Joy Alukkas

Joy Alukkas is an Indian businessman from Thrissur, Kerala, and the chairman and managing director of the Joyalukkas Group, one of India's largest jewellery retail chains, with some two hundred showrooms across India and the Gulf and beyond. He took the overseas side of his father's jewellery business, founded Joy Alukkas Jewellery in 2001, and published his memoir, Spreading Joy, in 2023. Forbes named him India's richest jeweller, putting his net worth at US$4.4 billion. ^{1 2}

Alukkas was born on 29 October 1956 at Thrissur, Kerala, with the birth name Alukkas Varghese Joy. ^{1 3} His father, Alukka Joseph Varghese, moved into jewellery retail in Thrissur in the late 1950s and built the Alukkas jewellery business, which he later divided among his sons. ^{1 2} Joy began assisting his father at the age of sixteen. ² He is married to Jolly Joy. ¹ His son, John Paul Alukkas, runs the group's international business. ²

In the late 1980s Alukkas led the family business's expansion into the Gulf, opening its first overseas showrooms in the Emirates. ² When the family business was formally divided in 2001, he took the West Asia operations and founded Joy Alukkas Jewellery, basing the group in Thrissur and Dubai and growing it to around two hundred showrooms in more than a dozen countries; in 2012 the group became the first Indian jeweller authorised by De Beers' Forevermark. ^{1 2} His philanthropy includes relief for Cyclone Ockhi victims in 2018, a commitment to build 250 houses for victims of the 2018 Kerala floods, and scholarships for orphaned students. ¹ The business has also faced enforcement actions: Income Tax raids on more than 130 of its premises in 2018 over alleged tax evasion, and in February 2023 the Enforcement Directorate attached assets worth 305.84 crore rupees in a case it said involved hawala transfers to Dubai. ¹ His memoir Spreading Joy was published by HarperCollins India on his birthday in 2023. ¹

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