Gold has long had a special attraction for Indians. Loaded with cultural and religious significance, it is considered an auspicious metal and a visible sign of wealth and prosperity.
But trading in the sought-after commodity is now changing, as one company looks to secure a better deal for the millions of ordinary Indians who buy and sell the precious yellow metal for weddings and annual festivals.
National Spot Exchange Ltd, controlled by markets firm Financial Technologies India Ltd, has set up a new electronic system that looks to guarantee gold bullion prices and quality.
“What we’re trying to do is to create a market so that Indians can sell gold by way of converting into gold bars or gold coins and sell it on,” said National Spot Exchange’s managing director and chief executive Anjani Sinha.
“At a spot exchange we can fix their price, quote the price and it’s guaranteed by supply and demand. They can quote their buying price and their selling price,” he said at the company’s offices in suburban north Mumbai.
India is the world’s biggest consumer of gold, importing between 700 tonnes and 800 tonnes of the metal every year or 20 percent of global demand.
The country’s gold imports have slowed in recent months due to the world economic downturn, which has pushed up prices as investors seek a safe haven from the financial uncertainty.
In January, the peak of the lavish wedding and gift-giving season, India imported only 1.8 tonnes of gold, down from 14 tonnes in the first month of last year.
In April, the Bombay Bullion Association said that — for the first time in more than a decade — there were no imports at all in February and March.
Even so, Indian households are still believed to have a massive 20,000 tonnes to 25,000 tonnes of gold stashed away.
But while a market exists for imported bullion, there is no mechanism for the resale of gold jewelry and its conversion back into bars once it enters the domestic market.
As a result, ordinary Indians are forced to use merchants who commonly charge a hefty commission to melt down their gold jewelry and sell it on at a premium.
Introducing a more standardized, transparent market will cut out the middleman and be beneficial for both the consumer and the Indian economy as a whole, Sinha said.
“This market has been created basically for dealing in quality, certified standard gold,” he said.
“The consumer is more in control and not dependent on somebody else when he goes to a jewelry merchant where you can’t quote your own selling price,” he said.
Daily prices are linked to those at the London Bullion Market. On its first day on May 30, the spot exchange in India’s financial capital traded about 50kg of gold.
Selling prices were in the region of 14,450 rupees (US$302) per 10g on Friday.
To guarantee quality, the exchange, in conjunction with the Indian Bullion Markets Association, is auditing refineries that melt down jewelry into international standard “995” purity, meaning it is 995/1,000 parts pure gold. Four refineries — two in Mumbai and two in Ahmedabad, in nearby Gujarat state — have already been approved. It is hoped to have 15 approved refineries by the end of the year.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS