WFDB Calls for Local-Language Lab-Grown Diamond Labels: What It Means for Indian Buyers Reading Certificates in 2026

The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) is the global umbrella body representing diamond bourses and trade associations across more than 30 countries. On September 9, 2026, its president Mehul Shah made a landmark call: every government should mandate lab-grown diamond disclosures in the local language of its consumers — including on grading certificates issued by gemological laboratories.

For Indian buyers, this is not an abstract policy debate. India is already the world's second-largest diamond jewellery market, with the segment valued at around $10 billion and projected to double by 2030. The country has 22 officially recognised languages and hundreds of dialects. A certificate printed only in English may mean very little to a buyer in rural Gujarat, a jewellery customer in Tamil Nadu, or a first-time purchaser in a Tier-3 city — even as lab-grown diamond retail stores now operate in more than 35 cities across India.

The table below maps where the key regulatory and industry positions currently stand, so Indian buyers can immediately see what is already law, what is proposed, and what gap remains.

Dimension	Current Status (India, 2026)	WFDB Proposal (Sept 2026)	Gap for Indian Buyers
Approved terminology	"Laboratory-grown diamond" / "Laboratory-created diamond" (BIS IS 19469:2025)	Same terms, but mandated in local languages by government	No Hindi/regional-language equivalent mandated yet
Prohibited terms	"Fake," "artificial," abbreviations like "LGD," "lab-grown," "lab diamond"	Consistent with existing prohibitions	Enforcement in vernacular retail still unclear
Certificate language	English only (current grading lab practice)	Local language required on grading certificates	Certificates remain English-only; no lab has announced change
Natural diamond mark	No formal trademark in India	"Natural Diamond Mark" trademark proposed by WFDB	Not yet implemented anywhere
Regulatory authority	BIS (Bureau of Indian Standards), Ministry of Consumer Affairs	Respective national governments	BIS would need to extend IS 19469:2025 scope
Enforcement model	BIS standard (voluntary adoption pathway)	Government-prescribed, globally implementable	No enforcement mechanism for local-language certs yet

What exactly did WFDB president Mehul Shah say, and why does it matter?

Shah's statement is notable for what it does not do: it takes no sides in the long-running industry argument over whether lab-grown stones should be called "lab-grown" or "synthetic." Instead, Shah called on the trade to focus on "one-line declarations" rather than the terminology debate itself.

His core argument is that terminology is only meaningful when it is understood by the people expected to use it. "Terminology is meaningful only when it is understood, accepted and implemented by everyone," he told Rapaport. "It must be communicated in a manner that is clear and easily understood by the people who are expected to use it."

Shah drew a deliberate analogy to consumer health labelling: the warnings on cigarette boxes and the "don't drink and drive" messages on liquor bottles. Both are mandated by governments, both appear in local languages, and both are designed to reach consumers who may not read English fluently. He is proposing the same model for lab-grown diamond disclosures.

Critically, Shah extended his call to grading laboratories specifically. Grading labs should use local language on grading certificates, he said — a direct challenge to the current practice of all major labs (IGI, GIA, GCAL, and others) issuing certificates exclusively in English. For Indian buyers who rely on a certificate to understand what they are purchasing, this is the most immediately practical implication of his statement.

Shah also proposed that natural diamonds carry a formal trademark — something like a "Natural Diamond Mark" — that would guarantee a stone is mined rather than grown, arguing this system would "strengthen consumer confidence, provide greater transparency and help eliminate doubts, misconceptions and confusion."

The WFDB can advocate and coordinate but cannot itself legislate. Shah acknowledged this directly: "We are not above any governments, as only respective governments can enforce rules." His call is therefore directed at trade bodies to lobby their respective governments — in India's case, primarily the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and BIS.

What has India already done on lab-grown diamond labelling?

India moved faster than most markets on standardised terminology. On January 1, 2026, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) notified IS 19469:2025, a new diamond standard developed under the BIS MTD 10 Committee following an initiative by the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC).

IS 19469:2025 is a modified adoption of the international standard ISO 18323:2015 — Jewellery — Consumer Confidence in the Diamond Industry. Its key provisions are:

The term "diamond" without qualification applies only to natural, mined diamonds.
Laboratory-grown stones must be disclosed using the full terms "laboratory-grown diamond" or "laboratory-created diamond."
Abbreviations such as "lab grown," "lab created," "lab diamond," and "LGD" are prohibited on labels and certificates.
Terms like "fake" and "artificial" are also prohibited as misleading or outdated.
Full disclosure of production method — CVD (Chemical Vapour Deposition) or HPHT (High Pressure High Temperature) — is required.

The GJEPC aligned these rules with US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines, making India one of the few markets to formally harmonise with both international ISO standards and US consumer protection frameworks simultaneously.

GJEPC chairman Kirit Bhansali called it "a major step forward in ensuring India's diamond trade continues to lead the world with integrity and transparency." An industry insider quoted by the Times of India compared the new standard to hallmarking for gold: "There are several laboratory certificates in circulation that can be misleading. These BIS standards will clear the confusion — it is akin to hallmarking for diamonds."

The groundwork was laid in November 2024, when the Indian government held a meeting to discuss consumer protection, the lack of sector-wide terminology, and inadequate disclosure practices in the diamond industry.

What IS 19469:2025 does not yet address is the language in which these disclosures must appear. The standard, like the ISO framework it adapts, is written in English and does not specify that disclosures must be made in Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, or any of India's other official languages. That is precisely the gap Shah's September 2026 call is designed to close.

Why does certificate language matter so much for Indian buyers specifically?

India's jewellery sector is valued at nearly $80 billion in FY24 and is projected to grow to $225 billion by FY35. The country has already overtaken China to become the world's second-largest diamond jewellery market. Lab-grown diamond retail is expanding rapidly beyond metro cities — brands like Limelight Lab Grown Diamonds now have retail locations in more than 35 cities across India, a mix of standalone stores and shop-in-shops.

This geographic expansion means lab-grown diamonds are increasingly being sold to consumers whose primary language is not English. A grading certificate from IGI or GIA that uses the term "laboratory-grown diamond" in English may be entirely opaque to a buyer in a Tier-2 or Tier-3 city who reads primarily in Gujarati, Marathi, or Tamil.

The problem is compounded by the fact that even English-speaking consumers often misunderstand the terminology. Research and anecdotal evidence from the trade consistently show that many buyers do not know the difference between "synthetic," "lab-grown," "simulated," and "natural" diamonds. If English-fluent consumers struggle with this, the challenge for non-English readers is substantially greater.

Shah's cigarette-box analogy holds up well here. India's Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act mandates health warnings in both English and the local language of the state where the product is sold. A similar model applied to diamond certificates would mean a certificate sold with a stone in Gujarat would carry the disclosure in Gujarati, one sold in Tamil Nadu in Tamil, and so on. Administratively complex, but not unprecedented in Indian consumer protection law.

For buyers currently navigating the Indian market, the practical point is this: if your certificate is from a reputable lab and uses the full term "laboratory-grown diamond" or "laboratory-created diamond," it complies with IS 19469:2025. If it uses abbreviations like "LGD" or "lab diamond," it does not comply with the current BIS standard, regardless of the language it is written in. You can explore how to read and verify a lab-grown diamond certificate in our guide to best lab-grown diamond engagement rings in India.

How does India's approach compare to global standards?

The global space for lab-grown diamond terminology is a patchwork of national and industry standards, none of which currently mandate local-language disclosures. The WFDB proposal, if adopted, would be the first framework to do so.

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Jewelry Guides require that lab-grown diamonds be clearly disclosed as such but do not specify language requirements beyond English. The FTC's framework has been influential globally — India's IS 19469:2025 was explicitly aligned with it.

The International Organisation for Standardisation's ISO 18323:2015 is the closest thing to a global standard, and IS 19469:2025 is a modified adoption of it. ISO standards are, by their nature, written in English and French, with translations available but not mandated for commercial use.

CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation, continues to use the term "synthetics" despite industry pushback — a stance that illustrates exactly the kind of terminology fragmentation Shah is trying to resolve. When different international bodies use different terms, and none of those terms are translated into local languages, consumer confusion is the inevitable result.

The WFDB's approach — sidestep the "lab-grown vs. synthetic" debate and focus on local-language one-line declarations — is pragmatic precisely because it does not require global consensus on a single English term. Each government would prescribe the appropriate local-language declaration, which could then be globally implemented as a consistent disclosure standard even if the underlying English terminology varies between markets.

What is the production context behind this policy push?

The scale of India's lab-grown diamond industry makes the labelling question urgent. Surat alone hosts an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 reactors producing diamonds via the CVD process, making it the world's dominant manufacturing hub. India exported $1.05 billion worth of polished lab-grown diamonds from April 2021 to January 2022 alone, registering growth of nearly 113 percent year-on-year at that time.

The Indian government has also invested significantly in the sector's future. In 2023, a research grant of Rs 2.43 billion (approximately $28 million) was sanctioned to the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M), which established the India Centre for Lab-Grown Diamond (InCent-LGD) as a dedicated R&D hub. The centre is researching applications in electronics, aerospace, defence, water treatment, quantum computing, and precision sensors — well beyond the jewellery market.

Professor M.S. Ramachandra Rao, head of InCent-LGD, has indicated the project is on track to develop indigenous CVD and HPHT machines within two years, which would reduce India's dependence on imported reactor technology.

This industrial scale creates a direct consumer protection imperative. When a country produces this volume of lab-grown diamonds and sells them domestically as well as exporting them, the labelling standards that govern those sales carry real economic consequences for consumers. A buyer who pays for a natural diamond and receives a lab-grown one — or who buys a lab-grown diamond without understanding what that means — is a consumer protection failure that damages the entire industry's credibility.

What would local-language certificates actually look like in practice?

This is where the proposal moves from policy principle to practical implementation, and where the details remain genuinely uncertain. Shah has not specified a precise format, and no grading laboratory has yet announced plans to issue regional-language certificates.

A workable model might follow the pattern of India's pharmaceutical labelling rules, which require drug information to appear in English and at least one regional language depending on the state of sale. Applied to diamond certificates, this could mean:

A standard IGI or GIA certificate would carry the disclosure "laboratory-grown diamond" in English as required by IS 19469:2025.
A second line, or a separate panel, would carry the equivalent in the regional language of the point of sale — "प्रयोगशाला में उगाया गया हीरा" in Hindi, "પ્રયોગશાળામાં ઉગાડેલ હીરો" in Gujarati, "ஆய்வகத்தில் வளர்க்கப்பட்ட வைரம்" in Tamil, and so on.
The production method (CVD or HPHT) would similarly be disclosed in both languages.

The administrative challenge is real — India has 22 scheduled languages. A grading laboratory issuing certificates for stones sold across multiple states would need to either issue state-specific certificates or include multiple language panels. Digital certificates, increasingly common in the industry, make this technically easier, since language selection can be automated at the point of download.

Shah's "one-line declaration" framing suggests he envisions something simple: a single clear statement in the local language, not a full translation of the entire certificate. That is a more achievable near-term goal. The critical information — that the stone is laboratory-grown and how it was made — can be conveyed in one sentence.

What should Indian buyers do right now, before any new rules take effect?

The WFDB proposal is exactly that — a proposal. Shah has called on trade bodies to lobby governments; no government has yet announced it will implement local-language certificate requirements. IS 19469:2025 is in force, but compliance is still working its way through the supply chain. In the interim, Indian buyers have several practical steps available.

First, always ask for a certificate from a recognised grading laboratory. IGI (International Gemological Institute), GIA (Gemological Institute of America), and GCAL are the most widely accepted in India. A certificate from any of these labs will use compliant terminology under IS 19469:2025.

Second, check that the certificate uses the full term "laboratory-grown diamond" or "laboratory-created diamond" — not abbreviations. Under IS 19469:2025, abbreviations like "LGD" are not permitted on compliant documentation. If a retailer presents a certificate using non-compliant terminology, that is worth questioning.

Third, ask the retailer to explain the certificate in your preferred language. This is your right as a consumer under India's Consumer Protection Act, and reputable retailers — particularly those operating in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities — should be prepared to do this. A retailer who cannot or will not explain what "laboratory-grown diamond" means is signalling something about their overall transparency.

Fourth, look for the production method on the certificate. IS 19469:2025 requires disclosure of whether the stone was grown by CVD or HPHT. This affects neither the diamond's appearance nor its durability, but it is information you are entitled to have. Our guide to how lab-grown diamonds hold up under daily wear covers what these production methods mean for long-term performance.

Fifth, if you are shopping in a city with established lab-grown diamond retailers, seek out stores that proactively explain the difference between natural and lab-grown diamonds. The best retailers in markets like Delhi — covered in our buyer's guide to lab-grown diamond stores in Delhi — treat consumer education as a competitive advantage, not a compliance burden.

What is the broader significance of the WFDB's position?

The WFDB's call represents a meaningful shift in how the global diamond trade is thinking about consumer protection. For most of the past decade, the industry debate has been dominated by terminology wars — "lab-grown" versus "synthetic," "cultured" versus "man-made" — fought primarily between natural diamond producers and lab-grown diamond advocates. Shah is explicitly stepping back from that debate and reframing the question around consumer comprehension rather than industry positioning.

This reframing matters because it aligns the diamond industry's self-regulatory instincts with the direction that consumer protection regulators in most major markets are already moving. Governments from the US to the EU to India are increasingly focused on whether consumers actually understand what they are buying, not merely whether a disclosure technically appears somewhere on a document.

The cigarette-box analogy Shah used is instructive in another way: health warnings on tobacco products were initially resisted by industry, then became standard, and are now considered a baseline of consumer protection that no serious market participant would argue against. Shah is suggesting the diamond industry should get ahead of that curve rather than wait for governments to impose it.

For India specifically, the timing is significant. The country is simultaneously the world's largest lab-grown diamond producer, one of its fastest-growing consumer markets, and a country with deep linguistic diversity that makes English-only disclosures structurally inadequate for full consumer protection. The WFDB proposal, if adopted by the Indian government and implemented by BIS as an extension of IS 19469:2025, would make India a global model for inclusive diamond consumer protection — not just in terms of what is disclosed, but in terms of who can actually understand the disclosure.

Whether that happens in 2026 or takes several more years of lobbying and regulatory process remains to be seen. The direction of travel — toward more disclosure, in more languages, on more documents — is now being advocated at the highest levels of the global diamond trade. Indian buyers reading certificates today should understand both what the current rules require and where those rules are likely to go next.