Reboot of the GeM

The Government e Marketplace (GeM) plans to seek the Centre’s approval to enable work contracts for construction and building projects to also be bid out through the platform with a transparent monitoring mechanism to assess the progress in such contracts.

1: Dimension-Role of GeM in public procurement in India

• Transparent process: GeM endeavours to make public procurement process transparent, efficient and inclusive.
• Inclusiveness: It drives inclusiveness and ease of doing business (EoDB) with the government.
• Standardization: It provides for standardization of processes backed by the regulatory framework
• Automated system: It is a fully automated system enabled through advances technologies.
• Efficiency:As an end-to-end online and integrated portal, GeM increases efficiency in public procurement by eliminating manual interventions at various stages of the procurement process.
• Minimum Government, Maximum Governance: The platform has been effectively contributing to the government’s commitment of “Minimum Government, Maximum Governance”.

2: Dimension-Need of GeM in public procurement

• The public procurement process involves several steps, starting with the government publishing a tender. Interested sellers participate, and once the participation deadline passes, the government (buyer) evaluates the bids to determine eligibility. The contract is then awarded to the bidder offering the lowest rate.
• However, this process wasn't always as straightforward and transparent as it needed to be, which led to the introduction of the Government e-Marketplace (GeM).