The lost & found cases in Surat’s $12bn plus diamond industry

GNN | Aug 22, 2018, 8:44 PM IST|

• Sparkle of honesty in Surat diamond industry
• Surat diamond industry runs on trust

Surat, August 22, 2018: Manhar Sutaria, a merchant in Mahidharpura, found a packet containing polished diamonds worth Rs20lakh ($28,645). Sutaria passed on this message on his Whatsapp group. Within 72 hours the packet was returned to its actual owner. “The merchant who had lost the packet called up on my mobile to inquire about the packet,” Sutaria recalls. “I told him give me the description and some identification sign and he told me about a star sign on the packet, gave information about the weight of diamonds - 15 carat and the white colour of the diamonds in the packet. I was satisfied with the answer and I called him to my office and returned the packet,” Sutaria says.
Or take this example of August 15 last year (2017) when Vishal Upadhyay, a 15-year-old son of watchman found a packet containing diamonds having a total weight of 700carats and valued at Rs40lakh ($57,290). Vishal found the packet while he was playing cricket in Mahidharpura. Vishal returned the packet to its owner who came searching for it on the third day. Mansukh Savaliya, the owner of the packet handsomely rewarded Vishal with a cash prize of Rs30,000 ($429.68). Surat Diamond Association (SDA), the apex body of the diamond industry also handed over Rs11,000($157.55) to Vishal for his honesty.
Or take this example of Anand Balar, a diamond broker who found a packet of rough diamonds three months back in May this year. Balar drove down to the SDA office in the Mini Bazaar area and deposited it there. About 10 days later the packet carrying diamonds worth Rs50lakhs ($71,612.70) was traced to Kanti Narola, a trader working in Varachha. “The packet had fallen off my trouser’s pockets when I pulled out my handkerchief,” Narola recounted.
GNN learns every year, 25 to 30 packets of lost diamond parcels valued at Rs7cr to Rs8cr ($1.20m) are returned to their rightful owners in the Mahidharpura and Varachha areas of Surat -- the two hubs of diamond cutting and polishing industry. Interestingly, it would be only by sheer luck that a diamond trader finds his wallet or mobile if lost in the congested and crowded lanes and bylanes crisscrossing Mahidharpura and Varachha. Ironically, the trader won’t be unduly worried if he loses a diamond parcel here, says Melvyn Reggie Thomas in his TNN report. “There is sparkle of honesty in Surat’s famed diamond industry,” Thomas says.
Most of these packets are deposited with the office of the Surat Diamond Association (SDA), the apex body of the diamond industry. Kirti Shah, a senior member of the 25-member SDA working committee says, “SDA gets around 25 to 30 cases of lost items recovered from the markets. Most of these items are diamond packets.” Shah adds, “Indeed this is a unique gesture of honesty anywhere in the world.”
Trust in each other is what the entire industry runs on. “Trust is very important in the diamond cutting and polishing industry,” a leading diamond polisher tells GNN. “Surat’s Rs80,000cr ($12bn) diamond industry runs solely on trust because without trust it would be next to impossible to carry out day to day operations.” So be it cutting and polishing, sorting, trading or carrying the small diamond packets from one place to another through the traditional couriers the ‘angadiyas’ trust is the fuel on which the industry runs.
But how exactly are the owners of these lost packets traced? GNN learns signs peculiar to the diamond industry help in identifying the lost packets as the diamonds are wrapped in plastic paper with description of contents written overleaf. Different diamond merchants have their own identification marks in the form of signatures, alphabets and other symbols which helps in leading the way to the owner when the packets are found by someone. But before getting their lost packets, the merchants must prove their genuine identity as the rightful owners. Earlier diamond merchants used the traditional communication way of putting up notices on walls. But now they also use social media to trace and find lost parcels. Notices are still put at entry gates and inside elevators. These notices have details of lost packets like description, quantity and mobile number of the owner. Also in an industry where the value of both the raw material and the finished goods runs into crores, age old systems are still in place. “The ‘chitthi’ (note) system is very much in force,” we hear. “Traders still prefer the ‘chitthis’ when buying diamonds from cutting and polishing unit owners.”