The Ministry of Consumer Affairs has notified hallmarking standards for 9-karat gold jewellery in a bid to boost demand for lightweight gold jewellery. So far, the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) had only specified hallmarking standards for gold jewellery of 24, 23, 22, 20, 18 and 14 karats. Notably, gold sales by volume had plunged by 60% in June.