Prime Minister Narendra Modi was  honoured and felicitated on 23rd July 2016 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi in the presence of Amit Shah- President, BJP; Piyush Goyal, Minister of state for power, coal, new and renewable energy and mines; Santosh Gangwar, Minister of State for Finance among others. 

The dignitaries present at the occasion from the gems and jewellery industry were Praveenshankar Pandya, Chairman, GJEPC; Balram Garg, CEO/Managing Director at PC Jeweller Ltd; G V Sreedhar, Chairman, GJF; Jitendra Bhindi of Bhindi Jewellers; Nitin Khandelwal of Khandelwal Jewellers;  Subir Sen of  B C Sen & Co, Bachhraj Bamalwa, Nemichand Bamalwa & Sons among others.

Organised by All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), this felicitation ceremony was a token of appreciation and gratitude for their support and cooperation in accepting most of demands of jewellery trade on relaxing excise duty norms.

On this occasion, Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi urged the Gems and Jewellery sector in India to look beyond the domestic market and establish a global presence.

He called for innovation and skill development to achieve this objective. He noted that there is an increasing global demand for handmade jewellery.

Recalling recent issues related to excise duty, the Prime Minister said these issues gave an opportunity for the Gems and Jewellery industry to better understand the working of the Government, and it also gave the Government an opportunity to better understand the intricacies of the sector. He said both have won over each other. He said, "What we did is we formed a committee where your representatives were there and all issues were discussed. This government is yours and our doors are always open."  

The Prime Minister called upon all those with undisclosed income, to declare it before the September 30th deadline.