Focus: GS-III Indian Economy
Why in news?
Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry reviewed the steps to promote Make in India products in procurement process of Indian Railways and Indian Railways is integrating its procurement systems with Government e-Marketplace (GeM).
What was decided?
- Indian Railway e-Procurement System (IREPS) and GeM will be integrated to generate synergy and take the Railways procurement to GeM’s full potential.
- Post integration GeM is intended to move further in the direction of becoming single point public procurement portal for all agencies of Government of India.
Government e Marketplace (GeM)
- GeM is a one-stop National Public Procurement Portal under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
- GeM facilitates online procurement of common use Goods & Services required by various Central and State Government Departments / Organizations /Public Sector Undertakings ( PSUs).
- The procurement of goods and services by Ministries and the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) is mandatory for goods and services available on GeM.
- GeM provides the tools of e-bidding and reverse e-auction to facilitate the government users achieve the best value for their money.
Objectives of the National Mission on GeM (NMG):
- Promote inclusiveness by catapulting various categories of sellers and service providers
- Highlight and communicate ‘value add’ by way of transparency and efficiency in public procurement, including corruption free governance.
- Achieve cashless, contactless and paperless transaction, in line with the Digital India objectives.
- Increase overall efficiency leading to significant cost saving on government expenditure in Procurement.
- Maximizing ease in availability of all types of products and services bought by Government buyers.
