This article is written by Uzair Ahmed Khan, pursuing Diploma in Entrepreneurship, Administration and Business Laws, Student of Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Moradabad
Introduction
According to the World Bank’s Doing Business Report India leapfrogged to the 77th rank in the world and became the top-ranked country in South Asia for the first time and third among the BRICS. The report clearly states the improvements in business policies and due to this people are more and more inclining towards the business sector.
The Government of India is daily focusing on new business policies to make business easier for everyone and also inclining more and more people towards business. One of the main reasons behind all this is when more and more people start doing business it will ultimately boost the economy of the nation.
What is the Government eMarketplace? (GeM)
Government eMarketplace is an online portal created for the procurement of buying and selling of goods and services to the government. It was launched on 9 August 2016 by the Commerce and Industry minister. Procurement on Gem is authorized by General Financial Rules by making several changes in the government rules. Gem is one of the bold steps taken by the government with the objective to transform the way in which the procurement of goods and services is taken by the government ministers and departments, Public sector undertakings and other supreme bodies of central government.
Key highlights of Government eMarketplace
– Currently, it consists of 34,006 buyer organizations.
– It has 206,407 sellers and service providers.
– It has 837,882 available products on the portal.
– It offers 5,715 types of services.
– There are 30,871 different MSE sellers and service providers.
Advantages of Government eMarketplace
| For Buyers | For Sellers |
| ● It offers a variety of rich listing products for individual categories of goods or services. | ● It provides opportunities for all sellers Direct access to all Government departments. |
| ● It offers search, compare, select and buy a facility. | ● Its a one-stop shop for marketing with minimal efforts. |
| ● Buying Goods and Services online, as and when required | ● Its a one-stop shop for bids / reverse auction on products or services. |
| ● It offers transparency and ease of buying | ● It also offers daily new Product Suggestion facility available to Sellers |
| ● It offers a continuous vendor rating system | ● Sellers can change prices on different market conditions. |
| ● User-friendly dashboard for Buying and monitoring supplies and payments | ● Seller friendly dashboard for selling and monitoring of supplies and payments |
| ● Easy return policy | ● Sellers get consistent and uniform purchase procedures. |
Features of Government eMarketplace
The features of government eMarketplace are followed as-
Transparency
Government eMarketplace offers transparency by eliminating human interface in vendor registration, order placement, and payment processing to a great extent.
Efficiency
Another feature of Government eMarketplace is that it is very efficient. The direct purchase on GeM can be done in a matter of minutes and the entire process is an online end to end integrated with online tools for accessing the price reasonability.
Safe and Secure
Another important or useful feature of Government eMarketplace is that it is very safe and secure. All the documents on GeM are E-signed at various stages by the buyers and sellers. The precedent of the suppliers is verified online and automatically through Aadhar, PAN and MCA21 databases. GeM does a 100% online verification of all vendors irrespective of the value of procurement.
Potential
Another feature of government eMarketplace is that it has the potential to support make in India. On Government eMarketplace it is easy for the government buyers to procure make in India and small scale industries goods very easily because of the filters for selecting the goods which are preferential market access and those which are manufactured by small scale industries.
Savings to the Government
All the above features such as transparency, efficiency, and ease of use of the Government eMarketplace has resulted in a substantial reduction in prices on GeM in comparison to the rate contract, direct purchase rates, and tender. On GeM the average prices are 15% to 20% and in some cases even up to 56%. GeM is also performing demand aggregation for items that are to be acquired by the state or central government departments.
If we closely observe the graph of GeM than we can witness that the GeM would eventually emerge as the National Public Procurement Portal keeping tuned in to the global best practices. However, most of the countries like South Korea, Singapore, the UK, and the USA etc have a single National Public Procurement Portal and as a result, yearly savings of billions of dollars are made in public procurement, besides giving a fillip to the domestic business.
How Government eMarketplace and SWAYATT is helpful to startups?
The government of India on 19th February 2019 launched “StartUp Runway” and “SWAYATT” (Start-ups, Women and Youth Advantage Through e-Transactions) on Government eMarketplace. The startUp Runway is a unique concept initiated by Gem to promote entrepreneurship through innovation.
SWAYATT is launched to bring together the key stakeholders within the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem to Government e-Marketplace the national procurement portal.
The main aim of these programs to provide an opportunity to lean and agile startups who cannot reach out to government buyers. With the help of Startup Runway, the startups can reach to the universe of government buyers by offering products and services that are unique in design, concept process and functionality through StartUps Runway corner easily.
According to the Department for Promotion of Industry and International Trade only certified Startups are invited to offer their products or services for procurement on Government eMarketplace.
The objective of StartUp Runway
- Enable Startups to introduce their unique innovations to government and PSU buyers.
- Assess utility and market acceptability of startup products/services.
- Ultimately spur hyper-local job-creation and wealth generation to achieve inclusive growth by way of helping startups.
Objectives of SWAYATT
- It will promote inclusiveness by catapulting various categories of sellers and service providers.
- Take proactive steps to facilitate the training and registrations of such specific categories of manufacturers and sellers.
- To develop women entrepreneurship and encourage participation of the MSME sector and Start-ups in public procurement.
What are the major benefits for StartUps on GeM?
There are 2 major benefits for StartUps on GeM and they are-
- Exemption from submitting earnest money deposit.
- Relaxation of prior turnover and prior experience.
Important Points to remember
StartUp Runway shall be anchored and operated by DPIIT (Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade) and supported by GeM SPV.
StartUp Runway at GeM does not certify a Product/Service to be innovative/unique as defined by DPIIT (earlier DIPP) or any other authority.
This is only a facilitation corner for the Products/Services which are being claimed as innovative/unique by the Startups and not availed earlier by any Government Department/Ministry.
This program covers all offerings created indigenously with the exception of products/services belonging to Heavy Plant & Machinery, Medicines, Agricultural Chemicals, Foods, Farm & Fishery Goods, Weapons, Firearms, Explosives, and Oils.
Innovation Categories for Startups on GeM
- Artificial Intelligence
- Big Data and Analytics
- Fintech, Block-chain
- Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics [Next Gen IoT, 3D Printing]
- Agritech
- Health and Life Sciences [Biopharma, Medtech, Digital Health]
- Cybersecurity
- Cleantech
- Edutech
- Gaming [Mobile and eSports]
- Advertising Technology
- Consumer Electronics.
The process of Application on GeM
1. Registering the Startup on GeM
The first step will be taken by the applicant is to register as a seller or service provider on GeM. it is mandatory for a startup registration to have a DIPP number.
2. Registering Products and Services in Startup Runway
The second step is startups shall login using their newly registered or already existing GeM login credentials. Startups having a valid DIPP number will see a #startupindia blinking logo on the dashboard.
Clicking on #Startupindia logo will open a form which needs to be duly completed by Startup for further evaluation.
3. Screening of Products / Services
The screening will be done by a competent committee based on the basic sanity of information provided (in 7 days).
4. Notifying the Buyers of the new Products and services
Screened products or services will be made directly available to the buyers of relevant ministries or departments. Potential buyers can opt for Trials of such Products or Services.
5. Feedback from Buyers
The buyer shall provide feedback regarding the product with respect to their utility, uniqueness of design, process, concept and price reasonability. The timeframe for product trial is 15 days and service trials from 8 to 16 weeks.
6. Listing of Products / Services on GeM
On feedback evaluation, innovative products with 3 or more ratings from at least 3 buyers, can be listed for all the buyers in the regular GeM.
Conclusion
The StartUps Runways and SWAYATT launched by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce on Government eMarketplace literally helped in boosting the business sector by encouraging peoples from the vulnerable background who don’t get any support. Due to the help of this platform people from vulnerable backgrounds are earning properly by providing their product or services to the government.
If you have any innovative product or service idea then you may register your startup on GeM with this link and start doing business with registered government buyers and also gets certain exemptions on the platform.
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