The World Gold Council (WGC), a trade body funded by producers of the precious metal, said it appointed Ajay Mitra as the managing director for India. He replaces Sanjeev Agarwal who resigned from the position in 2006.

Mitra spent the last 18 months in Russia, where he was commercial director for a distribution and marketing company, Melcosmetics. Prior to that, he spent 11 years at Coca Cola, holding various roles in both India and Bangladesh, where he was country manager between 2002 and 2005

Last year India�s consumer gold demand declined by 4 per cent to 691.1 tonnes.