Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Jul 05, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Jul 05, 2002 |
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Industry & Economy
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Gems & Jewellery Ganjam Nagappa goes global Anjali Prayag
BANGALORE, July 4 WITH over 100 years of jewellery-making experience behind it, Ganjam has been the natural choice to represent India during the Indo-Japanese 50th Year of Friendship. The Bangalore-based Ganjam Nagappa & Son, one of the oldest jewellery houses in the city and personal jewellers to the royal family of Mysore, is now making a global presence in the field. Three events that have given a global edge to the jewellery house are changing over its entire range of diamond jewellery to F quality, winning the Gold Virtuosi 2 Award and being chosen as the only Indian jeweller to represent the country at Japan. Mr Umesh Ganjam, Joint Managing Director, Ganjam Nagappa & Son, told Business Line: "It's the quality-conscious consumer who has motivated us to make this transition across all our jewellery categories.'' He says most jewellers in the country offer G, H or I colour diamonds. The grading of diamonds start from D, which is the best. It is colourless and brilliant. As the grading goes down, the diamonds become yellow and less sparkling. While D and E are very rare, F is also very difficult to procure. ``We have transformed our entire diamond jewellery stock into the F variety, which perhaps no other jeweller in the country has done,'' maintains Mr Umesh. The Gold Virtuosi Award is recognised the world over as the international `Oscars' for gold jewellery design and Ganjam's Srinivasa Reddy's prize winning entry is inspired by fluid forms of pebbles and weighs about 1.3 kg. The award sponsored by World Gold Council, the Vicenza fair and AngloGold was the culmination of an award that attracted 5098 entries from 52 countries. Reddy's creation is a gold ensemble that has three neck chains, a waist chain and a bracelet, all using a chain-link form. In the year 2000, Ganjam has bagged the runners-up award for its `Flower Ball' creation at the International Gold Virtuosi. On the occasion of the Indo-Japanese 50th year of friendship, Ganjam was asked to display its international designs. "These are contemporary Indian designs with global appeal. Currently our 5th show is running in Japan and we are booked for eight shows,'' says Mr Umesh. Apart from Japan, Ganjam's jewellery is already being exported to Europe, North America, South Korea and Africa. With the corporate sector making inroads into this essentially `home' industry, do the small jewellers feel threatened by them? Mr Umesh is very clear that they should not as "each region has its unique style and tradition which no big- timer can imitate. My advice to the small players is develop these niche areas and customers will be loyal to you.''
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