Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal Appreciates Roll-Out of GeM Services through CSC and IndiaPost; says it will Spur Local Procurement and further Goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat

· Goyal Compliments Sellers for their efforts to Usher a World Class Public Procurement Platform

· GeM “Seller Samvaad” Events held in 26 Cities across India in Collaboration with Press Information Bureau

· The roll-out of GeM services through last-mile CSC-VLEs (Village level entrepreneurs) and PO-CSC operators (Post Offices) will spur local procurement

Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Textiles, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Piyush Goyal on 21 December, 2022 said that the roll-out of GeM services through last-mile CSC-VLEs (Village level entrepreneurs) and PO-CSC operators (Post Offices) will spur local procurement and further the aim of Atmanirbhar Bharat. He said this after launching the Government e Marketplace (GeM) Seller “Samvaad Booklet” and flagging off the roll-out of GeM services through Common Service Center e-Governance Services India Ltd. (CSC-SPV), and India Post, Department of Post, for last-mile buyers, sellers and service providers in public procurement, at a function held at Vanijya Bhawan in New Delhi.

Mr.Goyal said GeM has facilitated over 1 Crore orders and highlighted that over 55% of these orders are through MSMEs and added that as stated by the Prime Minister, MSMEs are the backbone of every large company and entire entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The Minister said Improvement of GeM Portal is an ongoing and evolving process. Efforts are on to add new features and functionalities. He called for continued engagement with the Sellers and buyers, and urged them to share their experiences and inputs with the Government on further improving the GeM portal to usher into a honest, efficient procurement process. He also urged Sellers to set ambitious targets.

Mr. Goyal complimented all sellers and service providers on GeM for their unbound enthusiasm and participation on the portal and their efforts to usher a world class public procurement platform for all Government buyers, sellers and service-providers in the country through the GeM portal.

The Minister said GeM has transformed thousands of lives and opened a plethora of opportunities for the sellers. He said GeM is transparent, efficient and is perfectly inline with Five Prans as articulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that focuses on making India a developed nation by 2047.

In September 2022, GeM “Seller Samvaad” events were held in 26 cities across India in collaboration with the Press Information Bureau (PIB) to facilitate an informal interaction of GeM sellers and service providers with members of regional and local media to document their journey in public procurement. Testimonials from sellers and service providers based on their experience on the portal were documented in print and digital media, and later collated and compiled in the form of a “Seller Samvaad” booklet which was launched at the event today in the presence of 13 select sellers and service providers.

Earlier in May 2022, GeM, CSC-SPV and India Post had inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the advocacy, outreach, mobilization and capacity-building of last-mile Govt buyers, sellers and service providers in public procurement. With this tripartite MoU, 5.2 lakh+ Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLE) under CSC-SPV and approx. 1.5 lakh+ India Post Office (PO-CSC) operators across India are being trained to assist last-mile Govt buyers/ Cooperative Societies with buyer registration, and all sellers and service providers with seller registration, product catalogue upload and management, order acceptance, fulfilment and invoice generation functionality on the GeM portal.

P.K. Singh, CEO, GeM, Sanjay Rakesh, CEO, CSC-SPV, Satyendra Prakash, Pr. DG PIB, Smt. Aindri Anurag, Member (Operations) and Anant Swarup Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry were present on the occasion.