This profile appeared in the August 2017 Jewellery Supplement, published by Condé Nast Britain on July 7, 2017. Since then, Mr. Modi has been linked to an alleged fraud at Punjab National Bank.

Upon entering Nirav Modi's vast Mumbai workshops from the street, the order and silence within hit you hard. After an hour in a car (regardless of your starting point-it doesn't seem to make a difference to the journey), you almost become acclimatized to the constant honking of horns and the pulsing of your vehicle as it inches forwards.

The gentle chaos that is Mumbai traffic isn't of the aggressive kind we're used to in the United Kingdom-it's more of a half-hearted, sun-baked standstill punctuated by a comically constant beep-beep-beep. And it is all in stark contrast to the clinical order inside the atelier of India's most ambitious luxury jewellery brand.

There, hundreds of heads bend over desks in orderly rows, deep in the tasks of sorting, grading, casting, setting and polishing in a hushed, almost scholarly atmosphere. With all the white coats, face masks and surgical gloves, it could easily be mistaken for a laboratory, only the subjects under the microscopes are diamonds and gold.

Here and there sit finished pieces of jewellery-a tray of rings sporting huge central stones surrounded by the whitest diamonds in patented cuts. Many of Modi's designs are set en tremblant, so the stones shiver and shake as the wearer moves. That, combined with the special cuts-the petal-shaped "mughal cut" or the more angular "jasmine cut"-and the ultra-feminine pastel colour palette of white, soft pink and pale blue are what make the Nirav Modi look distinctive.

Modi never intended to be a jeweller, although working in the jewellery industry was inevitable. He is a Jain-an ancient minority religion in India whose central tenets include non-violence and a particularly strict form of vegetarianism-and his fate as such was decided by his ancestors nearly 100 years ago.

The Jains of Palanpur, Gujarat, from where Modi's forebears descend, were some of the first Indians to open offices in Antwerp, Belgium, after the First World War, and it was they who cracked the European monopoly on diamond trading in the city. Today, the majority of India's diamantaires can trace their lineage back to the area, if not to Palanpur itself, and Modi is no exception.

"My grandfather was born in Palanpur," says Modi, in a faintly Indian-flecked American accent. "He then moved to Singapore, then Malaysia, and eventually to Antwerp, where my father was born." And all this in the name of his business: diamonds. Modi himself was born in Mumbai. "It's tradition that the first child of the family is born 'at home'," he explains-but he was brought up in Antwerp, where he attended an international school, followed by studying finance and Japanese at the Ivy League Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "Japan back then was like China now," he shrugs.

He started his career in Hong Kong and Japan, working for his uncle for 10 years, before starting his own diamond dealing business, Firestar Diamond, in 2010. Hugely successful (Modi was named by Forbes as a billionaire in recent years), it was only a favour to a friend that led to the man becoming a brand. "I designed a pair of earrings for a friend, and the response was such that I started doing more pieces."

What was originally intended to be a small range of high-end designs became a fully fledged brand just three years later, with stores opening in Mumbai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Macau, New York and London. Four years on, Modi has no intention of slowing growth.

"I hope to have 20 stores by the end of this year, including Paris and Los Angeles," he says. And by 2025, he fully intends on having his name on 100 boutiques globally. But it's the domestic market-and the growing adoption of the Western practice of getting "engaged" with a diamond ring-that holds the most promise. The business has recently enlisted Bollywood heavyweight Priyanka Chopra as global brand ambassador and the star of their Indian "Say Yes, forever" campaign-the other star of which is a simple diamond engagement ring.

"The potential market is enormous," Modi says. "At the moment it's just beginning. We want to be Asia's first truly global luxury brand-and it's not as though people have already tried to do that and failed. Nobody has really tried yet."

And with Modi's family history, business acumen and ambition, he may just pull it off.