ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

Union Cabinet approves Winding up of Hindustan Diamond Company Private Limited The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its approval for initiating the process of winding up of Hindustan Diamond Company Private Limited (HDCPL). HDCPL is 50:50 joint venture of the Union Government and De Beers Centenary Mauritius Limited (DBCML). The winding up of HDCPL is not likely to affect supply of rough diamonds to Indian diamantaires because the Indian diamond industry has grown in all these years. At present, India is a house of top diamond producers.  Besides, the Special Notified Zone (SNZ) at Bharat Diamond Bourse, Mumbai established in 2015 also enables the smaller Indian players to have a direct access to the supply of rough diamond. Hindustan Diamond Company Private Limited The HDCPL was incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 in 1978. The company was established with an objective to supply rough diamonds to diamond processing industry in India, particularly to small and medium diamond jewellery exporters. In the past, the Indian diamond exporters didn’t had a direct access to rough diamonds from Diamond Trading Company (DTC), London. DTC is the marketing arm of De Beers who held a very large chunk of world’s rough diamonds market.