India's export of gems and jewelry – the nation's second-largest export sector – great 45.84% in H1 2010 compared to the corresponding period in 2009 and totaled $18.9 billion, the Economic Times reports.

Cut diamond and polished diamonds accounted for $12.7 billion – an increase of 61.5% - while exports of gold jewelry rose 20% year-on-year and stood at $5.3 billion for the period reported.

September 2010, taken alone, saw diamond exports worth $2.4 billion – an increase of 36.4% from H1 2009, while the month's gold jewelry exports shot up 113.5% year-on-year and comprised $1.5 billion.

Sanjay Kothari, Vice Chairman of the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council, noted that India's diamond trade was taking over some of its competitors' shares of diamond exports to the US, currently the world's largest consumer of diamonds.