The ongoing exhibition Festival of Gold has on display few of the finest lightweight gold jewellery from Goa and traditionally designed pieces from the south. Shrabasti Mallik reports
From birthdays to weddings and from festivals to any joyous celebrations — we Indians cannot do without a golden touch. Wearing gold is considered auspicious and gifting gold is considered a blessing.
But the way we wear the metal and the way it is craftes is as diverse as the Indian culture. So while Goa opts for light weight golden jewellery, states like Kerala, Karnataka traditionally wear heavy golden ornaments.
At the ongoing flagship exhibition by MMTC Festival of Gold, one can get a chance to see and buy gold ornaments from across 10 states. According to MMTC CMD Ved Prakash, it is one of the best jewellery exhibition in the country and people flock in large numbers.
Prakash explained how it all began with the need to assure the people that what they are buying is pure gold. That necessitated the process of Hallmarking every piece of gold ornament and product so that a customer is aware of the purity of the metal. “We had to clear the customer’s mind of any doubt that they had about whether a piece of an ornament is actually of 22 carats. We started to manufacture 100 per cent authentic jewellery. The response was good and it spread the word of mouth and received a great response,” he said.
The best part of this exhibition is that one can avail designs and aesthetics from every state in the country (10 states including Goa, Ahmedabad, Southern states). “Here it is all displayed openly and not confined in boxes to enable easy browsing. You get a lot of variety which comes with a guarantee of quality,” Prakash pointed out.
Effect of excise duty
Even after the changes in the excise duty, Prakash believes that it will not affect the purchase. The duty was to be levied at a purchase of Rs50,000. “The value of the metal changes and that has never affected the import of gold because our demand for every occasion will never stop,” he pointed out and added, “We do not see people waiting for prices to be lower to buy gold. Plus, the excise duty also ensures some amount of authenticity. Some small scale jewellers will be accountable at least.”
The National Gold coin
It was last year that PM Narendra Modi had released the National gold coin but till date promotions were not possible because the tie-ups with banks were not finalised. One can find the coin at the exhibit and Prakash wants it to be the main attraction of the exhibition.
He elaborated on the specialities, “One, it has the National symbol so that you can easily identify that it belongs to India. It has the Ashok Chakra on one side and Gandhi on the other. Two, and the bigger aspect is, that it is unlike a regular gold coin. When you return a piece of gold jewellery to a goldsmith they deduct seven per cent from the price amount (10 per cent in rural areas). But we have kept the coin such that, we are still working out the policy that, if you return the coin (the seal that it has, is tamper proof) it will circulate. Even if the tamper proof seal or packaging is damaged we will fix it and circulate. We will not deduct any amount because we will not melt it.”
Since the coins are being done from the Mint, the price are a bit high. “The prices will fluctuate according to the day to day value of the metal,” he said.
What’s the challenge
Artisans and goldsmiths we have many but what we lack are gold mines. Whatever amount of gold we have is mostly imported. “India does not produce any gold,” he rued, “Almost 100 per cent is imported because we do not have mines in India. We have a few mines but they produce gold in such small quantities.”
The exhibition will continue till May 10 at The Ashok Hotel.
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