'Customers do not recover the original making charges paid on old jewellery. Sentimental value is lost when heirlooms are exchanged.'
Stories are legion about the Karatmeter's use at that time. Hundreds of people standing in queue for testing, customers breaking down after discovering the actual purity of their jewellery and then becoming irate about the jeweller who had gypped them, the local jewellery industry leaning heavily on the Tanishq franchisees to desist from using it, some jewellers even threatening violent action.
For India to monetise gold, it is not the institutional depositor that policymakers must target but the average retail depositor.
