The Ministry of Commerce and Industry released a press statement outlining the progress its national online procurement portal made over the fiscal year 2018-2019.
Over the year, the Government eMarketplace (GeM) witnessed a four-fold increase in the total value of transactions on the portal and twice as many sellers in the marketplace as compared to last year.
There has also been an overall growth in the number of categories, products, and buyers. Despite the huge growth in transactions, the average rejection rate of supplies remained below 1%, which, according to the statement, is evidence of the standard of quality of the products and services available on the portal.
The site grossed over about US $3.3 billion (IN ₹23,000 crores) in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) through more than around 1.7 million transactions on the platform. It made over 880,000 products available on its platform through a network of over 200,000 sellers and service providers.
These products and services are being bought by over 34,000 government organisations (central, state governments, and public service undertakings) registered on the platform.
42% of transactions by volume are done with MSMEs registered on the platform. 24 states and union territories have signed formal Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) with GeM to adopt it as the core procurement portal in their respective territories.
The statement noted that the integration with other government services such as Aadhaar, Public Financial Management System (PFMS), Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA), and Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) empanelled rating agencies for a robust registration process.
MoUs have been signed with 12 banks for payment integration (including the State GeM Pool Account or SGPA and Electronic Performance Bank Guarantee or PBG) to facilitate a cashless, contactless, and paperless payment system on the platform.
MoUs have also been signed with the MSME Ministry, Common Service Centres (CSC), and industrial associations to facilitate training, capacity building, and on-boarding of manufactures and vendors across the country.
During the year, GeM had launched several initiatives to educate, train prospective users, and promote inclusiveness in the marketplace.
18 dedicated theme-based events, which included, among others, technology architecture, services, credit facilities, and legal framework were held to analyse the future for GeM and strategize growth.
As a part of its inclusive agenda, a programme was created to enable women entrepreneurs and women-led self-help groups showcase and sell their products on GeM.
Another initiative to promote start-ups, women, and youth through e-transactions, was launched in February this year. In association with Start-up India, GeM Start-up Runway has been initiated to facilitate start-ups sell innovative products and services to government buyers.
The statement said that since its inception GeM has transformed public procurement in the country by leveraging technology and making these transactions cashless. The platform reduces manual process inefficiencies and human interventions in procurement and enables increased coverage, access, and efficiency of faceless standardised public procurement.