IIT Madras to become center for lab grown diamonds: Central government

NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday said it has proposed to set up an India centre for lab-grown diamond (InCent-LGD) at IIT Madras with an estimated cost of Rs 242.96 crore. The budget support will be provided during the course of the next five years. The commerce ministry said that the aim of this project is to provide technical assistance to the industries and entrepreneurs in the sector.

It would help promote indigenous manufacturing of both chemical vapour deposition and high-pressure and temperature systems along with the recipes for expanding the LGD business, it added. Research efforts would make the technology available for startups at an affordable cost, increase employment opportunities and increase exports of LGD. In the Union Budget 2023-24, a five-year research grant for one of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) was announced to encourage the indigenous production of lab-grown diamonds (LGD) machinery, seeds and recipe.

"It is proposed to establish an India Centre for Lab-grown Diamond (InCent-LGD) at IIT Madras with the estimated cost of Rs 242.96 crore over 5 years," it said. Besides the jewellery industry, lab-grown diamonds are used in computer chips, satellites and 5G networks, as they can be used in extreme environments due to their potential to operate at higher speeds while using less power than silicon-based chips. LGD has vast applications in the field of defence, optics, jewellery, thermal and medical industries.

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Globally, its market stood at USD 1 billion in 2020. The lab-grown diamond jewellery market is expected to rapidly rise to USD 5 billion by 2025 and exceed USD 15 billion by 2035, the ministry said. Lab-grown diamonds are produced through two technologies - High-Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) and Chemical Vapour Deposition. India is one of the leading producers of these diamonds using CVD technology. As per industry estimates, India's share in global trade in 2021-22 was 25.8 per cent.

"However, we have to depend on other countries for the supply of critical machinery components and 'seeds' -- which are the raw material for producing synthetic diamonds," the ministry said. It is, therefore, imperative that India develops its own, indigenous technology for producing the critical machinery components seeds to remove the import dependence.

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Good quality lab-grown diamonds with qualified certification, produced from the developed equipment and process parameters will attract many foreign customers, increasing the export volume of lab-grown diamonds and the scalability of production. The documented process parameters and the developed recipe will encourage new entrepreneurs to enter the lab-grown diamond business, making it easier and cost-effective to set up the facility, start the business and generate employment, it added.