Keralam giants scoop up baby gold-ring tender with 1-paisa making charge, TN parties fume
Keralam firms win tender for TN’s 1-gram gold ring gift for newborns with a making charge that can’t even buy a toffee, and the state can’t stop talking about it
When you or I walk into a jewellery store and buy one gram of gold, the bill looks like this: Rs 14,950 for the gold (current rate) and more than Rs 1,000 on GST (3 per cent) and making charge plus wastage (4 per cent).
Yet two private jewellery firms based in Keralam have offered to supply one-gram gold rings to the Tamil Nadu government for a making charge of just Rs 0.01 per gram each.
Hard to believe? Well, it is true, and that single paisa has become the hottest talking point in Tamil Nadu politics right now, mainly because most people still have no clear idea how making charges are fixed for jewellery.
The gold ring scheme
The Tamil Nadu government has awarded the contract for its ambitious “Thaimaman Thanga Mothiram” scheme to two Keralam-based jewellery houses, Joyalukkas and Kalyan Jewellers.
Under the scheme announced by Chief Minister Joseph Vijay, every baby born in a government hospital from June 22 (the chief minister’s birthday) this year onwards will receive a one-gram gold ring with a baby welcome kit.
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The rings are meant as a lasting token of the state’s care for mother and child. Officials say the plan will also gently nudge more families towards government hospitals, where deliveries have been dipping of late. About 9 lakh children are born in the state every year, of which at least 4.5 lakh are born in government hospitals.
70:30 split between jewellers
The scheme is scheduled for a formal launch on September 15, the birth anniversary of CN Annadurai. Between June and mid-September, about 1,28,499 rings will be needed. According to the Tamil Nadu government, 4,41,667 one-gram gold rings are to be supplied for now.
The Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation floated the tender on July 14 through the TN Tenders Portal. Eleven firms took part. Joyalukkas quoted the lowest making charge of just Rs 0.01 per gram, covering everything from hallmarking to delivery in Chennai, Coimbatore and other centres, but excluding the price of the gold itself.
Under the state’s open-tender rules, Kalyan Jewellers matched the same rock-bottom rate. The work order has now been split 70:30 between Joyalukkas and Kalyan Jewellers. But the one-paisa bid has set tongues wagging across the political spectrum.
Opposition raises questions
AIADMK spokesperson Pon Manikandan wondered why the tender went to two Keralam jewellers when so many Tamil Nadu firms are available. “It is painful to give away a Rs 755.83-crore gold-ring scheme to two Keralamcompanies. Did our own jewellers not get a fair chance?” he claimed.
Prof. Aseervatham Achary of the BJP noted: “As someone from the goldsmith community, I fear that if contracts are given without any making charge, more than 10 lakh families of Tamil Nadu’s gold artisans could be pushed onto the streets. Please put this decision on hold for a few days.”
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Narayanan Thirupathy, Tamil Nadu BJP chief spokesperson, wondered: “If Joy Alukkas is absorbing every cost except one paisa, where will the government buy the gold from? Will these same firms offer gold itself for a rupee? How will they recover the loss?”
Dr K Krishnasamy, founder of Puthiya Tamilagam, was sharper: “Alukkas has not entered this for charity. This looks like a corporate strategy to plant a foot within the government machinery, advertise itself among lakhs of people, and later harvest bigger gains. Cancel this one-paisa fraud ring contract at once.”
Tamil Nadu jewellers unfazed
On the other hand, Jayanthilal J Challani, president of the Madras Jewellers and Diamond Traders Association, told The Federal, “The rings may well be made in Coimbatore or Villupuram. Our local goldsmiths are unlikely to lose work. A family that receives a one-gram ring often returns later to add two or three more grams and make a new ornament. In the long run, both the trade and artisans benefit.”
He added with a chuckle that the whole episode reminded him of the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa drawing a one-rupee salary: “Perhaps these firms see it as service, not pure profit. With 350 showrooms, spending Rs 4.5 crore a year on GST and making charges for this scheme is small change and the free publicity they are getting worldwide is priceless. Even we are talking about them right now!”
Health minister replies
Not only is the making charge just one paisa with zero GST, another question is how the Medical Services Corporation is buying the gold itself. That part of the deal still leaves many wondering who will actually supply the precious metal and at what price.
In the Assembly, Alangulam MLA Manoj Pandian of the DMK raised a question: The Medical Services Corporation was created mainly to buy medicines and build hospitals. Classifying gold as a “medical item” stretched its mandate.
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Health Minister KG Arunraj replied that the Health Department was the natural home for the scheme because it encourages deliveries in government hospitals. A special committee has been formed to purchase the gold, and the tender followed all legal rules.
Arunraj described the scheme as a way to strengthen public trust in government health services and give mothers a tangible memory of their child’s birth. “It is being implemented through the Health Department so that the ring can be handed over along with the delivery kit right at the hospital,” he told The Federal.
He also told The Federal that the jewellery firms had indicated they would meet part of the cost from their CSR funds.
Row over old ad
Another controversy doing the rounds is that years ago, when he was an actor, Chief Minister Vijay appeared in Jos Alukkas advertisements. Critics from the DMK now claim the Keralam jewellery firm is returning the favour by helping the present government.
CM Vijay in an old advertisement for Jos Alukkas, which is owned by a member of the same Alukkas family but is different from the Joyalukkas brand.
After Vijay took charge as chief minister, Jos Alukkas CEO and Managing Director John Alukkas met in June 2026. John Alukkas shared photos on social media calling Vijay an “old friend”.
While often confused or grouped under the same family name, this meeting involved Jos Alukkas, not Joy Alukkas. Joy Alukkas and Jos Alukkas are brothers. Joy took the West Asia (Middle East) operations and built the global Joyalukkas brand (the company that won the Tamil Nadu gold-ring tender). Jos Alukkas, the eldest brother in the family from Thrissur, kept the Indian stores and runs the separate Jos Alukkas jewellery chain, mainly in South India.
The one-paisa debate
Kalyan Jewellers, the large Thrissur-based chain founded by TS Kalyanaraman in 1993, also matched Joyalukkas’ one-paisa making-charge bid and won 30 per cent of the Tamil Nadu gold-ring tender.
TVK functionaries have hit back saying the chief minister has no personal link to the deal. They argue that Joy Alukkas simply foresaw his advantage in bidding for this scheme and turned it into a smart marketing move. But DMK cannot grasp this commercial strategy, they say.
Whether it is public service, clever advertising, or a bit of both, the first rings will start reaching tiny fingers soon after Anna’s birthday. But right now, hotter than gold is the debate on that one lonely paisa that cannot even buy a toffee today.
