Union minister Smriti Irani said that the government e Marketplace (GeM) portal will connect 50 lakh artisans and weavers of the country, a move aimed at commercialisation of their potential.

She said the ministry of textiles has data of close to 50 lakh artisans and weavers. “We are in the process of ensuring that these 50 lakh artisans and weavers now migrate to the GeM portal where governments across the country can procure directly from them,” Irani said.

She said the textiles ministry is also working in collaboration with the NIC (National Informatics Centre) to ensure setting up of a platform which can help commercialise the potential of artisans and weavers and there can be a direct sale to the citizens of India. 

“These are artisans and weavers who will be authenticated in terms of the output that they have of skill and craft by the ministry of textiles,” Irani said.

Government e Marketplace

Public procurement amounts to 15-20 per cent of a nation’s GDP and therefore an efficiently run public procurement process is critical to the  economy.

Government e Marketplace (GeM) is the national public procurement portal offering end to end solutions for all procurement needs of central and state government departments, PSUs, autonomous institutions and local bodies. 

Since its commencement on August 9, 2016, GeM has transformed public procurement in the country by leveraging technology and making procurement contactless, paperless, and cashless.

The platform reduces manual process inefficiencies and human interventions in procurement and enables increased coverage, access, and efficiency of faceless, standardised public procurement.

It provides the tools of e-bidding, reverse e-auction and demand aggregation to facilitate the government users, achieve the best value for their money.

The purchases through GeM by government users have been authorised and made mandatory by the ministry of finance by adding a new Rule No.149 in the General Financial Rules, 2017.

According to the data available on the portal, it has 3.87 lakh sellers and service providers, 17.76 lakh products and a transaction value of Rs 54,184 crore.

The transparency, efficiency and ease of use of the GeM portal has resulted in a substantial reduction in prices, in comparison to the tender, rate contract and direct purchase rates.

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