By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JULY 12, 2024: GOVERNMENT e Marketplace (GeM) has clocked a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of Rs.1,24,761 Lakh crore at the end of first quarter (Q1), representing a quarter-on-quarter growth of 136% over last year's GMV of Rs 52,670 Crore.  Launched in 2016 with an ambitious goal of building a robust domestic e-procurement landscape, GeM has reformulated a previously fragmented system into a comprehensive one-stop-solution that is widely used by all government buyers and serviced by Pan India network of sellers & service providers.

In Q1, FY 24-25 services segment has been the prime mover clocking a GMV of more than Rs.80,500 crore representing a growth of 330% over corresponding period in FY 23-24.

Procurement by Central Ministries including CPSEs surpassed Rs.1 Lakh crore milestone in this period with Ministries of Coal, Defence and Petroleum & Gas emerging as the top procurers in this quarter. Of this Rs.1 Lakh crore GMV, CPSEs share accounted for more than Rs. 91,000 Crore.

"In Q1 FY 23-24, procurement by Central Government bodies stood at Rs.42,500 Crore. This FY has seen a substantial surge in their procurement. As key participants, Central bodies have continued to drive procurement reforms, reaffirming their commitment to optimising resource allocation for national development," stated Prashant Kumar Singh, CEO, GeM.

Carrying forward its vision of reaching out to the last mile sellers and with an aim to further simplify public procurement, GeM is planning to roll out 'GeM SAHAYAK' program which aims at creating a PAN INDIA network of 6-7000 trained and certified accredited trainers who would then offer their services to potential and existing GeM Sellers in navigating on GeM and enhancing business opportunities. Buyers too will benefit from the services of these SAHAYAKS in terms of creation of bids and other value-added services.

Another major initiative taken by GeM to facilitate Ease of Doing Business on GeM is the drastic reduction in quantum of Transaction charges leviable on Sellers. As per the new Revenue policy of GeM, the sellers/ service providers will be changed only 0.30% of the order value (previously 0.45%) on orders with order value of more than Rs.5 Lakh, and these transaction charges would be capped at a maximum amount of Rs.3 lakh as against Rs.72.50 Lakh being changed earlier. It was also informed that during FY 23-24, 96.5% of transactions were not levied any transaction charges, being procurement below Rs 5 lakh. Thus, GeM levied transaction charges in only 3.5% of transactions/ orders.

"This reduction in Transaction charges levied on the GeM platform by almost 33 to 96% would greatly benefit our Sellers and is likely to make their offerings more competitive in the marketplace" added P.K. Singh.

GeM launched its signature initiative called "The Aabhar Collection" as part of its #Vocalforlocal outlet store marketplace. The Aabhar collection showcases over 120 exquisite and hand-crafted gift items and hampers, featuring select products from One District One Product (ODOP) and Geographical Indication (GI) categories with prices ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 25,000 to be used by Government Buyers for all their official events/ ceremonies etc.

"Launch of Aabhar collection marks an important milestone in enhancing visibility of indigenous arts & crafts and showcasing the rich tapestry of Indian heritage and culture and providing empowerment of our underserved seller groups through the network of Central and State Handicraft and handloom emporiums" highlighted Prashant Kumar Singh, CEO-GeM.

Continuing into this fiscal year, awareness, out-reach and capacity-building initiatives were further strengthened and GeM entered into MoUs with Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DICCI), Assam Startup Nest and North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi) and have also conducted more than 320 training sessions for Buyers and Sellers across the country. GeM's recently-launched interactive & multilingual training courses also witnessed remarkable user registration with 1,172 Buyers and 3,393 Sellers enrolled in the courses within just four months since its launch.

To maintain its pole position in the public procurement space, GeM is all set to deploy its generative AI-based chatbot called "GeMAI" in the coming quarter. The AI tool has been trained to provide solutions based on a nuanced analysis of queries raised by Buyers and Sellers through various complaint and feedback mechanisms. Conversational analytics and business intelligence using generative AI are also being harnessed to build a robust AI-powered chat bot. A comprehensive monitoring tool is also planned to be used on GeM to provide a unified 360-degree view on the overall performance of the platform. In addition to this, a project to geo-tag addresses of GeM users is underway. The project will provide geography-based visualisation of transactions such as MSEs, ODOP sales, product concentrations etc.

Beyond quantifiable outcomes, GeM has considerably enhanced qualitative aspects like harnessing transparency, reducing opportunities of corruption, increasing participation of small-scale sellers in the marketplace and significantly improving time efficiency. Building upon the arduous groundwork laid last fiscal year, GeM's achievements at the end of first quarter of FY 24-25 solidifies its position as a crucial driver of efficiency, transparency and inclusivity in the public procurement marketplace.