Rajya Sabha MP and merchant Govind Dholakiya is new chairman of Surat diamond trade centre
The vacant post of president will also be filled and a name will be announced by mid next week, said SDB core committee member Laljibhai Patel.
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The SDB members discussed and zeroed in to different diamond merchants and finally decided on Dholakiya, owner of SRK Diamonds and a recently-appointed Rajya Sabha MP as Chairman a day after Vallabhbhai Patel (Lakhani) resigned. (Source: govinddholakia.com)A day after Chairman of the Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB), Vallabhbhai Patel (Lakhani) resigned, the core committee nominated Rajya Sabha MP from Gujarat Govind Dholakiya as the new chairman of the trade centre.
On Thursday, the SDB core committee members (Lalji Patel, Mathur Savani, Diyalbhai Vaghani, Arvind Dhanera, Sevanti Shah, Nagjibhai Sakariya, Keshubhai Goti) met to discuss further steps after Lakhani’s resignation. The members discussed and zeroed in to different diamond merchants and finally decided on Dholakiya, owner of SRK Diamonds and a recently-appointed Rajya Sabha MP. He is also a member of the SDB advisory committee. When proposed the idea, Dholakiya accepted the offer to helm the chairman’s post.
Laljibhai Patel said, “Govind Dholakiya has been made the chairman of the SDB, and due to his vast experience in the industry, he will set the entire ship to sail by removing all obstacles. Regular meetings will be carried out under the leadership of the newly-appointed chairman with a target to soon make the entire office complex fully operational.”
He added, “Vallabhbhai Lakhani was absent from the core committee meeting. We have decided to restructure all our committees, such as the management committee, core committee, financial, legal, member relation committee etc. The vacant post of president will also be filled and a name will be announced by mid next week. Vallabhbhai has assured that he will remain with the SDB and stand with the members whenever needed and extend his support in making the SDB fully operational.”
Vallabhbhai Patel (Lakhani), owner of Kiran Gems, India’s largest exporter of polished diamonds, was the first merchant who shifted his entire trading office setup from Mumbai to Surat at the SDB in November 2023.
He already had his diamond manufacturing unit in Surat over the last two decades. Kiran Gems has over 20,000 diamond polishers in the factories.
Sources in the diamond industry said the intention of shifting all trading offices from Mumbai to Surat was that he owns diamond factories in Surat and it is risky and time consuming for cut and polished diamonds from Surat to reach Mumbai at the trading offices.
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