G R Thanga Maligai ( GRT Jewellers )

GRT or G R Thanga Maligai is the most popular Gold Jewelery Brand, with their main showroom at T Nagar Chennai. GRT is located at South Usman Road and also have another showroom at North Usman Road in T Nagar. The website of GRT is http://www.grtjewels.com/.

GRT is now 45 years old, and have showrooms at all major cities in South India. The South Usman Road, T Nagar showroom of GRT is 12,000 sq.ft with 5 floors.

Since South Usman Road is always crowded during festival season and marriage season, I would personally recommend to visit the North Usman Road showroom, where the the crowd is less. Also ample car parking space is available at North Usman Road.

Both myself and immediate relatives have been good customers of GRT jewelers.

T Nagar Chennai - Part 2

South Usman Road in T Nagar, the stretch between T Nagar bus stand and Pondy Bazaar is the famous retail spot. Along this stretch since some 50 years go, Gold jewelers (and also other types of retailers) were setting shop. By late 1990s the retailers of South Usman Road T Nagar, had become popular names and were running successful Ads on Cable TV, Print which were reaching audiences ( South Indian people ) all over the world.

During the past 10 years, the big retailers of the T Nagar South Usman Road have become big Brand names recalled well by South Indian people all over the world. They have expanded beyond T Nagar, by opening new showrooms not only at other parts of Chennai but also at other cities in South India and even outside India in US etc. However even now, majority of business for these Gold jewelery Brands comes from their original location, T Nagar. So these Brands were created by T Nagar and will always have a strong hold in T Nagar, their lifeline.

Apart from South Usman Road, other adjacent roads and streets like Panagal Park, Ranganathan Street and North Usman Road are also hub of shopping in T Nagar Chennai.

T Nagar Chennai

Chennai is the largest metropolitan area in South India..... though it is less populated than Bangalore, the fastest growing Information Technology city also located in South India. Chennai has wide roads, less traffic and is creating good infrastructure in neighboring districts like Kanchipuram, Chengalpet, Tiruvallur to further expand Chennai metropolitan area.

While Chennai also has it's own good share of Information Technology industry, it is also attracting huge investments in Automotive manufacturing industry. However there are 2 other industries where Chennai has been performing exceptionally well since many decades, and continues to grow

1. Entertainment ( Film industry, Television industry and emerging new media)
2. Retail (Silk sarees, Gold jewellery, Textiles, Consumer electronics, Kitchen ware, other consumer goods) - Both luxury and affordable by masses.

Now when you say Retail and Chennai together, there is a 2 letter word which will immediately flash in mind

T Nagar

T Nagar, is the most popular large locality located within the central part of Chennai Metropolitan area. It is both Commercial and Residential. T nagar is also one of most expensive places for real estate since it's so popular and is also right in central part of Chennai. T Nagar is actually Thyagaraya Nagar named after Thyagaraya Chetty himself a businessman and politician during 1916-1930. Tyagaraya Chetty was one of the founders of Justice Party which was popular during 1920's and 1930's in the then Madras Presidency ( Madras was renamed Chennai later in 1996).

Why I am writing about T Nagar in my Gold blog? T nagar is the heart and soul of Gold Jewellery Retail.......It is the single largest Gold Jewellery Retail space per sq.kilometre in the world.

(to be continued.......)

Gold has possibility to reach Rs.2000 per gram

Gold price continues to be above Rs.1900 per gram. Important festivals like Dasera and Deepavali in coming months (October and early November) will only further intensify Gold buying. Hence there is every possibility that Gold will reach Rs.2000 per gram in next 2 months. Also Nov 7th to Dec 5th is a auspicious period for marriages.

International Websites about Gold are not relevant for Indian Gold buyers and sellers

Given below are popular international websites about Gold

Goldseek.com

Kitco.com

I would like to caution the Gold buyers and sellers in India not to take these websites seriously even though they are popular internationally.

The articles written on these websites does not make sense to Gold buyers and sellers in India as their target audience are not Indian Gold buyers and sellers. Also the charts and price quotes in these websites are in US dollars which doesn't make sence to us Indians.

Remember in US gold is treated just as a commodity like shares, in US gold is traded like shares and it has been moving up and down cyclically in US in past decades. Whereas in India Gold has always been, is and will always be a precious metal and traditional form of savings for inheritance.

Hence nobody in India needs to be convinced about Gold. We have in the past, present and in the future will always respect Gold as best savings for inheritance. The purpose of this blog post, is just to make Indian Gold buyers and sellers aware of some international gold websites and also to caution you not to take these websites very seriously, avoiding these websites is even better if you don't understand them.

Will one gram Gold touch Rs.2000

Gold stays above Rs.1900 per gram. Will Gold touch Rs.2000 per gram. I remember purchasing Gold jewelery in August 2006, , when one gram of 24 carat gold was Rs.850.

(Of course, the jewelery will be made from 22 carat gold)

Gold ETFs in India

Investing in a Gold ETF fund has following advantages

1. We buy Units issued by the Gold ETF fund instead of actual Gold. This means even small amounts can be invested. A good habit of systematic investing in Gold can be developed by investing affordable amount each month to buy units from the Gold ETF fund.
2. One Unit in the Gold ETF will have a value equal to one gram of Gold (99.9% pure 24 carat)
3. Since we are investing in units backed by 99.9% pure gold, there is no loss of making charges (gold jewelery) and wastage (gold jewelery). So buying units in Gold ETF has no such loss components in the price to the buyer like in buying gold jewelery.
4. Selling Gold jewelery will also have loss components since scrap gold (gold jewelery when sold back to jewelers) will always be purchased back by jewelers at discounts to market price. In Gold ETF, selling units is simple and straightforward, you get the complete market value of the units sold. As explained before each unit sold will fetch you the market price of one gram of 99.9% pure gold.

One disadvantage of Gold ETF is that, the actual gold will be with the Mutual Fund. We buy and sell units which are backed by this actual gold held by mutual fund. However if we buy units in Gold ETF from a reputed Mutual Fund and in a proper regulatory environment this disadvantage can be ignored.

I have been following Gold ETFs since they are available in India from mid-2007. Gold ETF's issued by Benchmark and UTI are the oldest in India. Benchmark was the first asset management company to file to the regulator, to start a Gold ETF in India. However the first asset management company to issue a Gold ETF in India was UTI.

India's best Gold ETF by 2 year absolute returns (from Sept 15th 2008 to Sept 15th 2010) is the Benchmark Gold ETF (known as Gold BeES). They have the lowest expence charge of 1%. One unit in ETF is equal to 1 gram of gold.

Gold stays above Rs.1900 per gram

1 gm gold (24 carat) stays above Rs 1900 as on September 16th 2010.