diamonds, says Cherie Tandon Saldanha, Managing Director, Diamond Trading Corporation India

PHOTO: R. RAGU

'GIFT A DIAMOND' Cherie Tandon Saldanha of the DTC unwraps a surprise in the city.

Price is a secondary consideration here. Perfection comes first. Where diamonds are concerned, Chennai is the highest value market, says Cherie Tandon Saldanha, Managing Director, Diamond Trading Corporation India. While the average diamond price starts at Rs. 2,000 in the rest of the country, it starts at Rs. 5,000 for Chennai's choosy customers, says Saldanha. The city's buyers will make sure the four Cs (cut, clarity, colour and caratage) are weighty enough that there aren't any flaws or `doshams' before they buy their sparklers. According to city jewellers, the recent price fluctuation of gold has only meant that diamond sales have gone up. Apparently, brides now insist on having diamonds in their jewellery.

In the city to do a bit of `why diamonds are everybody's best friend' work, Saldanha and her colleagues from the DTC, the sales and marketing arm of the De Beers group, were enthusiastic about their upcoming programme. With `Gift a Diamond,' men won't have to do much. The diamonds come gift wrapped in little pink boxes that will play the advertising jingle as you open them. "But it's not in the mushy sense, where diamonds are gifted only as engagement rings or on Valentine's Day, like you see in western movies," says Saldanha. It's in celebration of what women do and who they are that people must buy them a diamond. The DTC is spending a good deal on the advertising campaign to convince more Indians to buy diamonds.

The DTC through its brands Nakshatra, Asmi and Sangini has sold loads of `affordable' diamonds to Indians. In fact, according to Saldanha, the acquisition rate of Socio Economic Class (SEC) A and B is four per cent. In non-business jargon, it means that four per cent of the 28 million population that constitutes the DTC's market, comprising the SEC A and B, become first-time diamond buyers every year. That's a lot of people, and, says Saldanha, a lot of women.

Now the DTC is looking at the super league, the high value category. The DTC's Arisia range of one-carat `royal solitaires,' which starts at Rs. 2.5 lakh and is vouched for by Gayatri Devi, has done very well, says Saldanha. But now, she says, the elite and the super elite are looking for five-carat diamonds, and at that value, diamonds are in short supply, and are not available as a brand. But the DTC also works with the jewellers.

"In fact," says Saldanha, "we can't do without them. We work with them in different ways." The DiamondNext trend book is one such venture. The company has brought together an `A' list of jewellery designers, both from the country like Queenie Dhody, Farah Khan Ali and Pallavi Foley to name a few, and international designer Paola De Luca to decide the trends for the year.

De Beers has 92 `sites' (that's people who get to see the boxes of uncut De Beers first) of which 37 site holders are based in India. So, when it comes to diamonds, India has a big stake. In fact, De Beers has become 50-50 partners with the Government of India in the Hindustan Diamond Corporation and is `prospecting' for mines or looking for diamonds in Orissa, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.

To the charge of being insensitive to the long-term environmental damages, Saldanha springs to her parent company's defence. "De Beers follows a Kimberley process (an international diamond industry and civil society initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds) that refuses to buy diamonds from any country that uses the trade to support conflict or terror and also ensures safe environmental practices and gives back something to the community," says Saldanha.

De Beers has reduced its worldwide market share from 90 per cent to 60 per cent. Legal pressures, restrictions in international markets have all eased since then. "The more the brands, the more the noise level. And at the end of the day, we want to create diamond dreams and fulfil them."

MEERA MOHANTY

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