The nearly $2 billion (Rs12,000 crore) bank scam perpetrated by diamantaire Nirav Modi seems to have shaken confidence of diamond jewellery buyers, especially from unorganised jewellers, owing to concerns over purity of the precious stones, and has resulted in drop in sales, industry body Assocham found in a survey. Assocham said that while branded jewellery makers issue certificates of purity, bulk of the trade is still concentrated in the unorganised market, based on mutual faith between consumers and jewellers. “This has been shaken and consumers are not willing to take chances following massive adverse publicity about the diamond sector (after the scam),” it said. The demand for diamond jewellery seems to have decreased by 10 – 15% within two months, Assocham said. Nirav Modi, one of the most high-profile diamantaires in the country until a couple of months ago, allegedly duped Punjab National Bank of close to Rs12,000 crore. The scam surfaced in February, while Modi fled the country a month before that. In the wake of the scam, there have been concerns about quality of diamonds he sold to customers. Naturally, doubts have crept up about purity of diamonds sold by others too. The survey covering 350 jewellers in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai and other cities, found that 65 per cent jewellers in unorganised market are shifting to traditional gold and silver ornaments over diamond jewellery as consumers face crisis of confidence in the purity of precious stones. The survey also covered 500 women to gauge their shopping habits. According to Assocham, most of the jewellers reported increase in number of requests from customers to get their jewellery re-checked for quality and authenticity of gold and diamonds. The consumers are shifting from diamond-studded jewellery to plain gold jewellery and appear to be wary of purchasing diamond jewellery, the survey said. CUSTOMER CARE

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