Lab grown Diamonds (LGD) is a technology and innovation-driven emerging sector with high employment potential. These environment-friendly diamonds have optically and chemically the same properties as natural diamonds.
To encourage indigenous production of LGD seeds and machines and to reduce import dependency, a research grant of Rs.242 crore over a period of five years to IIT Madras has been approved.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while announcing the allocation for lab-grown diamonds in the 2023 Budget, had called it an ‘emerging sector with high employment potential’.
IIT Madras has a rich history of undertaking cutting-edge and translational research with significant applications in industry and society.The Institute was also awarded the National Intellectual Property Award for 2021 and 2022.
As the name suggests, lab-grown diamonds are man-made, produced using technology that replicates the natural process which results in the formation of original diamonds. LGDs are chemically, physically, and optically similar to natural diamonds.
Even though there are multiple ways in which LGDs can be produced, the most common (and cheapest) is the “High Pressure, High Temperature” (HPHT) method. This method requires extremely heavy presses that can produce up to 730,000 psi of pressure under extremely high temperatures (at least 1500 celsius).
India currently lacks the expertise necessary to grow and treat diamond crystals using HPHT technology and importing HPHT machines is highly expensive.
According to IIT Madras, there is a need for developing indigenously built HPHT equipment and establishing the process know-how of HPHT diamond growth. Also, CVD reactor manufacturers in India import critical components like microwave generators, vacuum pumps, and sensors. Even good-quality diamond seeds are imported.
