Post-Nirav scam: Alrosa now cautious

Russian diamond mining major Alrosa, which recently opened its facility in India, is keeping a close check on the financial history of customers with banks before it sells them diamonds – a fallout of the Nirav Modi scam.

“We are checking the bank dealings of each of our customers whether they get into a one-year contract or a threeyear long contract with us. There should be complete transparency in transactions. We are in constant touch with banks,” Jim Vimadalal, director & India representative of Alrosa told ET.

Alrosa expects growth of 5-10% in FY19 over FY18 in the Indian market, he said.


The diamond major plans to come up with a major campaign to promote natural diamonds in India. “The company is drawing up plans to launch a global campaign from November and India will be a major focus market for the company for natural diamonds.”

Alrosa, which accounts for 30% of world diamond output, has mining operations in many locations across Russia. In 2017, it produced 39.6 million carats of rough diamonds. India accounts for 16% of Alrosa’s rough diamond sales.