Government considers alphanumeric code for jewellery

The Indian government is looking into the idea of giving every jewellery manufactured in India a nine-digit alphanumeric identity code which would help determine the purity and traceability, in turn giving consumers a surety of the origin, certifying and assaying of ornaments, reports say.

The code would assure the benefits of standardisation and enable the customer to re-sell the jewellery based on the standards mentioned on it rather than as per the current practice of being jeweller specific. Although there are some jewellers who adhere to standardisations by selling jewellery bearing the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS) hallmark.

The hallmarking and assaying centres will be given the mandate of providing the nine-character code. The jewellery industry is sceptical of the practical implementation of this concept, considering the extensive base of number of jewellers and lack of infrastructure especially in remote places, reports say.