&lt;div&gt;&lt;dl id="attachment_189" style="width: 170px;"&gt; &lt;dt&gt;&lt;a href="http://blog.biggstock.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/DIAMOND-BHAVANI.jpg"&gt;&lt;img title="Surat-diamonds-the-smallest_BIGGSTOCK" src="http://blog.biggstock.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/DIAMOND-BHAVANI.jpg" alt="" width="160" height="107" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/dt&gt; &lt;dd&gt;Word's smallest diamond&lt;/dd&gt; &lt;/dl&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;strong&gt; &lt;/strong&gt;Foreign  institutes, offering courses in diamond industry, are making a beeline  for Surat, the hub of diamond cutting and polishing. The &lt;strong&gt;International  Gemological Institute (IGI) and the Gemological Institute of America  (GIA)&lt;/strong&gt;, both leading institutes of their kind, have started  operations in Surat in the recent past. While GIA has started offering  courses in Surat, the IGI has gone one step ahead and launched a School   of Gemology. &lt;strong&gt;Rohit Mehta,&lt;/strong&gt; president of Surat Diamond  Association, said the trend of foreign institutes starting or expanding  operations in Surat is a reflection of the city's growing importance in  diamond industry.

Industry experts said the institutes were missing out on a great  opportunity by having limited or no presence in the city. "With Surat  being the hub of diamond cutting and polishing, it was imperative for us  to start offering courses here. We have started with only two courses  in Surat, but will offer more courses in due course," Nirupa Pandya  Bhatt, managing director, India and Middle East, GIA, said.

The IGI, which launched a school in Surat last week, will offer a  wide range of courses in diamond and jewellery industry. "We have been  conducting courses and programmes in Surat for over nine years. We have  expanded our operations here with the launch of School of Gemology. We  plan to introduce a number of practical courses for the diamond  industry," Ramit Kapur, general manager, IGI, said. Rapaport group,  which offers trading, grading, certification and other services in  diamond industry, and whose pricelists of polished diamonds are  considered global benchmarks, also started its operations in Surat in  late 2008. Industry experts say that the large potential Surat offers  for diamond grading business, on account of the large number of diamond  cutting and polishing units, is another reason why leading institutes  are keen to cover the Diamond  City.

REF: &lt;a href="http://findarticles.com/p/news-articles/dna-daily-news-analysis-mumbai/mi_8111/is_20100219/foreign-institutes-bedazzled-surats-diamond/ai_n50828395/" target="_blank"&gt;Foreign institutes bedazzled by Surat's diamond industry&lt;/a&gt;