About JAB

The Jewellers Association Bangalore was established on 11th February 1938 with a humble beginning of 14 illustrated jewellers. The Association was housed initially at Nagarthpet Bangalore where on 20.11.1940 the Diamond Madyastham Weighment Section was inaugurated.

We entered the present new premises on 1st January 1942 and a new chapter in the history of the Association has begun that day. The Jewellers Association Bangalore has today grown to reach a strong membership of more than 1200 small, medium and big jewellers.

It was indeed a fortune for our association that the galaxy of Office-Bearers event at the most nascent stages were people with great mettle and nerve, who put us a most strenuous and dedicated work to build the association on a very strong foundation.

The Jewellers’ Association, Bengaluru has come a long way from its humble beginnings in the year 1941. Offering an interactive platform for jewellers to meet, resolving contentious issues affecting jewellery business, safeguarding members business interests in troubled times, conducting awareness and skills enhancement workshops, establishing a uniform gold rate across Karnataka…in short, the Association has been rendering a bouquet of impactful services. The Association has grown by leaps and is now poised for greater glory. The book traces the history and achievements of the Association through some amazing old world photo images and narrative.

Bengaluru was a very small town in 1941, very green with a salubrious climate and leisurely pace of life. Some of the ten active local jewellers like Ganjam Subbaramaiah and Sri. Devatha Sriramaiah Setty felt that jewellers needed a platform to meet, discuss and sort out business related issues. They observed that whenever little skirmishes erupted among local jewellers, there was no neutral body to resolve them and make peace.

The Jewellers’ Association, Bengaluru

Traversing a commendable journey of 75 years, The Jewellers’ Association Bengaluru (JAB) is today a force to reckon with in the jewellery industry of Karnataka a vibrant society of jewellery industry professionals with well thought out objectives, clear vision, a bouquet of achievements and an indomitable team spirit.

What started off as a humble beginning in the year 1941 more as a meeting platform for a small community of local jewellers has grown into an influential organization that encompasses a wide spectrum of activities in the larger interests of the community – a definitive voice of the industry that takes up its cause with passion and fervor.

In the first few years of its formation, meetings were held only when there were disputes to be sorted. But besides resolving issues between jewellers amicably, it performed another vital function. Everyday, jewellers and customers would flock to the tiny office to get their gold weighed and certified. The Association would appoint certifiers to appraise the value and the quality of the gold. Soon, these certifications began to be accepted, by jewellers and customers alike as the last word on the standard and quality of gold that was presented.
The event witnessed the participation of many of its members. B. Krishnaswamy Chetty, the then Chairman of Bengaluru Press, graces the occasion as the Chief Guest.

Chetty, who had only recently returned from his travels to the United Kingdom, noticed that India still hadn’t embraced the hallmarking system. In London, it was an accepted and routine practice. And he urged the gathering of jewellers to adopt this transparent method of deciphering gold purity. Many jewellers wholeheartedly agreed with Chetty and vowed to endorse hallmarking. However, despite sustained efforts by jewellers through the decades, the BIS Hallmark came to India only in the year 2000 – a good 56 years after Chetty threw light on hallmarking during the Association’s First AGM.

Diamonds today are very much in vogue and affordable to many consumers through an array of jewellery retailers. But way back in the 50s, there were only a few diamond jewellers in Bengaluru. Also since the technology to certify diamonds was expensive, the Association did not provide certifications until 1951 when the Association decided to invest in a Chemical Balance, a beam balance of great precision used in quantitative chemical analysis, to help diamond merchants.

Those were also the days of limited facilities. Merchants and jewellers would travel to the city, on a daily basis, bringing along with them briefcases filled with their precious wares. Through the day, the merchants roamed about this still young city, showcasing their goods to clients, clutching their briefcases guardedly. But when night fell, there were no lockers in their hotel rooms to rely on. When they sought the assistance of the Association, it was decided to provide dormitory and locker facilities for those traveling so that they could sleep in peace at night.

The first two decades of the Association passed by without a glitch, however, the 60s proved challenging in more ways than one. First it was the Central Sales Tax Act of 1956 which proposed that the sales tax on jewellery be raised from the existing 2% to a whopping 8%. The Association and its members swung into action immediately. Jewellery shops were shut down: and jewellers traveled through the city with black flags and sloganeering to protest the steep increase. In the end the Government relented and reinstated the existing rate.

Objectives

The prime objective of the Association is

  • To protect, promote and encourage the jewellery trade.
  • It believes in promoting ethics among its members and also protecting the customers who are the core of any business.
  • To foster better communication relationships among members and fellow associations, which is the basis for more collaboration in the trade.
  • Assist members in developing their business and be a valuable economic asset to the society providing employment opportunities.