Why in news?
Recently 5 States and a Union Territory (UT) formally adopted the Centre’s initiative called the Government e-Marketplace (GeM).
What is GeM?
- The Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D) has developed the GeM.
- It is a completely end to end procurement system for purchase of goods and services of common use by the government buyers.
- GeM aims to ensure that public procurement of goods and services in India worth more than Rs. 5 lakh crore annually is carried out through the online platform.
- It promotes transparency eliminates corruption.
- A call centre for GeM has also been set up to help both buyers and sellers in conducting their transactions on GeM.
What are the impacts?
- GeM relieves public offices from tedious and time consuming tendering process and thus cuts down on administrative and transaction costs.
- It will help in online registration of suppliers and government buyers using self certification and authentication through Aadhar, PAN, MCA21 and Biometric Attendance System.
- It will also facilitate seamless process flow and standardised specifications with complete audit trail.
- All transactions in GeM are completely secure.
- It promotes the spirit of cooperative federalism.
Source: The Hindu
