Starkle was founded in 2019 by Baruni Verma at the age of 24. She is an alumna of University of Cambridge and University College London. She is currently heading the brand as the CEO. A strong follower of a minimalistic lifestyle, her aim with Starkle is to introduce other young individuals to aesthetically pleasing and non-ostentatious fine jewellery.
Jewelry plays an important role to enhance feminine beauty and is a symbol of riches, power, and status. It also plays vital aesthetic and cultural aspects. However, jewellery has a very significant financial component in addition to being connected to aesthetics and spirituality. In India, ancestral jewellery is valued highly as an investment because it gives women a sense of security during difficult times. This is why every woman, regardless of class, ensure that they have jewelry put aside.
Indian customers favour purchasing gold over other metals:
India, with 136.6 tonnes, was the world’s largest gold jewellery consumer in Q4 of 2019, according to Investopedia. In Indian culture, gold represents both long-term commitment and prosperity. For traditional weddings, especially, this is the reason why gold is favoured, while more contemporary brides often favor diamond and platinum. Gold is also connected to holidays like Dhanteras and Akshaya Tritiya as well as the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. People purchase precious metals at these times in an effort to attract luck.
It’s also intriguing to see that even affluent jewellery buyers give the material much more significance than the brands themselves. Because it is culturally accepted for individuals to see jewellery as an investment and to evaluate it according to the type and weight of gold.
People are investing in digital gold:
Each grain of digital gold that customers buy is stored in vaults that are safe, secure, and insured by MMTC-PAMP. This refinery is protected by every process and security measure and is also covered by a force majeure insurance policy, guaranteeing complete safety for the customer’s investment. Every day, gold is transferred to the appropriate partner vaults in accordance with the additional purchases made during the day after our records are reconciled based on the volume of transactions for the day. When a customer requests to redeem or sell their gold, the remaining amount is taken out of the vault. This gold is kept in the form of 24k, 999.9 finest grains.
At all times, the customer is the owner of any accumulated gold, and MMTC-PAMP is in charge of keeping that gold physically secure. Additionally, we have designated “Universal Trusteeship Services Ltd. (UTSL)” (a division of the Universal Trusteeship Services Ltd. (UTSL) Bank) as the security trustee for the gold that customers have purchased. The trustee makes sure the gold is of high quality and that it is available in the vaults and separated from the gold sold to investors. It is a meticulous process with numerous audits and checkpoints to guarantee the security of the customer’s investment.
The gold market in FY22:
As the Ukraine conflict unfolded earlier this year and investors sought high-quality, liquid hedges amid rising geopolitical unpredictability, the price of gold initially climbed. But as investors’ attention went to monetary policy and increased bond yields, gold lost some of those early gains. Due to the struggle between an atmosphere of high risk and rising interest rates, the price of gold had stabilised by mid-May. The latter was a result of a combination of factors, including chronically high inflation and possibly positive consequences from the protracted crisis in Ukraine and its potential for global growth.
Gold-jewelry trend for upcoming wedding season:
In addition, although gold has had a flat year-to-date performance, it has nonetheless been one of the highest performing assets. Lightweight, elegant gold jewellery designs are preferable to heavy jewellery, according to the current trend. In the upcoming years, the trend will be the new wave of fashion. The demand for slim gold jewellery has surged as a result. There will be a new bridal trend wherein delicate gold jewellery and lightweight jewellery will dominate the fashion accessory market.