ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The Committee of Administration (“COA”) takes this opportunity to express its sincere thanks to all the members of the Council for their support and cooperation in managing the affairs of the Council.

The Council is grateful to Ms , Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce & Industry, Smt Rita Teotia (Commerce Secretary), Mr J.K.Dadoo, (Additional Secretary & Financial Advisor), Shri Arvind Mehta (the then Additional Secretary), Shri Anup Wadhawan,Addl. Secretary, Shri Siddharth (the then Director General of Supplies & Disposals), Shri Manoj Dwivedi (Joint Secretary), Ms Rupa Dutta (Economic Adviser) , Dr Guruprasad Mohapatra (the then Joint Secretary), Shri Ravi Capoor (the then Joint Secretary), Shri B.S.Bhalla (Joint Secretary), Shri Sanjay Chadha (Joint Secretary), Shri Raj Kamal (Director), Shri (Under Secretary), Shri Bhaskar Kalra (the then Section Officer), Shri Prashant Pandey (Section Officer) and all other officials in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of .

The Council extends its gratitude to Shri Ajay Kumar Bhalla (Director General of Foreign Trade), Shri D.K. Singh (the then Additional DGFT), Shri Jaikant Singh (Additional DGFT), Shri Darshan Singh (Additional DGFT), Shri S.B.S. Reddy (Additional DGFT), Shri Ajay Srivastava (Joint DGFT), Shri Rakesh Kumar (Deputy DGFT) and all other officials of the DGFT at New , , Kolkata, , Ahmedabad, Surat, Jaipur and other cities.

The Council thanks Mr. Saurabh Chandra, the then Secretary, DIPP, Mr. Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary, DIPP, Ms. Vandana Kumar, JS, DIPP and all officers of DIPP for their unstinted support to Council in carrying on with its endeavours and activities.

The Council thanks Shri (Hon’ble Union Minister of Finance), Shri (Revenue Secretary), Shri (Secretary – DEA), Shri (Secretary –Expenditure and Finance Secretary), Ms Anjali Chib Duggal (Secretary – Banking & Financial Services), Ms. Anita Kapoor, (the then Chairman CBDT), Ms Rani Singh Nair (Chairman, CBDT), Shri Najib Shah (Chairman, CBEC), Shri Rajeev Talwar (Joint Secretary–Drawback), Shri B.K. Bansal (Member-Customs) , Shri P K Mohanty, former JS, CBEC, Shri Alok Shukla (Joint Secretary-TRU 1), Shri Amitabh Kumar (Joint Secretary-TRU II), Shri P K Jain, Principal Commissioner, Shri. Upendra Gupta, Commissioner, GST, Shri Vinay Chabra (DGEP), Dr. Tejpal Singh (Additional DGEP), Smt. Nisha Chopra (Additional Director-DGEP) Dept. of Revenue, Dr. Sonia Sethi, IAS (Additional Director General Foreign Trade), Dr. Kavita Gupta, IAS (The then Additional Director General Foreign Trade), Shri Sandeep Kumar (Commissioner – Customs & EP) and other officials of the Ministry of Revenue & Finance, .

The Council is grateful to Shri L.K. Goyal (the then Home Secretary), Shri (Home Secretary) and Shri Shailesh (Joint Secretary-Police II), Government of India.

The Council is grateful to all the Govt. officers of State Govt. of Maharashtra, , Delhi , Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telengana, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, etc who have given exemplary assistance and support to our activities in course of the year.

The Council also expresses its gratitude to financial institutions like SBI, Indusind Bank, Nova Scotia and all other nationalized and scheduled banks for their support to the sector.

The Council expresses its gratitude to MMTC, STC and all other nominated agencies who had supported the sector by supplying precious metal to our exporters.

The Council expresses its gratitude to the Chairs of Kimberley Process, Prof. Bernardo Campos, Angola (2015) and Mr. Ahmed Bin Sulayem of UAE (2016), Mr Edward Asher, the then President of WDC and Mr Andrei Polyakov, President, WDC, Mr Ernie Blom, President, WFDB, Mr Gaetano Cavalieri, President, CIBJO, President, ICA and all other national and international associations of gems & jewellery which have helped the Council achieve its goals.

50th ANNUAL REPORT 2015-2016 149 THE GEM & JEWELLERY EXPORT PROMOTION COUNCIL