PIB
On
the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a review meeting of GeM (Government
E-Marketplace) was held under the chairmanship of Commerce and Industry
Minister Piyush Goyal today.
Buyers from over 50 Central Govt.
Ministries and 50 CPSEs were invited for getting firsthand feedback of
the Buyers.
Goyal lauded the efforts being made by various Buyer organizations in
increasing their procurements through GeM and emphasized that Prime Minister has set a target of 75% procurement to be made through
GeM by 15th of August and 100% procurement to be made through GeM by the
end of the current financial year.
The
minister said that there was a need to keep a strict vigil on GeM
procurement data and identify any deviant behaviours using Advanced
Analytics and AI ML based tools so that immediate and strict action
could be taken against any such deviant behaviours.
The
Minister emphasized on the need to change in the perception that public
procurement is a source of corruption.
He said that GeM has brought
about a sea change in the way public procurement is perceived by public
at large.
He expressed the hope that GeM will continue its engagement
with all stakeholders and going forward will also focus on ease of doing
procurement.
He desired that GeM should be benchmarked against best in
the class rather than being benchmarked against other Government
systems.
Goyal also expressed the hope that the kind of data being generated in
GeM will certainly help government in improving transparency and
efficiency in public procurement.
The Minister said that aggregation of
demand because of procurement happening through a single portal will
help in reducing the cost of procurement also for Govt. Buyers.
With
collective wisdom and collective efforts of all stakeholders, GeM can
well become the largest marketplace for public procurement in the world,
he added.
During
the review meeting, Buyers were briefed about the new features and
functionalities deployed on GeM in last one year and also about planned
developments in near future.
Queries of the Buyers were discussed and
resolved or taken note of for further improvement on the portal. Large
number of buyers appreciated efforts being taken by GeM to make
procurement process simpler and transparent.
GeM
has about 61,440 Government Buyer Organizations and about 47.99 Lakh
Sellers & Service Providers with a rich listing of over 41.44 lakh
Product Offerings and 1.9 lakh Service offerings.
All states (except
Sikkim) have already signed MoUs with GeM. As many as 239 CPSUs are also
registered on GeM and making significant procurement through GeM
Portal.
GeM
has taken a host of steps to onboard products of Self-Help Groups
(SHGs), tribal communities, craftsmen, weavers, and MSMEs with a view to
making the platform more inclusive.
57% of the total business on GeM
has come through the MSE units and over 6% has been contributed by women
entrepreneurs. GeM is also integrating with Panchayati Raj Institutions
to allow online buying and selling by the Panchayats at the grassroot
level.
GeM is also in an advanced stage of integration with IndiaPost
for extending logistics services at the grassroot level.
GeM SAHAY is
another initiative of GeM to facilitate small sellers to avail credit
financing from various integrated lenders against the Orders received on
GeM.