The Board of the Responsible Jewelry Council (RJC) is visiting India from April 13th to 15th and has an action-packed agenda for the three days.

The RJC, this year, had accepted the invitation of the BDB to hold its AGM at the Bourse Complex. Apart from the AGM, together with the BDB and GJEPC, the body had organised a conference in the afternoon of April 13th.  The day ended with a gala dinner in the evening hosted by BDB and GJEPC. Today, the team is on a visit to Surat, where it will visit several diamond manufacturing facilities. Tomorrow Wednesday, the team will tour SEEPZ where it will visit several jewellery manufacturing factories.

April 13th began with the AGM of the RJC being held in the first half, at which, it is learnt, James Courage was designated as the Chairman. Other details of the AGM will follow soon. The RJC team was also taken on a comprehensive tour of the BDB Complex.

Post lunch, the Conference opened with James Courage welcoming the attendees and providing an introduction to the RJC, its aims and objectives, its vision and mission statements and its development  over the last 10 years. “Better business practices build better businesses,” Courage concluded.

In a detailed presentation on behalf of BDB and GJEPC, Sabyasachi Ray, Executive Director, GJEPC, gave the visitors an understanding of the gems and jewellery industry in India and spelt out a number of suggestions so that a larger and wider section of the industry could be aligned to the RJC model. Ray touched upon issues or areas on concern, which if addressed, he said, “would help the RJC create a common platform and expand membership and integrate better”. 

The areas of concern covered aspects like the membership fee, which currently is seen as high for many micro and small operators. The certification fee, too, is high and as there are several regulatory procedures that companies have to follow, the overall cost of compliance is becoming very large, Ray pointed out.  He proposed that a differential policy, based on size, be introduced. Ray  suggested that the requirements of Legal Compliance and the Audit Process should be put out on the RJC’s website for greater transparency and so that all companies would know very clearly what was expected of them. Ray also called for the creation of a “level playing field” so that the manufacturers of other countries too were brought under its ambit.

Finally, he suggested that there should be an independent ombudsman appointed.

“The GJEPC is engaged with World Class Best Practices,” Ray concluded. “The GJEPC and BDB believe that the RJC is taking the right steps and would like to work with the RJC in a true spirit of equal partnership. There is a need for greater communication to achieve this.” 

Anoop Mehta, President BDB, welcomed the delegation to the Bourse and said that the Complex here is transforming on a continuous basis. He spoke of the Special Notified Zone (SNZ), soon to be established in the Bourse Complex where rough diamond producing companies could come and hold auctions and tenders and take away unsold goods without attracting any duty, under special tax regulations applicable to SNZs. 

These presentations were followed by several members and stakeholders of RJC speaking on various aspects, mainly about how RJC membership had helped their own organisations.

Vikram Merchant, Manager-India, Rio Tinto Diamonds, said that his organisation had understood the importance of compliance and business standards issues early in the day and had encouraged clients to adhere to them and had even introduced the Business Excellence Model (BEM) an industry specific certification. With the emergence of the RJC, he said, Rio had withdrawn the BEM and begun adhering to the RJC model and also expected and exhorted their own clients to do so as well. 

Ghanshyam Dholakia gave a rousing and passionate introduction to his company ethics, values and philosophy. He said that by following best industry practices, and by treating their 6000 plus employees as their greatest assets his company had clocked a turnover of $ 1000 million for 2014-15.  “Those in the business with a long term vision will understand the need for RJC membership,” he concluded. 

Other key presentations were made by Pankaj Parekh, Vice Chairman, GJEPC; David A. Bouffard, VP, Corporate Affairs, Signet and Clauss Teilmann Petersen, VP Group CSR, Pandora.

Parekh said that the Indian jewellery industry is in transition, with the bigger players having achieved modernisation, though there were still thousands of SMEs that needed a boost. RJC efforts could provide the neeeded support. He stressed that all GJEPC and BDB members were already 90% compliant, even if they are not formally certified as yet.

Speaking on behalf of Signet, Bouffard said that the company had focused on working closely with achieving compaliance acrosss the supplier network in India / UK/ Italy and China, and today, over 100 Signet suppliers were RJC compliant. The focus will now be on working with the trade associations at the retail level such as JVC, NRF etc. The company iteself has developed a Signet Responsible Sourcing Protocol for gold and is now formulating a similar programme for diamonds.

Petersen talked about the programmes that Pandora had developed for its employees. He said it was encapsulated in the company’s own 4Cs programme for its workforce (Clarity, Confidence, Competence and Commitment) and said that empowerment boosted their confidence and motivated them to be the best. He said that joining RJC had helped further improve standards.

Pic Caption: Sabyasachi Ray, GJEPC ED, making a presentation at the RJC AGM & Conference. RJC COO Catherine Sproule chaired the session.