Gold jewellery exhibition opens in Delhi

NEW DELHI: The annual gold show, organized by government-owned trading company MMTC, opened here on Saturday with over 70,000 pieces of jewellery on display.
    
MMTC, the country's largest importer of gold, aims to generate Rs 40 crore business this year, against Rs 30-32 crore during the exhibition last year.
    
"We hope to achieve a business of Rs 40 crore as there would be more days with the extension of exhibition this year," MMTC Chairman and Managing Director Sanjeev Batra said.
    
The company, which put up the first expo here in 1992 generating a business of Rs 1 crore, has extended the duration of exhibition to nine days this year from one week earlier.
    
Batra said there are a lot of items on display to cater to the choices of the younger generation, who want light white gold jewellery.
    
MMTC has brought together all styles available in the south, west, east and north of the country under a single platform, MMTC General Manager Preeti Chaturvedi said.
    
"We give gold to the designated jewellers for fabrication and sell the jewellery after hallmarking," Chaturvedi said.
    
She said the purity is the main aspect of this show as all the jewelleries on display are hallmarked. Private sector payer Gitanjali Gems has also been roped in by MMTC for this year's show.
    
Bollywood star Neha Dhupia inaugurated the 'Festival of Gold 2007' and said "the collection of beautiful pieces of jewelleries at one place would help people to make a better choice."