• PM Modi has gifted an eco-friendly lab-grown 7.5-carat diamond, placed in an exquisite Kashmiri papier-mâché box, to the S. First Lady Jill Biden.

Carat is the unit of measurement for the physical weight of diamonds. One carat equals 0.200 grams or 1/5 gram and is subdivided into 100 points.

• LGD are developed from a carbon seed placed in a microwave chamber and superheated into a glowing plasma ball.
• The process creates particles that crystallize into diamonds in weeks.
• LGDs are chemically, physically and optically diamond and thus are difficult to identify as “lab-grown.”
• LGDs are produced through 2 technologies–
  • High-Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) and
  • Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD).
  • India is one of the leading producers of these diamonds using CVD technology.
  • As per industry estimates, India’s share in its global trade in the financial year 2021-22 was 25.8%.
• Applications- Besides the jewellery industry, lab-grown diamonds are used in computer chips, satellites, and 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.
• The lab-grown diamond jewellery market is expected to rapidly rise to $5 billion by 2025 and exceed $15 billion by 2035.

OTHER INFO

• Kashmiri papier-mâché involves meticulous preparation of paper pulp and naqqashi, where skilled artisans paint elaborate designs.
• It has a GI tag.