Mega CFCs to come up for gems and jewellery sector

Chennai: The Government is planning to set up Mega Common Facility Centres in Mumbai, Kolkata and other cities for the MSMEs in the gems and jewellery sector, said Senior Economic Advisor, Department of Commerce, Rupa Dutta. These mega-CFCs will cater to the skill development, R&D and other needs of the value chain.

While CFCs are being set up for the jewellery sector, the goal is to replicate this model in other manufacturing sectors as well, she added while addressing the Kimberley Process Inter-sessional meeting in Mumbai.

There are four operational CFCs in Gujarat, while four more are planned in the state. She said that dedicated clusters will be set up at high-potential locations in the country, with at least one CFC in every potential cluster.

She encouraged delegates from diamond-producing countries to adopt similar models for alluvial and artisanal mining. "Facilitating projects such as CFCs makes it easy for informal miners to access facilitation, training and support; enables unorganized miners to come together and helps them become a larger part of the organized sector. They can work with traders' associations who can play the role of a mediator between the government and miners. We invite participating countries to visit CFCs of India; we can offer you support in formulating project proposals based on this and implementing them," she said.

The CFCs came up to address the challenges of the gem and jewellery sector, such as shortage of skilled manpower, deficiencies in quality and productivity, non-affordability of costly machinery and equipment, and low exposure to technology and global industry trends.

CFCs are supported by the Government of India, and implemented by GJEPC for the gem and jewellery sector. The basic idea of CFCs in the diamond sector is to promote MSMEs, given that the sector is dominated largely by them. CFCs provide technical support and other forms of capacity building assistance to the 1.2 million plus workers in the sector.