The standard

Indian gold, in trade usage, refers principally to the 22 karat gold (91.6 percent pure gold by weight) that has been the dominant standard for traditional Indian jewellery production from the colonial period to the present. Higher-purity 24 karat gold (99.9 percent) is used for ceremonial coins, biscuits and bullion, but is too soft for most jewellery applications. The 22 karat standard balances purity with the hardness needed for everyday wear.

The cultural context

Indian preference for high-purity gold is rooted in the dual function of gold as both adornment and savings. Indian households hold approximately twenty-five thousand tons of gold privately, the largest national private gold holding globally, and most of this is held as jewellery rather than as bullion. The 22 karat standard maintains substantial gold weight content per piece, supporting the savings function while permitting jewellery use.

The buyback and exchange dynamic at Indian jewellers, where pieces can be returned and exchanged for credit toward new pieces at approximately ninety to ninety-five percent of pure gold value, depends on the high purity standard. Lower-purity gold (14 karat, 18 karat) is used in modern design but does not support the same buyback dynamic and is therefore less culturally embedded in the traditional savings-jewellery relationship.

Hallmarking

The BIS hallmarking system, mandatory in stages from June 2021, codifies Indian gold purity standards through marks: 22 karat is marked as 916 (representing 91.6 percent fine gold), 18 karat as 750, and 14 karat as 585. The hallmark also includes the BIS standards mark, the assay centre mark, the year of marking, and the jeweller's mark, providing full traceability for any hallmarked piece.

The transition to mandatory hallmarking has been substantial for the Indian retail jewellery sector, formalising what had previously been a largely informal trade in gold purity verification. The transition has supported the formal-sector consolidation in retail jewellery and has reduced the historical retail purity-cheating problem, in which sellers misrepresented lower-purity gold as 22 karat.

Production and manufacturing

Indian gold jewellery production is concentrated in several regional centres: Surat for diamond-set gold jewellery, Mumbai for high-end design and export, Coimbatore and the Tamil Nadu cluster for traditional southern designs, Kolkata for traditional eastern designs, and Jaipur for kundan and gemstone-set jewellery. The manufacturing process for traditional Indian designs typically involves multiple specialists: the goldsmith (sonar) who works the basic form, the setter (jadiya) who places stones, the polisher (chamri) who finishes the surface, and the assembler who completes the piece.