Lab-grown diamonds have physical and optical properties similar to natural diamonds and have been around since the 1950s. LGDs are becoming popular in India now, while in other parts of the world, the commercial marketing of these artificial diamonds started about 10 years ago.

In her Budget speech, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman abolished the Customs duty on imports of seeds used to manufacture rough lab-grown diamonds. Why is the government focussing on these diamonds now? Rutam Vora explains this in this podcast. Listen now.