• What is GEM Portal ?

The Government e-Marketplace (GeM) is a government e-commerce portal. It acts as a one stop shop to facilitate and enable easy online procurement of the consumer goods & services that are needed by various government sectors. The main objective of the GeM is to ensure transparency, effectiveness and promptness in the procurement of supplies.

GeM is a portal where the buyers and sellers can register their products either through direct purchase or auction. The department contacts the registered person and gives them the bulk order. Through this process the government has extended their hand towards the vendors who want to do business with the government to meet up the different needs of the government at the lowest price.

Through this portal the buyer can search, compare and then select the one. He can use filters by adding the specifications, quantities and other details of the required product. The sellers can list their products according to the requirements of the government. The prices can be changed according to the changing needs and conditions of the market. Sellers can keep a check on the supplies, payments as well as availability of the products. The sellers can also do bidding regarding the products through this portal.

GeM removes human interference in seller registration process, payment process and posting of order. Being an open platform, GeM offers no entry barriers to bonafide suppliers who wish to do business with them. At each phase, sms and e-mail notifications are directed to both buyers, his association’s head, paying authorities along with sellers.

GeM is a completely secure platform and all the documents on GeM are e-signed at various stages by the buyers and sellers. The details of the suppliers are verified online that helps to strengthen due diligence about the reliability of suppliers who want to do business on GeM.

• Benefits of GEM Registration

The benefits of obtaining Registration at the GEM Portal are as follows:

• Benefits For Buyers

          List of products for individual categories of goods or services with offers.

1. Availability of various facilities, such as search, compare, select and buy.
2. Enables buying online as per one’s own requirement, i.e., as and when required.
3. Transparency and ease in buying
4. It ensures a continuous vendor rating system
5. Up-to-date, user-friendly dashboard for monitoring supplies, buying and making payments.
6. Provisions of an easy return policy.

• Benefits For Sellers

1. Direct access to all departments of Government.
2. One-stop-shop for marketing with minimal efforts.
3. One-stop-shop for bids or a reverse auction on products or services 
4. New product suggestions facility available for sellers 
5. Dynamic pricing, i.e., price changes based on market conditions 
6. Seller-friendly dashboard for monitoring supplies, selling and payments.
7. Uniform and consistent purchase procedures.

In 2016, Government e Marketplace (GeM) was launched to redefine public procurement in India. Earlier, public procurement was riddled with issues like transparency, non-standardization of processes and it was time consuming. Hence the Government of India planned to build a transparent and efficient digital platform which connected sellers from all across the country to government buyers.
With the coming in of GeM, Central Ministries, State Governments, PSUs and agencies can access millions of sellers in India. At present, there are over 38 Lakh sellers and service providers registered on GeM. A technology enabled platform like GeM requires no registration or bidding cost, letting buyers register in minutes and then go on exploring the products and services available on the portal. Here are some of the reasons why you should buy / sell on GeM:

• Contactless and Paperless :  GEM is a Digital and online platform that is efficient in terms of business that takes place in just a couple of minutes.It has free registration facility wherein every government buyer / seller can access the portal easily. Additionally, there is no paperwork which also saves time. Plus online payments also saves time and makes the entire business procedure easy.
• Large Number of Sellers and Products : There are over 40 lakh sellers on the platform now. In April 2022, they achieved a milestone by crossing total product value worth ₹1 Trillion in a single year. GeM is an ideal platform for small businesses to secure their sales. There is no cost of registrations and product listing for sellers. It also helps enhance transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement.This helps in realizing our objective of becoming ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’.
• Vast Choices, Easy Selection : With a large variety of products and services available, it is easy to choose as per your requirement. The catalogs available on GeM for all buyers are golden parameter based which help in search, selection and cost optimization. Since there is a vast and rich listing of products and services, you can search and compare on multiple filters like financial, administrative and tech parameters.
• Buyer Seller Incentivization Scheme : GeM has initiated a program aimed to boost the enthusiasm of buyers registered with the portal. It recognizes the largest orders procured by you with recognition on the platform as well as social media through digital certificates.
• Technology Driven Portal : The state of the art portal is designed with the latest in technology and in a completely scalable way on cloud. It is further augmented by technologies like AI, machine learning etc. for advanced use cases. The portal is available 24*7 for transactions by buyers and sellers.
• Value for Money Products on GeM : The average prices of the goods are lowered by 15% which further goes to over 56%. The aggregation of all the goods and services required by the government results in an annual savings of up to Rs. 40,000 crores. 
• e-bidding and Delivery Duration : e-bidding on GeM portal aims to enhance efficiency, transparency, and speed in public procurement along with inclusion. It provides the tools of reverse e-auction, e-bidding, and demand aggregation to help the government users/buyers get the best value for their money.As a matter of fact, during the Corona crisis, GeM further reduced the bid and delivery duration period for Covid products like oxygen kits, cylinders, concentrators etc.
• Online Ordering and Transparency : Government e-marketplace has eliminated human interface for GeM Portal Registration, order placement, and payment processing. GeM lets you procure as per your discerned decision and requirement and without any other party involved.
  There is 100% transparency also due to the digital verification that happens at all times to buyers and sellers, and the Heads of Departments – who authorize the purchase. So, this eliminates barriers for the vendors who wish to do business with the government of the country. 
• Integrated Payment System : GeM is proactively implementing several functionalities to ensure that payment cycles are kept as short as possible so that Micro & Small businesses are incentivized to participate in public procurement in large numbers. As part of the payment system, GeM has integrated with Banks (Gem Pool Accounts – GPA) facilitating you as a buyer to process the payment online. Also, GeM has integrated with CPSUs and PSUs, helping them to keep their ERP’s updated with respect to their procurement details done on GeM. All this happens without any human intervention which helps buyers / sellers in a big way. 
• Secure and User Friendly Dashboard :  Through this GeM portal buyers can easily buy, compare and then select the one.The sellers can list their products according to the requirements of the government. The prices can be changed according to the changing needs and conditions of the market. Sellers can keep a check on the supplies, payments as well as availability of the products. The online platform is absolutely secure and it runs multiple checks. The government verifies, authorizes, and signs documents of the suppliers.

Disclaimer : The above information is shared using information available on the website mygov.in. gem-portal.org have shared this information for information purposes only.

• Which Government Platform has Started for E-commerce in India ?

(ONDC) Stands for Open Network for Digital Commerce has Started E-commerce in India.

• What is Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC)?

It is an initiative aimed at promoting open networks for all aspects of exchange of goods and services over digital or electronic networks. ONDC is to be based on open-sourced methodology, using open specifications and open network protocols independent of any specific platform. It is being developed as a counter to the current duopoly in the Indian e-commerce market which is largely dictated by Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart.

The platform aims to create new opportunities, curb digital monopolies and by supporting micro, small and medium enterprises and small traders and help them get on online platforms. It is an initiative of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

In May this year, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) went live with a test run of ONDC in cities like Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Bhopal, and Shillong where it plans to onboard 150 sellers.

• How does ONDC work?

The ONDC platform lies in the middle of the interfaces hosting the buyers and the sellers. So far, the buyer side interface is being hosted by Paytm, whereas the seller side interface is being hosted by other players like GoFrugal, etc.

When a buyer searches for an item on the Paytm app, from where ONDC has gone live, the app will connect to the ONDC platform, which will connect it to seller side interfaces that will list all the companies from where you can buy the particular item.

On ONDC, there will be several other backend partners such as logistics service providers, enterprise resource planners, ecommerce store hosting service providers, etc.

• Features of ONDC

ONDC, a UPI of e-commerce, seeks to democratize digital or electronic commerce, moving it from a platform-centric model to an open-network. Through ONDC, merchants will be able to save their data to build credit history and reach consumers.

 In this system, ONDC plans to enable sellers and buyers to be digitally visible and transact through an open network, regardless of what platform or application they use. It will also empower merchants and consumers by breaking silos to form a single network to drive innovation and scale, transforming all businesses from retail goods, food to mobility.

The new framework aims at promoting open networks developed on open-sourced methodology, using open specifications and open network protocols independent of any specific platform. 

According to the government’s official statement, ONDC shall take all measures to ensure confidentiality and privacy of data in the network. ONDC shall not mandate sharing of any transaction-level data by participants with ONDC. Will work with its participants to publish anonymized aggregate metrics on network performance without compromising on confidentiality and privacy.

• What are the challenges ONDC aims to address?

An ONDC strategy paper published earlier this year has flagged the rising dominance of global players in India’s e-commerce ecosystem, pointing out that the large quantum of investment required to build competitors to the integrated solutions offered by the big players has become an entry barrier for digital marketplaces.

It also flagged the inability of marketplace sellers to move out of the platform ecosystem, given that the value created by these small players is stored with the larger platforms. With this in mind, ONDC aims to transform the marketplace ecosystem from an operator-driven platform-centric model to a facilitator-driven interoperable decentralized network.

• Disclaimer : The above information is shared using information available on the website indianexpress.com, www.business-standard.com. gem-portal.org have shared this information for information purposes only.