Q. What is GeM?
A. GeM is a one-stop National Public Procurement Portal to facilitate online procurement of common use Goods & Services required by various Central and State Government Departments/Organisations/Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
Q. When was this launched?
A. It was launched in 2016 to bring transparency and efficiency in the government buying process.
Q. Which is the concerned ministry?
Q. What are its various provisions?
A. The procurement of goods and services by Ministries and the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) is mandatory for goods and services available on GeM.
It also provides the tools of e-bidding and reverse e-auction to facilitate the government users achieve the best value for their money.
At present, GeM has more than 15 lakh products, around 20,000 services, and more than 40,000 Government buyer organizations.
Q. Why has this been in news recently?
A. Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has made it mandatory for sellers to enter the Country of Origin while registering all new products on GeM.
Q. What is the significance of this step?
A. It will promote Make-in-India and also in line with government’s call for self-reliance i.e. Aatma-Nirbhar Bharat.
Q. What is important provisions of this “Country of Origin” tag?
A. Indication of the Local Content: GeM has enabled a provision for indication of the percentage of local content in products.
Now, the Country of Origin as well as the local content percentage are visible in the marketplace for all items.
Make in India Filter: This new filter has been enabled on the portal so that the buyers can choose to buy only those products that meet the minimum 50% local content criteria.
They can also switch on a new Make in India filter to see products that match their preferences on local content.