Smt. Nirupa Bhatt (MD GIA India and ME ) and Shri Praveenshankar Pandya (Chairman, GJEPC) light the lamp in the presence of L to R Shri Russel Mehta (Vice Chairman GJEPC), Shri Kirit Bhansali (Convener-IGJA, GJEPC), Shri Ramcharan Bohra (BJP MP), Shri Rajpal Singh Shekhawat (Rajasthan State Minister - Urban development), Shri Piyush Goyal (Union Minister GOI), and Sabyasachi Ray (ED GJEPC)

The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) hosted the 'India Gem & Jewellery Awards (IGJA)'™ that recognises and rewards star performers of the Indian gem and jewellery sector, in the presence of Hon'ble Shri Piyush Goyal,MoS (Independent charge) for Power, coal, New & Renewable Energy and Hon'ble Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Smt. Vasundhara Raje at a glittering event in Jaipur on March 12, 2016. A total of 32 nomination awards and 5 felicitation awards were given away during the awards.

Shri Praveenshankar Pandya
(Chairman, GJEPC)

GJEPC's IGJA has become one of the foremost recognition platforms for the jewellery sector in India to encourage exports and award excellence in manufacturing, finance and innovation. The jury members, who discussed, deliberated & eventually selected the winners include: Smt. Nirupa Bhatt, Managing Director (India & Middle East), GIA, Shri Ajai Kumar, ex-CMD, Indian Overseas Bank and Shri Pawan Bindal, Director, Dun & Bradstreet.

Jury member Smt. Nirupa Bhatt, Managing Director,GIA (India & ME), said, "It is heartening to see the performance, perseverance, progress and enthusiasm of the hard working participants through an increased number of entries inspite of the tough times being faced by the sector in 2015. I would like to see more women entrepreneurs participating in the special category reserved for them in IGJA Awards. Through the special awards for women and MSME entrepreneurs, we are trying to identify role models to inspire several others to come forward and showcase their expertise.

Jury Member Shri Ajai Kumar, ex CMD, Indian Overseas Bank, said, "This is my debut as a Jury member of GJEPC's IGJA Awards and I am happy to witness the passion & productivity of participants. Their deep desire to succeed is creating demand. It is interesting to witness the innovative ways in which members are facing challenges. E-commerce and digital online marketing-retailing initiatives are opening a new world of possibilities. The Gen-Next ideas include Try-at-Home, Virtual Realities, etc."

Jury Member Shri Pawan Bindal, Director, Dun & Bradstreet, said, "D&B is privileged to be associated with GJEPC for the third year in a row for these prestigious awards. As in the previous years, we have been focused on ensuring high participation rate among GJEPC members in the awards process. This year, we managed to secure 362 nominations, an increase of 33% over last year. This increase in participation is a reflection of continued confidence of industry members in the awards process. In fact, the high participation also strengthens the position of this awards programme, as a showcase of industry's contribution to the country's economy."

The GJEPC 42nd Annual Awards, exclusively open for GJEPC members, will felicitate excellent and meritorious performances of gems and jewellery exporters, on the basis of their export performance, value additions, and investment on R&D among other parameters during the year 2015. A proprietary quantitative model developed by D&B, will be used to short list the award winners, based primarily on computation of composite scores calculated by considering various financial and quantitative indicators. The final set of award winners will be chosen by the esteemed jury.