Securing Public Trust in Gems & Jewellery-Sriram Natarajan, Managing Director of GIA India

“The Institute’s eLearning courses have helped many working professionals access GIA’s research-backed curriculum anytime, anywhere and learn at their own pace. During the lockdown period, GIA offered its online GIA Essentials courses – including Jewelry Essentials, Colored Stone Essentials and Diamond Essentials – at no cost, and received more than 10,000 enrolments from 110 countries.”

You have taken over this new role as the MD of GIA at a rather challenging time - as the MD what are your immediate priorities?
These are indeed challenging times that have impacted just about every industry. I am thankful to be a part of the gem and jewellery industry, which is resilient and has emerged stronger from downturns in the past. I also feel privileged to be a part of GIA– the leader in gemmological research, instrumentation, grading analysis and education – and help further the Institute’s mission to ensure the public trust in gems and jewellery.
thank Nirupa for putting together a great team, and as a leader, your job is already half done when you have a strong team.In these times, our focus is on creating a safe environment for our employees in Mumbai and Surat and pushing ourselves to meet the needs of our clients.The lockdown has accelerated the pace of digital adoption to stay connected with people, and we are doing our part in reaching out to the trade extensively using digital tools.

Why do you think education and awareness in the gems & jewellery industry is more critical now, given the current scenario?
Education has always been important and will continue to remain important for the ever-evolving gem and jewellery industry, and GIA has been a pioneer in gemmological education. GIA issued its first Graduate Gemology diploma in 1948, and has helped train more than 365,000 students since it was founded in 1931.GIA’s comprehensive gemmology and jewellery education prepares people starting a new career or looking for the next step in their profession for success in the industry Unfortunately, the pandemic has forced us to keep some of our schools closed. However, GIA remains as committed to sharing knowledge and has capitalised various digital avenues to reach a larger audience across different geographies. The Institute’s eLearning courses have helped many working professionals access GIA’s research-backed curriculum anytime, anywhere and learn at their own pace. During the lockdown period, GIA offered its online GIA Essentials courses – including Jewelry Essentials, Colored Stone Essentials and Diamond Essentials – at no cost, and received more than 10,000 enrolments from 110 countries.
GIA has been organising weekly webinars – GIA Knowledge Sessions – that are led by GIA Ph.Ds., field gemmologists, educators and research scientists. In the past months, we’ve covered various topics with roughly 20,000 viewers from 150 countries tuning in. We’ve alsolaunched the weekly emails, Knowledge Rocks, and our Gems & Gemology (G&G) Facebook Group to help the trade access gem knowledge from GIA more effortlessly.
In India too, GIA has been actively engaging with trade members through webinars as well as specialised training programmes for retailers’ staff. The webinars attracted more than 1,900 participants, while we trained more than 1,700 retail staff across India to date in 2020. Through these initiatives, we are making the best use of online platforms to spread knowledge, help the trade buy and sell with confidence, and ultimately, further GIA’s mission to ensure public trust in gems and jewellery.

“Clients have an option to sort the round melee diamonds by colour range after screening for an additional charge. This new service feature will help diamantaires know with confidence that the diamonds in their supply chain are natural, and is in line with GIA’s mission to protect the gem-buying public and ensure trust in gems and jewellery.”GIA recently announced that its extending its Melee Services for fancy shapes as well. Could you throw light on the details of this added feature and how it will be beneficial for your clients?
Service in 2016 and has received positive feedback from the diamond industry. Since it was launched, the fully automated system could separate natural diamonds from simulants, laboratory-grown and potentially HPHT treated natural diamonds.At GIA, we are constantly innovating to meet the demands of the trade, and now we’ve expanded the capabilities to analyse fancy-shaped melee diamonds. Clients have an option to sort the round melee diamonds by colour range after screening for an additional charge. This new service feature will help diamantaires know with confidence that the diamonds in their supply chain are natural, and is in line with GIA’s mission to protect the gem-buying public and ensure trust in gems and jewellery.

Real world education as against virtual education – how is GIA bridging the gap?
GIA has offered distance education since 2009, helping working professionals earn a gem and jewellery credential and expand their professional knowledge. Students that enrol with GIA Distance Education learn using the same curriculum taught on GIA campuses with ample completion times to study, submit assignments and take the exam online. GIA Distance Education instructors are also available by email or phone to provide support, guidance and expertise through the course duration. This ensures that students or professionals who wish to take up GIA courses, get as close as possible to a classroom experience.

“The GIA Diamond Origin Report uses the Institute’s decades of research and scientifically matches a polished diamond to its original rough, confirming the country of origin information provided by the miner. Accurate diamond identification also remains of continued importance for the trade as well as consumers. GIA has been at the forefront of this through development of screening and identification services and instruments such as the Melee Analysis Service and the GIA iD100® gem testing device.”How does AI work in grading and what improvements will it bring in?
We’re really excited about the future of diamond grading at GIA. GIA has joined forces with IBM Research – combining human expertise with the machine precision of artificial intelligence (AI) – to develop the GIA AI Clarity System. The GIA AI clarity system is built on the standards of GIA’s universally recognised International Diamond Grading System™. The AI is fuelled by data from tens of millions of diamonds examined by GIA’s expert diamond graders in the Institute’s state-of-theart grading laboratories around the world. IBM’s AI technology, combined with GIA’s expertise, extensive data and gemmological-research capabilities, enables us to deliver advancements in consistency, accuracy and speed unlike any other organisation. The proprietary system, now in limited use in GIA’s New York and Carlsbad laboratories, will dramatically expand the reach of GIA’s independent diamond grading reports. Initially concentrating on the most popular diamond sizes, GIA will scale the AI system to bring accurate and efficient diamond grading to more diamond sizes, shapes and qualities. There are also plans to expand the collaboration between GIA and IBM for future projects combining gemmological evaluation and AI.

Where do you see Indian diamond industry five years from now? There are and will continue to exist several key trends in the diamond industry. The one I believe has gained prominence is provenance.Consumers now, more than ever, have a heightened awareness of sustainably and ethically sourced products. The GIA Diamond Origin Report uses the Institute’s decades of research and scientifically matches a polished diamond to its original rough, confirming the country of origin information provided by the miner.
Accurate diamond identification also remains of continued importance for the trade as well as consumers. GIA has been at the forefront of this through development of screening and identification services and instruments such as the Melee Analysis Service and the GIA iD100® gem testing device. In addition, GIA helps spread awareness among consumers about the importance of third-party grading reports and also offering a wide range of gemmological education programmes and courses for jewellers I also strongly believe that the next few years will be key for the widespread adoption of digital initiatives such as AI and blockchain. GIA is already committed to these as a part of the Institute’s digital transformation efforts. The collaboration between GIA and IBM Research to develop an advanced AI system designed to revolutionise diamond clarity grading is a step in that direction. In 2018, GIA collaborated with Chow Tai Fook to deliver secure digital diamond grading reports to consumers for the first time using blockchain technology – developed with leading blockchain solutions provider Everledger and secured by the IBM Blockchain Platform. GIA continues its collaboration with Everledger and JD.com, China’s largest online and offline retailer, to provide customers with independently verified GIA diamond reports and origin information through theJD.com app, as well as on JD.com’s mobile and desktop websites. Everything GIA does – our research, education and of course grading millions of diamondseach year in our laboratories around the world – has the singular mission of protecting consumers