smiles again By Archana Sharma Jaipur, Nov 2 : Gems and Jewellery players are all smiles with the boom returning to the market and customers making a beeline for buying gold, silver and diamond during this festive season. While many eminent jewellers have expanded their stores this season, others have worked hard on new inventories to cash in on the demand. Motisons Jewellers, a 23-year-old jewellery establishment in the jewellery hub of the city, launched its third store in Jaipur recently. Known for their craftsmanship, they made a grand and official launch, to step further into expanding their foothold across Jaipur. Sharing the excitement, Lalit Musal - Director - Motisons Jewellers said: "This expansion will strengthen the entire group's retail footprints in territories where it has strong presence, tapping into new designs and service for the brides of India." The brand has collaborated with Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla brand - ASAL at The Wedding Junction show in 2019 and Manish Malhotra at The Wedding Junction show in 2018. Mosul told IANS, "Sentiments of customers have turned positive as we have had a good vaccination turnout. Buoyed by these sentiments, we have opened a new showroom." Another jeweller Sanjay Kala from Kalajee Jewellers told IANS: "It is crazy rush this season after a year's lull due to pandemic. Customers are back to buy in bulk for wedding and festive season." Even the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council said that India's Gold imports have come at par with the statistics of the pre-covid years. In April-September 2021, in terms of value, the average import of gold recorded at US$3992.34 million is higher than the average gold imports in the previous years. This is mainly on account of rise in gold prices in the last year and the exchange rate. However, for the same period, the average gold imports of 72.16 tonnes was at par with an average imports during the past 3 years - 80.51 tonnes in 2017-18, 87.92 tonnes in 2018-19 and 70 tonnes in 2019-20. Gold imports in May and June 2021 were severely hit by the second devastating Covid-19 wave that resulted in nationwide lockdowns and paralysed several industries for a brief period, including gem and jewellery. "The increase in the imports during July, August and September 2021 is due to the lifting of lockdowns, revival of the domestic and export demand and the start of the festive season which has resulted in sharp rise in demand of G&J products and along with the imports of gold. "Additionally, we witnessed strong demand for gold jewellery, especially the bridal segment, at the IIJS Premiere in Bengaluru," Colin Shah, Chairman, GJEPC, said. "We expect that imports of gold will further rise in the forthcoming months as peak festive/wedding season will further boost the demand for jewellery both at home and key international markets," the GJEPC chairman added. /IANS