Maharashtra-EGS for Whom

have either stagnated or even shown a decline in recent years. Although exports of precious and semi-precious stones have gone up considerably, their net contribution to foreign exchange earnings is quite small. Thus while exports of precious stones were valued at Rs 825 crore in 1982-33, their import requirements were as high as Rs 677 crore, so that their net export earnings were only about 20 per cent of gross export earnings.