The five-day-long Diwali festival which starts from today, began with great enthusiasm across the country. In this series starting from Dhanteras today, the festivals of Roopchaturdashi tomorrow, Diwali on 12 November, Govardhan Puja and Annakut on 13 November and Bhaiya Dooj on 15 November will be celebrated.
According to an estimate by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), today there was a trade worth more than Rs 50 thousand crore happened across the country, while in Delhi alone this figure was Rs 5 thousand crore.
National President of All India Jewelers and Goldsmiths Federation, Pankaj Arora said that today there was a turnover of gold, silver and other items worth about Rs 30 thousand crore across the country. While gold goods worth about Rs 27 thousand crores were sold, the trade in silver was also worth about Rs 3 thousand crores.
Last year, this business on Dhanteras was approximately Rs 25 thousand crores and the price of gold was Rs 52000 per 10 grams last year whereas today it was Rs 62000 per 10 grams. On the other hand, silver was sold at a price of Rs 58000 per kg last Diwali and now its price is Rs 72000 per kg.
According to an estimate, today on Dhanteras, about 41 tonnes of gold and about 400 tonnes of silver jewelery and coins were sold in the country.
There are about 4 lakhs small and big jewelers in the Country out of which 1 lakh 85 thousand jewelers are registered with the Bureau of Indian Standards and about 2 lakh 25 thousand are small jewelers in the areas where the government has not yet implemented BIS.
Every year about 800 tonnes of gold and about 4 thousand tonnes of silver are imported from abroad.
