The Centre on Thursday awarded five-year research grant of ₹242 crores to the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT), Madras for research on lab-grown diamonds, which are manufactured using technology that replicates the natural diamond growing process.

A five-year research grant for one of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) was announced in the Union Budget to encourage the indigenous production of lab-grown diamonds (LGD) machinery, seeds and recipe.

“It has been decided to give this project to IIT- Madras after a joint determination of its capabilities by a joint committee of Government, export promotion council and Industry representatives. It is proposed to establish an India Centre for Lab grown Diamond (InCent-LGD) at IIT Madras with the estimated cost of Rs. 242.96 crores over 5 years," the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement.

The Gems and Jewellery sector plays a significant role in the Indian economy, contributing around 9% to India’s total merchandise export. Over the past decade, there has been several positive developments in the Gem & Jewellery sector globally. One of the major technological developments in this sector has been Laboratory-grown diamonds (LGD).

Besides the jewellery industry, lab-grown diamonds are used in computer chips, satellites, 5G networks as they can be used in extreme environments due to their potential to operate at higher speeds while using less power than silicon-based chips. LGD has vast application in field of defence, optics, jewellery, thermal & medical industry.

Globally, the market stood at $1 billion in 2020, the lab-grown diamond jewellery market is expected to rapidly rise to $ 5 billion by 2025 and exceed $ 15 billion by 2035.