Congress leader and Former Minister of Women and Child Development of India Renuka Chowdhury has reacted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's gift to US first lady Jill Biden. Taking a sharp dig at the gesture, Chowdhury questioned what gift did the PM give to his wife.
PM Narendra Modi, who is in the US for a three-day state visit, has gifted an eco-friendly lab-grown 7.5 carat diamond, placed in Kashmir's exquisite Papier mâché box, to the US First Lady Jill Biden.
US President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden hosted the prime minister for an intimate dinner at the White House, during which they discussed a range of issues, exchanged gifts and enjoyed a musical tribute to the regions of India.
watch video of Chowdhury's dig at PM's gestures:
Bharat Ka Heera: Piyush Goyal
"Bharat Ka Heera! (India's diamond) PM@NarendraModi ji gifts this beautiful eco-friendly lab-grown diamond, placed in Kashmir's exquisite Papier mâché box to the U.S First Lady @FLOTUS," commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said in a tweet.
The diamond is eco-friendly as resources like solar and wind power were used in its making. The green diamond is sculpted with precision and care using cutting edge technology. It emits only 0.028 grams of carbon per carat and is certified by the Gemological Lab, IGI (International Gemological Institute).
India is promoting manufacturing of lab-grown diamond (LGD) in the country and for that the government announced steps in the last Union Budget.
The government had announced elimination of customs duty on LGD seeds from 5 per cent earlier. It also approved a five-year research grant to the Indian Institutes of Technology, Madras to encourage the indigenous production of LGD machinery, seeds and recipe.
It is proposed to establish an India Centre for Lab-grown Diamond (InCent-LGD) at IIT Madras with the estimated cost of Rs 242.96 crore over 5 years.
Lab-grown diamonds are produced through two technologies - High-Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) and Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD).
India is one of the leading producers of these diamonds using CVD technology.
(with PTI inputs)
