Government procurement platform GeM is coming up with a more dynamic, transformational and vibrant portal by adding advanced features such as powerful search engine, revamped brand and product approval process and faster creation of categories for goods and services through tender analysis, a senior official said.
The Government e-Market (GeM) portal was launched in August 2016 for online purchases of goods and services by all the central government ministries and departments.
“We are working to introduce GeM 4.0 which will be more smarter, better, unified, intelligent and more inclusive. It will represent one of the largest uses of advanced technology in any government platform around the world. We have created a technology road map that enhances each and every step of the user experience on the portal,” GeM Chief Executive Officer Talleen Kumar told PTI.
The transformational portal will have features for market enhancement, catalogue improvements, revamping of bidding and rating system. The new GeM 4.0 is expected to be launched by August-September this year.
The advance portal will be integrated with central public procurement portal (CPPP), natural language processing-based search engine, timely payments to suppliers, demand aggregation, staggered delivery, GeM availability report and past transaction summary for informed procurement decisions, allowing buyers to publish bids on the portal itself, one-time caution money deposit, price bounds to ensure price sanity, rating-based filter system, seller incentives, and price variation clause, among others.
The scaling up assumes significance as public procurement of the central and state governments runs into several lakh crores annually.
Kumar also said government departments, agencies and public sector units can now procure products made by tribal communities from the GeM portal as it has added over 4,000 such items, including paintings, handmade showpieces and statues.
Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) has uploaded about 5, 000 products across 48 different categories — paintings, handmade showpieces and statues, handcrafted hand bags and sling bags.
Currently, government departments, ministries, public sector units, state governments, and Central Armed Police Forces are allowed to carry out transactions through this portal.
The portal provides a wide range of products from office stationery to vehicles. Automobiles, computers and office furniture are currently the top product categories. Services, including transportation, logistics, waste management, web casting and analytical, are listed on the portal.
So far, 3,78,379 sellers and service providers are registered with the portal to sell 17,24,300 products and several services.
