In India, Kerala became the first state in India to have hallmarking centres in all of its 14 districts. This milestone was completed after the inauguration of a hallmarking centre in Adimali, Idukki district, Kerala.
- Now, Kerala will be called a hub of gold business and will strengthen its claim to being the most reliable market across the country.
What is Kerala Gold Business?
- The gold business in Kerala’s worth is more than Rs 1,00,000 crore with annual sales of around 250 tonnes.
- In Kerala, there are about 12,000 gold merchants and a large number of merchants have Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) registration.
What is Hallmarking?
- Hallmarking is a system that aims to certify the purity of gold and silver jewellery/artefacts in India.
- The hallmarking system is managed by the BIS, is the National Standard Body of India founded under the ‘Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) Act 2016’.
HUID number:
- Hallmark Unique Identification (HUID) number is a 6-digit Alphanumeric code and was launched in 2021.
- Each piece of jewellery will have HUID at the time of hallmarking and it will be unique for every piece of jewellery.
About Kerala
- Capital: Thiruvananthapuram
- Chief minister: Pinarayi Vijayan
- Governor: Arif Mohammed Khan
- Population: 3.46 crores (2018)
- Districts: 14
- State Bird – Great hornbill
- State Butterfly – Papilio buddha
- State Fish – Green chromide
- State Flower – Golden shower tree
- State Fruit – Jackfruit
- State Mammal – Indian elephant
- State Tree – Coconut Tree