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India’s GJEPC Elects New Leadership
The body in charge of promoting the jewelry and gemstone industry in India has a new chairman and vice chairman.
Mumbai--The Gem & Jewelry Export Promotion Council, the trade body charged with promoting the jewelry sector in India, recently elected two new leaders to two-year terms.
Shri Pramod Kumar Agarwal was elected chairman for 2018 to 2020 while Shri Colin Shah will serve at his side as vice chairman.
He also has spent the last five years overseeing the GJEPC’s Indian Institute of Gem and Jewellery in Jaipur as its chairman.
In a release from the GJEPC announcing the election results, Agarwal said he will emphasize changes to Indian tax laws that impact diamonds, silver and gold, and believes the generic diamond advertising is necessary to facilitate growth.
“Currently, the industry (in India) is at a critical juncture, where it needs to be more organized and transparent in terms of doing business, which would help it to achieve a more dynamic role in our economy,” he said.
He started Kama Schachter as a modest manufacturing company in 1996 and since has grown the company to include two state-of-the-art factories and a diamond office in Mumbai, with sales offices in the United States and India.
In addition to a new chairman and vice chairman, the GJEPC elected the following regional chairman unopposed: Western region, Shri Ashok Gajera; Gujarat region, Shri Dinesh Navadia; Rajasthan region, Shri Nirmal Kumar Bardia; Eastern region, Shri Prakash Chandra Pincha; Southern region, Shri Mahendra Kumar Tayal. In addition, Shri Ashok Sheth was elected as the regional chairman for Delhi.
RELATED CONTENT: GJEPC Names New Executive Director of MarketingThe GJEPC also elected the following members to the diamond panel: Shri Manish Jivani, Shri Milan T. Choksi, Shri Sanju S. Kothari, and in the diamond reserved category elected unopposed was Shri Russell A. Mehta.
Elected without opposition to represent the silver jewelry sector was Shri Rambabu Gupta, while Shri Vijay Kedia was elected unopposed as the representative for the colored gemstone sector.
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