PM Modi gifts 7.5 carat green lab-grown diamond to Jill Biden: What you need to know

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has gifted a lab-grown, 7.5 carat green diamond to US first lady Jill Biden. The diamond, artificially grown in a lab using hi-tech technology, emits only 0.028 grams of carbon per carat and is certified by the Gemological Lab.

• It is a beacon of responsible luxury that symbolises India's 75 years of freedom and sustainable international relations.

What is a lab-grown diamond?

A lab-grown diamond is a real diamond that is produced in a controlled technological process.

• It has the same chemical, optical and physical properties and crystal structure as natural diamonds.
• In a lab-grown diamond company, graphene is used to create artificial diamonds. Graphene is a single layer of graphite material with extraordinary properties. 
• Lab-grown diamonds (LGDs) resemble natural diamonds so precisely that it's difficult for the naked eye to spot the difference between the two.

Natural diamonds vs lab-grown diamonds 

Natural diamonds are formed at great heat and pressure deep under the ground. Since the 1950s, scientists have been trying to recreate that process in a lab.

• The first diamond made in a lab was under a High Pressure High Temperature System (HPHT).
• It is a system where the diamond seed is surrounded by pure graphite (a type of carbon) and exposed to temperatures of about 1500 C and pressurised to approximately 1.5 million pounds per square inch in a chamber.

More recently, an advanced process of producing diamonds was figured out by scientists, which is called Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD). It involves putting the seed in a chamber filled with carbon-rich gas and heating it to around 800 C.

The gas sticks to the seed, building the diamond atom by atom.

A brief history of lab grown diamonds and its traders in India: India has played a key role in the diamond industry and it is estimated that nine out of 10 of the world’s diamonds are polished in Surat. In the past seven years, the Indian government has taken steps to make India a key-player in the lab-grown diamond business.

• In August 2022, Gem and Jewellery Export Production Council reported that India’s polished lab-grown diamond exports amounted to $1.05 billion from April 2021 to January 2022. The industry recorded a stellar growth of 113% during this period.

According to a Times of India report, India’s diamond industry contributed to 29% of the global consumption of jewellery. The market offers employment to nearly 4 million people every year and its 3,00,000 gems and jewellery players.

• In 2021, India’s LGD market accounted for Rs 2,200 crore, and its contribution to the global LGD industry amounted to 15%.

Since LGDs are greener, environment-friendly and also come cheap, they are finding a good market in India.

Ghanshyambhai Dholakia, director of Hari Krishna Exports, which is India’s leading producer in cut and polished diamonds, said that in the next three-four years, India will see a massive demand and growth in lab-grown diamonds. 

“LGD has opened a new consumer market-middle class in India – who have money and will be able to afford a lab-grown diamond,” BBC quoted Dholakia.

Most LGDs made in India are exported to the US, and it might take a few more years for the LGD market to take off in India.