Achieving procurement worth Rs 1 lakh crore in FY23 doable; taking measures to help MSMEs, says GeM CEO Prashant Kumar Singh

Government e-Marketplace or GeM is targeting procurements worth Rs 1.5 lakh cr in the next financial year and it will likely be easier to achieve it, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Prashant Kumar Singh tells Zee Business.

Government e-Market Place hosted by where common user goods and services can be procured. 

GeM has achieved a record procurement target of Rs 1 lakh cr for the financial year 2021-22 (April-March). This is the first time that the GeM has been to breach the Rs 1 lakh cr mark since its inception almost 4.5 years ago, Singh said.  

GeM is quite popular among the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) as over 57 per cent of the procurement accounts from this segment.

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Both, the Centre and state governments are buying significantly from this platform with 30 per cent of the Rs 1 lakh cr purchased by the states in this FY.

Uttar Pradesh has been the biggest buyer from this platform. Among the central government ministries, departments related to the defense sectors are the biggest buyers from this platform, the CEO said.

The platform has deployed AI (Artificial Intelligence) keeping in view the County of Origin.

Singh said that the platform has been made for local manufacturers and goods where any foreign good is not permitted to be sold. At any stage if it is known, the vendor has indulged in hiding the Country of Origin to sell his goods on the GeM portal, the products is moved out of the chain, he clarified.

He said that the AI is used to detect such cases.

The GeM’s objective is to protect the interest of Indian manufacturers and their goods.

The CEO also said that GeM was in talks with India Post and soon a Memorandum of Understand (MoU) will be signed. It is expected to be done in next 1-2 months, he further said.

The organisation has a huge network which could be brought to good use. The pick-up and drop will become easier and the services of India Post could be used across the country, Singh said.

This will likely have a positive impact on the MSMEs, the CEO clarified.

He also explained how the services provided by the platform were getting better due to the use of AI, blockchain and other technologies.

In future, GeM could associate with private players as well which will yield further benefits, Singh said. GeM expects to get big orders from ecommerce market place players like the Flipkart and Amazon.

More products and services will be introduced over the next few months.

The government will start Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) where many portals will be unified. This will further aid the MSMEs.