Prof. Ramachandra Rao and his team from IITM, Chennai visited GII in the second half of 06th January, 2025 and had the discussions in a seminar mode in GII Conference Room, B Tower, BDB. The following members attended:
Shri Anup Zaveri welcomed the members and told Prof. Rao and his team that he looks forward for a fruitful long collaboration for mutual benefit.
Shri Mehul Shah explained about GII and BDB. He told that GII has expertise in testing, grading, training & education and R&D. It is a trust run body with the objectives of testing certification and training with no profit & no loss. GII is co-sponsored by GJEA, GJEPC, BDB, DEAL and MDMA. He wished that follow-up of meetings could be more frequent in future.
Shri Shripalkumar Desai explained the genesis of R&D in GII. He conveyed that Govt. of India recognized GII as SIRO (Scientific Industrial Research Organization) based on significant R&D contributions made by GII. He told that in the area of colour stone testing, GII is second to none.
After self-introduction by all the members present, Dr. AVR Reddy gave a brief introduction about GII and its major contributions, and emphasized that every testing work is having an internal SOP. And he also told that team works like a well-oiled machine starting from receipt of goods for testing to labelling, preliminary gemmological investigations upto finalization of certificate and the delivery of the goods to the customer. He told that its R&D is appreciated by the peers across the globe. It was followed by four presentations by GII experts. Shri Mahesh Gaonkar explaned the SOP for testing. It included gemmological testing and using advanced equipment. He told that the first step is to determine whether the diamonds received are Natural or Lab Grown or imitations using GII developed D Vision Pro and this program included demonstration of D Vision Pro to the members. Shri Milind Varhadpande has explained about the SOP for Diamond grading. He detailed colour grading and clarity grading SOPs with a few examples. He also explained about GII developed SOPs for LGDs and Studded Jewellery. He was very happy to share that GII participated in bringing out BIS standard (is.15766.1.2007 and is.15766.1.2007 part 2) for diamond grading and a copy of the same was given to Prof. Ramchandra Rao by Mr. Desai.
Prof. Rao explained progress made in Incent-LGD IITM Chennai since the last visit by BDB and GII team. He showed a video clip of the laboratory and explained particularly about HPHT facility. He gave details and the problems associated with obtaining quality seed materials as well as the yields. He hoped to get full cooperation from GII team. Prof. Rao was very happy to share with members, special inscription process on diamonds developed by them. He looks forward for a long term collaboration with R&D team of GII. He welcomed all to join the meeting in IITM, Chennai scheduled for 10th February, 2025.
During all the scientific presentations, Shri Anoop Mehta often provided answers to the queries and interacted with members and expressed that he was very happy about this meeting. He wished that there would be frequent meetings for mutual benefit and utilizing the facilities at both the ends. Shri Rajendra Ardalkar explained about various aspects of GII D Vision Pro. Subsequently demonstration was carried out by him with D Vision Pro. There were many queries from the visiting team which was clarified by Rajendra and others. Prof. Satyan conveyed that there is no need for them to develop afresh a machine for discriminating Naturals from LGDs, and they can adopt as well GII D Vision Pro. Rajendra explained about the SOP for testing and certifying of RFT ( Referred for Further Testing) stones. Team visited laboratory to see the demonstration by Dr. Anik Goswami, GII, of the working of 6 laser Raman microscope by recording PL spectra of a Natural and an LGD.
Then the team moved to conference room of BDB for a discussion. Shri Sujit Shah and Shri Walter Crasto of BDB explained about their requirements on the diamond coating of Mechanical Seals. Prof. Satyan, IITM assured that all the requirements will be met with. Later the visiting team members were felicitated.
IIT team alongwith Mr. Samir Jha, Chief Security Officer moved to M/s. Blue Star Diamonds for selecting Diamonds for initiating studies on grading towards developing database for developing AI based diamond grading at some point of time in future. Two members of the IITM team (Dr. Ritu Das and Dr. Indu R.) visited GII Lab, G Tower, BDB on 07th January, 2025 to have hands on experience with facilities which was coordinated by Rajendra.
Report of the Seminar on “Current status on Research on Diamond and Gemstones” held on 27th April, 2024 in Bharat Diamond Bourse Convention Hall, BKC, Bandra.
GII Seminar on Current status on Research on Diamond and Gemstones at Bharat Diamond Bourse Convention Hall, BKC, Bandra on 27th April 29, 2024 started at 9:30 hrs. R&D and Testing & Diamond Grading colleagues and a few trustees participated in the Seminar. Eminent speakers from the relevant fields have delivered talks on Research pertaining to R&D on Diamond and Gemstones and applications.
Mr. Sandesh Mane, Head GII Laboratories in BDB welcomed experts and the participants, briefed about the seminar and conducted the proceedings. Dr. AVR Reddy, CEO of GII explained about the importance of the seminar, cursory details of speakers, and urged the participants to interact with the experts.
Prof. D Harnath, NIT, Warangal, talked on Luminescence spectroscopy of diamond like materials. He explained the structure and characterization techniques for identification of Diamond like materials. Such as Carbon, Polycrystalline diamond, Carbon Nano Tubes and Cubic Boron Nitride. He spoke on Photoluminescence and Fluorescence studies. Lifetime measurements are very useful in defect characterization and can be used to study the diamond defects.
Dr. Naveen Chauhan, Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, delivered a talk on TL/OSL techniques and relevance to diamonds. He explained the Fluorescence and phosphorescence mechanism in solids and their role in Thermoluminescence (TL) and Optically stimulated Luminescence (OSL) studies. TL and OSL techniques are routinely used in space dosimetry, accidental dosimetry and age determination of minerals like quartz and feldspar. Role of activator and sensitizer in luminescent material and defect concentration effect on luminescent solids were explained, e.g. like Dy doped CaSO4 and Carbon and doped Al2O3. Symmetry of the defects plays an important role in the TL/OSL. He suggested to work on type Ib diamond for TL/OSL studies with multispectral detector window. TL/OSL at low temperature is useful in getting new information.
Immediately after the Tea break (11:10), Shri Anoop V. Mehta, Chairman, GII addressed the audience and emphasized importance of R&D in evolving testing methods. He also told experts that GII is the best R&D institute in Gemmology and urged participants to utilize this opportunity to interact with experts.
Dr. V. Sudarsan, Chemistry Division, BARC, Mumbai, delivered a talk on Lab grown diamond films functionalized with up-conversion nano-particles for temperature sensing applications. In his talk he spoke on characterization of the nano diamonds produced with Microwave plasma assisted CVD with SEM. The functionalized particles on diamond surface (UCNP) were exposed to 808, 980 and 1084 nm red lasers resulted in green luminescence an increase in energy. This green luminescence consists of two peaks which are affected by the temperature. These UCNP could be used in remote sensing of temperature.
Prof. Pravin Henriques, St. Xavier College, Mumbai, spoke on Gemology of Jades. This talk was primarily focused on Jadeite minerals, its simulants and how they can be identified using routine Gemmological testing. Aluminium is the key difference between Jadeite and Nephrite and EDXRF can be used for quick identification of the Jadeite.
Prof. Tanuuja Marathe, Ex HOD, Geology Department, Fergusson College, Pune, delivered a talk on Geology of some Important Gem Minerals. She explained different geological processes which lead to the formation of gem minerals in the earth. She further explained geology and internal features of Rubies and sapphires from important geographical locations like Burma, Sri Lanka, Mozambique and Thailand. She concluded with the theory on how Gondwana process where Mozambique gemstone rich belt was spread across current gemstone deposits around the world.
Prof. Padmanabha Rai, from CEBS, DAE at Mumbai University, explained the recent diamond applications in his talk of Applications of quantum computing using NV– and SiV– transitions in diamonds. Prof. Rai explained microwave plasma assisted CVD process that they are using for growth of CVD diamonds for a variety of technical and gem applications. He has given technical details like pressure, H2/CH4 gas ratio and temperature required to grow quality diamonds. It takes about four to six weeks to grow quality diamonds. He has shown from his experiments about how nitrogen and boron impurities affect the quality of the diamonds.
Mr. Mahesh P Gaonkar, Head R&D, GII summarized all the presentations. Dr. AVR Reddy and participants interacted with the experts. Meeting was closed with a vote of thanks by Mr. Mahesh.
Seminar was followed by RAB meeting in which all the Committee members of RAB felt happy about R&D and GII’s recognition as Scientific Industrial Research Organisation (SIRO). They gave various suggestions to improve the R&D.
Participants visited the BDB Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), and were happy to interact with engineers Shri Rajesh Dabhane and Shri Walter Crasto, BDB. They also visited the solar power system in BDB.
Gemmological Institute of India alongwith International Institute of Diamond Grading & Research (IIDGR) of De Beers had organized two days demonstration of instruments in Mumbai for detection of Synthetic diamonds at S. G. Jhaveri Trading Hall, Bharat Diamond Bourse, BKC, Bandra E, Mumbai-400051 on 16th and 17th February, 2015.
The IIDGR team, led by the Commercial Director- Mr. Jamie Clark, Samantha Sibley- Technical Educator, Effie Stewart-Lockhart-Operations Administrator, Dr. Simon Lawson-Head of Technologies, De beers Technologies – UK had organized demonstrations of various instruments developed by DTC for identification of Synthetic Diamonds. Dr. Simon Lawson has given a detailed seminar on Synthetic diamonds to the industry members at the BDB.
The IIDGR markets a range of leading detection instruments that play a vital role in helping diamantaires have confidence in their own inventory. This in turn enables them to provide reassurance to their customers.
All the facilities to identify Synthetic diamonds are also available with Gemmological Institute of India at Bharat Diamond Bourse, G-East Tower, Ground Floor. Trade members can easily avail the services to assure quality of goods before trading.
