There was a gap between buyers and sellers in India. Our Finance Minister recognized this and in the budget of FY 2016-17, he announced a platform which would efficiently fill this gap. It would facilitate e-procurement of goods and services by different departments of the Government. Following this announcement, a portal was launched on 9th August 2016 by the Commerce & Industry Minister which is known as Government e-marketplace (GeM). This portal is a means of our government to promote the development of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in our country. Let us understand it further with an example.

Imagine a PPE kit manufacturer wants to sell PPE kits to the government. In today’s time, it is the need of the hour. So what would he do? He would register his firm and his products on the government e-marketplace. His firm and products would further be authorized by the appropriate department. Then the products are directly bought by the government and the payment is done online. So in simpler words, GeM portal is an ecommerce platform especially for the government agencies and officials to purchase goods and services.

The portal allows a direct purchase of up to INR 50,000. The other procurement has to be done bidding and reverse auction. The goods and services acquired via Government e-Marketplace are over Rs. 5 crores annually. The following are the benefits of GeM:

• Efficiency: GeM is an online portal so it is pretty much established that it is efficient in the operations. All the tasks are done in the matter of minutes. Also the no paperwork factor also saves a lot of time. The payments are online and thus do not require approval of Government officials. All of this makes this platform incredibly efficient.

• Transparency: The platform has done away with human intervention. There is complete automation in GeM registration, placing orders and payments. This puts all the vendors to ease and enjoy doing business with the government without dealing with any kind of hurdles.

• Security: This platform is also known for its secure interface. The vendors and suppliers are verified by the government itself so vendors can rest assured that there won’t be any foul play.

• Startups’ benefit: On the top of these benefits, good news is that the government has started supporting local startups. The government has been promoting startups for a while and now in GeM they have relaxed regulations for startups to procure goods.

It is evident that this platform is the step in the right direction for the government and the vendors. It is now your turn to grab this opportunity and make the best of it. Contact

National Tenders for personalized guidance throughout the whole procedure of GeM now. 

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzD-TdKhL6k&feature=youtu.be