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PM Modi Gifts 7.5-Carat Lab-Grown Diamond To US First Lady Jill Biden
Pic Via Twitter
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday (22 June) visited the White House, where he was welcomed by US President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden.
President Biden is hosting a private dinner for PM Modi at the White House.
Later in the day, PM Modi will address the joint session of the US Congress.
As the official gift, US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will present PM Modi with a handmade, antique American book galley from the early 20th Century.
At the occasion, PM Modi also exchanged special gifts with President Biden and first lady Jill Biden.
PM Modi presented a special Mysore sandalwood box to US President Joe Biden that has been handcrafted by a master craftsman from Jaipur, Rajasthan.
The box contains the murti of Lord Ganesha, which has been handcrafted by a family of fifth-generation silversmiths from Kolkata.
The box also contains a diya (oil lamp) that occupies a sacred space in every Hindu household.
PM Modi gifted a lab-grown 7.5-carat green diamond to US First Lady Dr Jill Biden.
The diamond reflects earth-mined diamonds’ chemical and optical properties. It is also eco-friendly, as eco-diversified resources like solar and wind power were used in its making, ANI reported.
It should be noted that to encourage production of lab-grown diamonds, the Central government had in the Union Budget 2023-24 announced that it will provide a research and development grant to one of the IITs for a period of five years.
To reduce the cost of production of such diamonds, a proposal to reduce custom duties on 'lab-grown diamond seeds' was also present in the Budget.
What are lab-grown diamonds and how are they produced?
Lab-grown diamonds are also known as CVD diamonds. Here, 'CVD' stands for 'chemical vapour deposition', the process by which these diamonds are produced.
Lab-grown diamonds have the same physical, chemical and optical properties as natural diamonds.
Chemically, they undergo more or less the same process as the naturally-occurring diamonds.
A thin layer is first cut from a natural diamond, to form the lab-grown diamond's seed.
This seed, which is 100 per cent carbon, is then polished and placed in a plasma reactor.
Inside the plasma reactor, the same temperature and pressure conditions are recreated as under the surface of the Earth where diamonds naturally form. In fact, in natural diamonds, several other impurities and gases enter the diamond too. This is not the case with lab-grown diamonds.
Eventually, carbon particles begin to disintegrate and form layers on the original seed.
Ultimately, this forms a rough lab-grown diamond, just as a rough natural diamond.
This rough diamond is then cut and polished to take it to its final form.
Why the Union government want to go big on them
As per 2021 data, India is the largest importer of diamonds in the world.
In 2021, India reportedly imported diamonds worth $26 billion.
An ecosystem to produce lab-grown diamonds will help reduce this part of India's import bill.
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