Indriya, the jewellery brand under the Aditya Birla Group, on Friday launched a gold exchange programme allowing customers to swap existing jewellery for newly crafted pieces, a direct business response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent appeal to Indians to avoid buying gold for a year.
Modi, addressing a public rally in Hyderabad earlier this week, called on citizens to conserve foreign exchange amid disruptions stemming from the West Asia conflict. Among several austerity measures, he specifically urged people to refrain from purchasing gold during festivals for at least a year.
Indriya’s programme, called the Customers Own Gold Exchange Programme, offers 100 per cent value on old gold of any carat, regardless of where it was originally purchased.
The company says customers can bring existing jewellery to its stores, where it is evaluated, melted, and recast into new designs in their presence through open karigar rooms, with no loss or wastage of gold in the process.
The initiative effectively allows the brand to sustain consumer transactions without triggering fresh gold imports, aligning commercial interests with the government’s foreign exchange conservation push.
