GJS April 2026 Draws Record 9,000 Visitors; Industry Debates Tech and Consumer Preferences

The ninth edition of the India Gems and Jewellery Show closed its doors in Mumbai on April 7 with the highest footfall in the event's history: more than 9,000 trade visitors, 350 exhibitors, and 650 booths spread across the Jio World Convention Centre. Organised by the All India Gem and Jewellery Domestic Council under the theme "Akshay Kala: The Eternal Art," the four-day show arrived at a pointed moment for the industry, timed between Gudi Padwa and Akshaya Tritiya, with gold prices having corrected recently enough to accelerate pre-festival buying decisions on the floor.

Maharashtra Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule inaugurated the show on April 4, framing its scale in terms that went well beyond trade figures. "The gem and jewellery sector is a true Mahakumbh, offering employment to lakhs of semi-skilled and skilled designers and serving as India's ambassador of beauty worldwide," he said. The numbers behind that framing are substantial: GJC cited the sector's valuation at rupees 12 lakh crore, its contribution to GDP at 7 to 8 percent, and employment reaching over one crore people with nearly five crore dependents.

The show's intellectual program ran alongside the exhibition floor and carried arguably more weight than any single booth. Manthan, the research seminar organised jointly by the India Gold Policy Centre at IIM Ahmedabad and the World Gold Council, and powered by GIA with MCX as commodity exchange partner, convened policymakers and industry leaders to map a vision for Indian jewellery's long-term global competitiveness. The parallel Mindspeak series moved through artificial intelligence, luxury market trends, profitability, and next-generation jewellery design across four days of sessions, surfacing what exhibitors were already demonstrating on the floor: that AI-assisted design, virtual mockups, laser engraving, and design-for-manufacture workflows are now a baseline expectation in B2B transactions, not a premium feature.

Consumer preferences discussed in those sessions reflected a buyer profile that is measurably different from a decade ago. Demand for lightweight bridal collections grew visibly; investment products including gold coins and bars performed strongly; and the expectation of traceability and provenance has moved from a niche concern to something buyers raise directly in negotiations. For an industry where provenance documentation has historically been inconsistent, that shift is both a challenge and an opening.

The show's closing session brought a sharper policy dimension. A Maharashtra State Vigilance Committee workshop convened nearly 300 jewellers from across Maharashtra and was addressed by Maharashtra Legislative Council member Chitra Wagh, with Lok Sabha member Rajesh Verma in attendance. GJC used the session to formally request the introduction of skill development courses for the jewellery trade and a dedicated section for the industry in central government policy. Wagh gave assurances that both a support framework for skill development and a new vigilance committee would be established.

With Akshaya Tritiya approaching, the buying sentiment the show generated will translate into retail volume quickly. Whether the trade's investment in personalisation technology and transparency infrastructure can match the pace of that demand is the sharper question GJS 2026 raised, and left open.