• Public procurement portal Government eMarketplace (GeM) said it has launched a new service vertical — Stitching and Tailoring Services — on its platform.

• Under this initiative, GeM will collaborate with Usha Silai School in developing stitching and tailoring services for government buyers and facilitate the process for enlisting women associated with the school’s programme.

• The service will open new opportunities for Usha silai women and Self Help Groups in urban and rural areas to enhance their incomes through sewing orders placed by various government departments and agencies and fulfil the 3 per cent procurement target set for women MSE (Micro & Small Enterprises) entrepreneurs.  

• This service will ensure forward market linkages for women entrepreneurs.  

• Usha will provide technical experts who will share their knowledge on sewing and upskill women with technical skills for fulfilment of various orders at regional and local level.

• Potential buyers would be able to search, view and place orders for dress uniforms and office decor/accessories through the stipulated modes of procurement.  

• Government buyers would be sensitised through system generated messages/alerts in the marketplace about the availability of stitching and tailoring services on the portal.

• GeM will provide women entrepreneurs with dashboards that will deliver real time information about the number of products uploaded, value and volume of orders received and fulfilled.

Government e Marketplace

• Government e Marketplace is a government-owned Section 8 company set up under the aegis of department of commerce for procurement of goods and services by central and state government organisations.

• Public procurement involves purchase of goods and services by governments with an aim to not only carry day-to-day tasks but to also create social and economic infrastructure.

• In India, public procurement accounts for roughly 20 per cent of the GDP and therefore, an efficiently run public procurement process is critical to the  economy.

• In order to improve transparency of decision-making in the public procurement process and to reduce malpractices, the Union government decided to set up an online marketplace for public procurement.

• 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.

• GeM has over 39 lakh sellers and service providers, five million products and a transaction value of Rs 2 lakh crore.

Functioning of GeM:

• GeM helps governments achieve the best value for the taxpayers’ money by carrying out efficient public procurement using tools such as e-bidding, reverse e-auction and demand aggregation.

• GeM has provided the government procurement agencies an option to select MSME vendors for procurement which has helped MSMEs to significantly increase their sales.

• Any procurement up to Rs 25,000 can be directly purchased from available vendors on the GeM if it meets the required quality, specification and delivery period.

• For procurement above Rs 25,000, purchases have to be made following procedures such as price comparison, bidding or reverse auction, where the criterion of the lowest price among available suppliers on the GeM has to be followed to ensure price efficiency.

• A chat-bot called GeMmy has been launched to assist the vendors and buyers.

Impact of GeM

• 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.

• An independent assessment of GeM conducted by the World Bank reported that GeM enabled an average savings of 9.75 per cent on the median price for the period between February 2019 and January 2020, with maximum savings in the top five categories ranging from 23-60 per cent.

• GeM has drastically brought down waiting time for buyers and ensured timely payments to the sellers. 

• It has facilitated efficient transmission of policy intent by implementing the ‘Make in India’ policy and the MSE policy on its portal and providing impetus to the vision of ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ and also promoting local products through the ‘Vocal for Local’ initiative.

• GeM has enabled various modes of procurement and made available various analytical tools to facilitate buyers to make informed decisions while making procurement. 

• A public procurement system which is completely transparent not only improves the government functioning but also encourages greater participation from private firms in the bidding process.

• The portal provides an opportunity to MSMEs to scale up business and increase sales.

• GeM has created a Unified Procurement System for the country by bringing the functionalities of the Defence Public Procurement Portal, the Central Public Procurement Portal and its sub-portals onto GeM to provide a single user experience.

Manorama Yearbook app is now available on Google Play Store and iOS App Store