Dithering Over Diamonds


Honestly, I love diamonds. And love coloured diamonds more.

And I have had a bit of good luck with them. In 2008,in the midst of the financial crisis, I bought a few yellows from a person with a cutting and polishing factory, who had little use for them in a market with a decided preference for the white variety. Last week I was pleasantly surprised to see just how much yellows had since then become quite the fashion ! And better yet, have the appraiser inform me that one of them was not yellow but green actually!Way rarer and pricier !

So beginners luck should be encouraging me to gamble once again…..But I find myself conflicted. Seriously conflicted. Read more of this post

Be Careful Of Buying Diamonds


wealthymatters

In the past few months, the diamond bourse in Mumbai and several dealers of the stone have installed a small, black machine in their offices. The little device, which can be mistaken for a laser printer linked to a computer, is one that separates the natural rough diamonds from the much cheaper synthetic stones.

The timing is interesting and unmistakable. At the time, the Winsome group, India’s largest bank defaulter (with loan outstanding bigger than Kingfisher’s),emerged as the world’s largest maker of synthetic diamonds. While in India, banks have directed forensic audit on Winsome and government agencies are probing the money trail following the Rs 6,500 crore credit default, Winsome has consolidated its position as a leading player in man-made diamonds by operating from its bases in Singapore, Malaysia and the US. Read more of this post