In an effort to honour the contribution of late Shri Rashmikant Durlabhji at IIGJ, Jaipur, the Jaipur Jewellery Show (JJS) inaugurated the JJS R&D center at the hands of Mr. Vasant Mehta, Chairman GJEPC, on 14 March, 2009, at the premises of IIGJ Jaipur.

IIGJ is an education institute established under the umberella of GJEPC, to support the gem and jewellery trade through providing training for professionals. Jaipur has been popular as the gemstone hub, but was found being left behind by other countries in terms of technology education in this industry. To promote this, the organisers of the Jaipur Jewellery Show contributed finance to the development of the IIGJ Jaipur R & D center. Profits of the Show would be utilised in bettering the Jaipur gemstone industry. Initially, the process of heat treatment in Rubies and Sapphires would be introduced, and the R&D centre is expected to begin the process for the local traders within the coming three to four months.

The inauguration event was attended by the leading jewellers of Jaipur - Vivek kala - President Jaipur Jewellers Association , Pramod Agarwal, Vimal Chand Surana - Chairman JJS , Rajiv Jain – Vice-Chairman GJEPC & IIGJ Jaipur , Vijay Chordia - Hon. Secretary IIGJ Jaipur, Navrattan Kothari - Chairman IIGJ Jaipur , Kishan Das Maheshwari and such. The event inspired some knowledge sharing, keeping in mind that it was attended by the leaders of the Indian gem and jewellery industry. Navrattan Kothari and Vasant Mehta in their speeches, appealed to the local jewellers to come forward and support the IIGJ Jaipur Institute in its development to become a major education hub in the region.

The R&D centre will contribute to placing Jaipur on a competing platform with Thailand in the global gemstone industry.