Engineers develop app to help diamond buyers

Four engineers from Surat whose families have been in the business of diamond manufacturing and trading, have developed a mobile application for small and medium scale businessmen dealing in diamonds and jewellery to sell their wares in India and abroad. The app, Diamond Merchant, which was launched two weeks ago for Android and IOS phones in Gujarati and English, has got around 4,000 registrations. So far, 65,580 carats of polished and rough diamonds have been placed on it for sale, and demand for 3,570 carats has been registered.

Mechanical engineers Chintan Gujarati (26) and Riten Gabani (26), along with electrical engineer Manoj Miyani (26) and computer engineer Chintan Gopani (26), worked on the application for two years and ran four pilots before the fifth one proved successful. Miyani and Gabani developed the technology while Gujarati and Gopani worked on the marketing of the application. The four engineers took the help of around 50 youths.

Gabani said, “The diamond industry people are connected through various WhatsApp groups. We first started a group called Tamaru Potanu Hira bazaar (your own diamond market) on Facebook where we put up promotional videos of this application and its benefits. Many people liked it and we reached out to many more in the industry through our family, relatives and friends.”Due to Covid-19 lockdown, demand went down, affecting diamond market but it has started picking up since August. Gabani added, “Now we are getting feedback from the users. On Wednesday, one of our users, Atul Mangukia, a diamond trader, sold 15 carats of rough diamonds worth Rs 3 lakh and another trader Magan Patel sold polished packets of 28 carats.”Apart from access to markets of eight countries, the user can also launch his “own market” by creating a group and do private dealings.

Gujarati told Indian Express, “The small traders and businessman can reach out to customers in the diamond trading hubs of Gujarat and Mumbai, as well as nationally and internationally. Through this app, the seller and purchaser get new business partners. We have made it free for the industry people to register. After downloading the application, one has to put in company address, permanent and present address to register. The user can put a post under different heads, including polished market, rough market, my own market, message, payment transactions and news on the diamond market.”

The developers took the help of youths from their family and printed pamphlets, which they distributed to diamond trading and manufacturing markets in Surat, Bhavnagar, Amreli and Mumbai. The application was promoted through social media and the developers are also planning to introduce Hindi version.

Gujarati added, “If a person makes a business deal with another party, the user can contact the mutual friend and cross check the reference.

After being okayed, he should personally visit the seller office or firm and check the diamonds before placing the order. The business deal is the responsibility of the buyer and seller. Jewellers from across the country can reach out to each other. We have taken external help to ensure that our application does not get hacked.”