Nootan Thawai Named Director of Production and Services for Gemological Science International

18 January 2023(Mumbai, India) : Gemological Science International (GSI), one of the largest gemological organizations in the world and a global leader in diamond and jewelry certification, announced today that Nootan Thawai has been named Director of Production and Services for the organization.

Ms Thawai, who joined GSI in 2011, has held several positions within GSI as the organization expanded within India and globally. In her new role, Ms. Thawai will be responsible for all production and services related to export activities. She will continue to supervise and manage production and service teams in GSI India, Hong Kong, Dubai, Israel and will work closely with the leadership teams to create new processes and procedures as GSI continues to expand its reach globally.

“I congratulate Nootan for this well-deserved promotion and I am confident that with her experience and leadership GSI will continue to thrive and expand its services globally” says Debbie Azar, President and Co-Founder of GSI. “The majority of GSI’s leadership are women, embodying GSI’s commitment to inclusive executive culture. We support women across all segments of the business, further strengthening our commitment to empowering women across our value

For more information, please visit www.gemscience.net or

Gemological Science International (GSI) is the only major gemological organization established in the 21st century. Founded in 2005 in New York City, it has grown to become one of the largest gemological entities in the world with laboratory facilities spanning four continents. Utilizing cutting-edge processes and proprietary technologies, along with a commitment to the highest ethical standards and practices, GSI provides manufacturers and retailers globally with a wide range of gemstone identification and grading services. The company is committed to advancing gemological research and offers gemological educational programs for trade professionals and the general public through its state-of-the-art research center.

Growth-oriented and progressive that is aimed to boost consumption and inclusion. The Gem and Jewellery sector is dominated by MSME and support to MSME sector along with enhancement of credit guarantee scheme will provide much needed relief to the sector. The new slabs of taxes will further help boost consumption, thus providing more impetus to economic growth.

The following are the salient features that will have a positive impact on the Lab Grown Diamond Industry: on imports, a Research and Development grant will be provide to one of the IITs for a period of 5 years.

To reduce the cost of production a reduction of customs duty on LGD seeds is proposed.

India is a global leader in the cutting and polishing of mined diamonds, with the depletion in the deposits of natural diamonds, the industry is moving towards lab grown diamonds and it holds huge promise.

To seize the opportunity, it is proposed to reduce the basic import duty on seeds used for the manufacture of lab diamonds. The import duty which was 5% earlier, will now be abolished and brought down to NIL.

The following GREEN initiatives in the budget provisions are favorable to the sector as it has been identified as environment friendly.

The FM reinforced India’s commitment to sustainable development and green growth. The Budget emphasized on the need to reduce the carbon intensity of the economy through green fuel and green vehicles. Labeling ‘Green Growth’ as one of the Saptarishis guiding us through the Amrit Kaal, the Budget sounds promising for accelerating India’s journey towards its

The Govt of India has identified the LGD industry as an innovation and technology driven emerging sector. The industry has a high potential to generate employment.

Lab diamonds are environment friendly and have optically and chemically the same property as mined diamonds.

To encourage the indigenous production of LGD seeds and machines and to reduce the dependence

IIT Madras selected to receive Grant of Rs. 242 Cr for undertaking research on Lab Grown Diamonds in Budget 2023

Lab Grown Diamonds (InCent-LGD) at IIT Madras was identified for this prestigious project based on our nearly two decades of work experience in diamond research wherein we have developed many technologies for industry, space and defense sectors. We are honored to contribute to the initiatives of the Government of India to boost Research and Development efforts in Diamond growth to make India #1 country in producing good quality diamond crystals.”

Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) will be provided a grant of Rs. 242 Crore over a period of five years to undertake research on Lab Grown Diamonds (LGD). This research will be focused on driving indigenization of the LGD manufacturing process.

Presenting the Budget 2023 on Wednesday (1st Feb 2023), Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Hon’ble Finance Minister, Government of India, said, “Lab grown Diamonds (LGD) is a technology and innovation-driven emerging sector with high employment potential. These environment-friendly diamonds have optically and chemically the same properties as natural diamonds. To encourage indigenous production of LGD seeds and machines and to reduce import dependency, a research and development grant will be provided to one of the IITs for five years.”

As per a recommendation made by Department of Commerce, the research grant of Rs. 242 crore over a period of five years to IIT Madras has been approved. Thanking the Hon’ble Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “This is indeed the right time to set up a diamond factory in India, given that diamonds have thermal and electrical properties making it superior to contemporary technologies like silicon, silicon carbide and gallium nitride. IIT Madras will work towards producing diamond wafers suitable for electronic applications. It is a historic moment for IIT Madras for being selected for implementation of such an important project, output of which will be a crucial component of Atmanirbhar Bharat.”

The research grants will go towards various departments and research groups of the Institute that are involved in this field. IIT Madras has a rich history of undertaking cutting-edge and translational research with significant applications in industry and society.

Elaborating on the work that would be taken up under this initiative, Prof. MS Ramachandra Rao, Department of Physics, IIT Madras, who will be the Principal Investigator for this initiative, said, “The India Centre for

Further, Prof. MS Ramachandra Rao, also the faculty-lead of MSRC (Materials Science Research Centre), NFMTC (Nano-Functional Materials Technology Centre) and QuCenDiEM (Quantum Centre for Diamond and Emergent Materials) at IIT Madras added, “The growing demand for lab-grown diamonds requires dedicated research to realise not only gem-quality diamonds but also to realise a plethora of electronic applications (5G/6G, magnetometry, thermal management, sensors and quantum technologies). The science and technology of diamond growth processes are complicated to understand, and most of the machines, especially HPHT (High Pressure High Temperature), are imported in India. Moreover, the reactor manufacturers do not provide recipes to realise single crystal diamonds.”

The global diamond market demands bigger and high pure lab-grown diamond crystals for commercial and electronic applications. There is a need for research and development to conduct systematic studies to optimize the process parameters to grow high pure large-volume and scalable diamond crystals, which will help India to become the world leader in lab-grown diamonds.

The Core faculty from Physics, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering departments of IIT Madras also have a good number of core researchers with expertise in various requirements listed above The upcoming centre will also recruit a good number of additional man-power to run the research on LGD that would be established at the IIT Madras Research Park and IIT Madras laboratories.

India has no know-how in high pressure high temperature (HPHT) technology to grow and treat diamond crystals. The cost involved in importing HPHT machines is very high. Therefore, there is a need for developing indigenously built HPHT equipment and establishing the process know-how of HPHT diamond growth. On the other hand, CVD reactor manufacturers in India import critical components like microwave generators, vacuum pumps, and sensors. Even good-quality diamond seeds are imported. There is a need for indigenously developing these critical components, technologies, and seed substrates (mother-seed) to make India self-sustainable in the lab-grown diamond sector. This is the requirement that the IIT Madras Research Group headed out to tackle.