Union Minister for Commerce and Industry, Textiles, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public  Distribution Shri Piyush Goyal today 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 today at Vanijya  Bhawan in New Delhi.  

Shri 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.

Shri 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 Shri 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.  

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

 

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