Gujarat accounts for around 80% of India’s natural diamond processing. In Gujarat, Navsari and Surat are the major cities where most of the processing is done. The history of diamond processing industry sector in Surat can best be seen along with its neighbouring city, Navsari. The first diamond cutting factory to be known was established in the year 1938 in Navsari.

The early 1970s saw the development of many units in Surat, around 100 units employing approximately 500 workers in total. At present there are more than 6,000 diamond cutting units in Surat. Some of these units have even more than a thousand employees each. Training, exposure, and technology backing became the three major reasons for the Surat’s success story. Today, India is the world leader in cutting, polishing and re-cutting of diamonds. And, Surat is in the forefront.

Some of the important diamond institutions in Surat are Surat Hira Bourse (SHB) which was established in Surat in 1994, Indian Diamond Institute (IDI) which is the country’s first Diamond Institute for modern technical training and research, Diamond Industrial Park (DIP) which is the first of its kind in the country and will be housing around 1,000 firms when it becomes fully operational and Surat Diamonds Cutters Association (SDCA).

Challenges
The challenges for small to mid-sized manufacturing firms are their heavy dependence on a few customers, lack of visibility on end sales information leads to inaccurate sales planning and forecasting which leads to either overstock or stock out issues, high wastage of rough diamonds during production due to lack of optimised planning. Also, productivity of manual intensive processes is a key issue and supply order visibility is a challenge. Inefficient tracking mechanism due to lack of automation results in stock keeping issues and accounting is not integrated to key business processes.

For large integrated units sales workforce is not informed in real time about the finished goods inventory. Despite the more stream-lined production environment compared to the smaller firms, there is high wastage of diamonds during the production process. Here also, supply order visibility is a key issue. Most large firms have basic material management systems, which is not integrated to production planning or finance which leads to duplication of entry and increased overheads. Also, accounting is not integrated to key business processes

Project Vikas Initiatives
Project Vikas has planned a number of initiatives to tackle these challenges. Under the project, sensitisation programmes are being conducted to help enterprises understand how the challenges before them can be well addressed through use of ICTs.

Project Vikas is also in the process of setting up an e-Readiness Centre in the cluster. Training programmes for the local independent software vendors are being conducted. Workforce training programmes are also being conducted.

To enable business development of the enterprises, Project Vikas has envisaged a Web portal which would enable these businesses to connect with other business, and help them find customers as well.