Electronics-The Liberal Approach

cutting and processing industry has been able to increase exports, it is mainly for two reasons.
First, the processing cost in India is lower as compared to our competitor countries. The Indian diamond indurstry specialises in small diamonds. Therefore, the bulk of our exports consist of small sized cut and polished diamonds. This specialisation is again a consequence of the unique advantage India has in processing over other countries. Because of heavy and increasing labour costs in countries such as Belgium and Israel, processing of small diamonds, in which the labour content is very high, is becoming uneconomical for those countries. In India, the labour for diamond processing is not only cheaper, its cost is reportedly on the decline on account of a rise in the number of children employed in this predominantly cottage industry. It is this cheaper processing cost which has given Indian diamond exports an edge over their competitors.