Will India Be The New Hard Rock Café With Lab-Grown Diamonds?

With India already having a well-established diamond industry and expertise in cutting and polishing, could it be a global leader in lab-grown diamonds?

In June 2023, when Indian PM Narendra Modi visited the US during a 3-day visit, he gifted US First Lady Jill Biden a 7.5-carat diamond. But, it wasn't like the diamonds you've heard of or seen: this one was grown in a lab.

Lab-grown diamonds (LGD) are different from natural diamonds. A natural diamond is formed deep within the Earth over billions of years and is mined from the Earth’s crust, which is said to be a complex and costly process. Each natural diamond is different and has variations in colour and quality & can be quite expensive.

There are said to be environmental and ethical concerns related to the mining of these natural diamonds. Some natural diamond mining operations are said to have had human rights abuses, like exploitative labour practices. And diamond mining could lead to habitat destruction, deforestation and water pollution.

But, if you don’t have billions of years to form your diamonds, lab-grown diamonds, on the other hand, are created in a lab and produced using tech to replicate natural diamonds. And they have the same chemical and physical properties, with fewer imperfections and are said to be generally more affordable than natural diamonds. The prices of lab-grown diamonds are said to be 80% cheaper than natural diamonds. These could be customized more easily in terms of shape, size and colour, so there could be unique and personalized jewellery pieces. It’s said that one could get a larger and more exquisite lab-grown diamond for the same price as a smaller natural diamond. And since there’s no mining involved, it could be more ethical and environmentally friendly.