Government e-Market Place (GeM) is hosted by DGS&D, where common user goods and services can be procured.
Gem is a user-friendly, self-sustaining and dynamic portal for procurement by government officers.
Public procurement forms are an essential part of the reform, and government activity in public procurement is one of the top priorities of the present government.
GeM is a very bold step of the government with the aim to transform how the government ministries and departments procure services and goods, public sector undertaking and other apex autonomous bodies of the central government.
Background
GeM owes its genesis to the recommendations the two groups of secretaries made to the PM (prime minister) in January 2016.
Besides reforming DGS&D, the recommended setting up a dedicated e-market for various goods and services procured or sold by PSUs/government besides improving DGS&D.
Parallelly the finance minister, in his budget speech for the financial year 2016-17, announces the setting up of a technology-driven platform for facilitating the procurement of goods and services by various ministries and agencies of the government.
DGS&D, with some technical support from the National e-governance division (Ministry of electronics and information technology), has developed the Gem portal to procure services and products.
This portal was launched on 9th August 2016 by the commerce & industry minister.
The general financial rules have authorized procurement on Government e-Market Place by making required changes in the regulations of government.
Currently, more than 7400 products in 150 product categories and hiring of transport services are available on the GeM POC portal.
Transactions of more than Rs. 140 crores have already been processed via GeM.
It should also be noted that GeM is a 100% paperless, cashless and system-driven e-marketplace which enables procurement of common-use goods and services with minimum human intervention.
What are the advantages of Government e-Market Place?
| S.No. | For Buyers | For Sellers |
| 1 | Rich listing of products for individual categories of goods/services. | Direct access to all government departments. |
| 2 | Search, compare, buy and select a facility. | One-stop-shop for marketing with fewer efforts. |
| 3 | They are buying goods and services online as and when required. | One-stop shops for reverse auction. Bids on services and products. |
| 4 | Transparent and ease of buying | A new product suggestion facility is available to sell. |
| 5 | The continuous vendor rating system | Dynamic pricing- price can be changed depending on market conditions. |
| 6 | User-friendly dashboard for buying and monitoring supplies and payments. | Seller-friendly dashboard for monitoring and selling of supplies. |
| 7 | Easy return policy | Consistent and uniform purchase procedure |
What facilities are offered by Government e-Market Place?
Below are some of the unique facilities offered by the Government e-Market Place.
- Return policy
- User-friendly dashboard for monitoring and buying payments and supplies.
- Continuous vendor rating.
- Useful for low-value and bulk buying at a competitive price using e-bidding and reverse auction.
- Transparent and ease of buying.
- Single window system for aggregating ordering and demands.
- Online purchase of goods and services as and when required.
- The best marketplace for buyingsignificant common user items.
- Look, estimate, compare and buy facilities on a dynamic pricing basis.
- Listing various products for individuals, prescribed categories of services and goods of everyday use.
What are the features of Government e-Market Place?
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Transparency
Government e-Market Place eliminates human interface in vendor registration, payment processing and order placement to a greater extent. Being an open platform, Government e-Market Place offers no entry barriers to bonafide suppliers who want to do business with the government. At every step, e-mail and SMS notifications are sent to both head of the organization, and the buyer, along with playing authorises and sellers. Timeless, cashless, online payment on GeM is facilitated via integration with the state bank multi-option system (SBMOPS) and PFMS. Web service integration is being extended to payment systems of state governments, central PSUs, defence and railways.
It offers a seamless process and online time-bound payment, which is also necessary for the department of expenditure. It has given the vendors confidence and reduced the administrative costs of pursuing officers for timely payments.
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Efficiency
Direct purchases on Government e-Market Place can be made in a few minutes, and the complete online process is integrated with online tools for accessing price reasonability.
For the procurement of higher value, the reverse/bidding auction (RA) facility on Ge< is among the most efficient and transparent compared to the e-Procurement system, in vogue within the government sector.
For creating the RA/bid, the buyer does not need to make their technical specifications like they have been standardized on GeM,
Also, the bid can be created in a matter of minutes and finalized in a minimum of 7 days. You will receive notifications via email or SMS. All new and eligible suppliers are also notified once they register themselves online on Government e-Market Place and are also determined as ‘eligible’ by the system.
GeM ensures competition, efficiency, speed, and fair play, leading to the proper price discovery.
These reasonable rates can also be confirmed via online comparison with the market price on leading e-commerce portals.
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Secure and safe
GeM is an entirely safe environment; all the documents present here are e-signed at different stages by the sellers and buyers. The antecedents of the suppliers are also verified online and automatically via MCA21, PAN database and Aadhar car.
Along with this, SEBI empanelled credit rating agencies are also being used for conducting 3rd party assessments of the suppliers.
It will also strengthen due diligence about the veracity of suppliers willing to do business on Gem.
For high-value RA/bids on Government e-Market Place, an e-bank guarantee is also introduced.
It is a better system than the existing one, which relies more on financial instruments to guarantee good conduct by the suppliers.
In the present system, the zero checks on the antecedents of suppliers for small value procurements is up to 1 lakh.
Wrap up
Government e-Market Place is a safe place of every common man. You should definitely use it to make your life easy.
Karan is a technology writer and blogger with a passion for all things tech. He has been writing about the latest advancements in the tech industry for several years, covering topics such as Technology, How To, and entertainment news.
