The event, organised by the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), is to be held from January 7 to 10 in the Bombay Exhibition Centre.
The show started in Goa four years ago but the decision was made to move the event earlier this year.
According to GJEPC, Mumbai is “a venue that more appropriately reflects the growing importance, professionalism and size of the show [following its] phenomenal success in Goa”.
Chairman of GJEPC Rajiv Jain said, "The shift of IIJS Signature to Mumbai provides a larger venue and enables many new jewellery manufacturers to participate in our shows. It is one more collaborative effort to establish India's stature at the forefront of the gems and jewellery world and will surely take us closer to this goal."
The 2011 show will be open to international companies for the first time, which have been invited to exhibit alongside domestic exhibitors.
With 900 stalls, it will be almost double the size of previous Signature shows.
Despite attracting international exhibitors for the first time in its four-year history, the trade show will still have a predominantly local flavour with more than 400 leading Indian companies presiding over 850 stalls.
There will be a wide range of loose diamonds, precious gemstones, coloured gemstones, plain gold and studded jewellery showcasing the best of jewellery manufacturers. The show will have the 'Signature Club', a special section for companies manufacturing high-end jewellery and an international pavilion for leading overseas manufacturers of loose stones and precious jewellery.
The National Institute of Design has been enlisted to create the shell stalls, which will house all the segmented sections of jewellery.
For the first time, the show will run alongside the separately organised gems and jewellery event, Sparkle 2011.
Ajoy Bhattacharya, president of the Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which runs the Sparkle show, told The Times of India that the IIJS show will have a positive impact on the gem show.
“IIJS Signature will help us popularise the Sparkle event. We have spoken to the GJEPC authorities to allow setting up an information desk for Sparkle 2011 to provide information on the Surat show to the visitors.”
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