Page 33 - Bullion World Issue 10 Volume 05 October 2025

IGC 2025: Where The World Meets India, Day 3 Highlights Bullion World | Volume 5 | Issue 10 | October 2025

Special Address

Shri R. Arulanandan, Director - SMD Agriculture, EP (G&J), Kimberley Process, Department of
Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, GOI.

Mr Harshad Ajmera, Director, JJ Gold House, Mr Arulanandan, Director - SMD Agriculture, EP (G&J),
Kimberley Process, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, GOI.
Mr Sunil Kashyap, Director, FinMet Pte Ltd

Mr R. Arulanandan, Director – SMD Agriculture, EP (G&J), Kimberley Process, Department of Commerce,
Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, suggested that the gold industry might benefit from
reflecting on milestones such as the 1971 delinking of the US dollar from gold, which contributed to prices rising
from $35 to over $3,600 per ounce. He noted that India could consider leveraging its position as one of the
largest global gold consumers, with an estimated 25,000 tons of gold in circulation domestically, by adopting
innovative approaches like dematerialization and building a robust trading and exchange ecosystem to transform
gold into productive assets.

He proposed that developing solutions to assess gold content in jewellery without melting could make gold
more liquid as a financial asset and reinforce its safeguard role against economic uncertainties. Mr Arulanandan
also introduced the idea of pegging gold to a basket of currencies to reduce inflation and exchange rate risks,
potentially enhancing gold’s attractiveness both domestically and internationally.

Discussing India’s refining and regulatory context, he pointed out that while India imports around 800 tons of
dore gold and has capacity for up to 2,500 tons of annual refining, only about 10% of the capacity is utilized.
Revisiting regulatory issues such as restrictions on banks sourcing gold domestically, and mismatches in duty
drawback rates versus import duties, could unlock sector growth. He suggested reforms allowing banks to
borrow and lend domestic gold, better alignment of duty drawback and customs duties, and fuller refining
capacity use—especially within GIFT City. Learning from Japan, Singapore, and the UAE, where policy boosted
the gold trade, could also support India’s export capabilities.

Mr Arulanandan highlighted India’s regulatory strengths, such as Customs Notification 50/2017 for gold
traceability, and suggested enhancing hallmarking standards, extending them to silver, and refining value
addition norms. Finally, he encouraged building an ecosystem for waste and scrap recovery—across jewellery,
electronics, and industry—to capitalize on the $35 billion global recycling market, and envisaged India becoming
a precious metals refining and recycling hub through policy, infrastructure, and collaboration.

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