PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised an interactive webinar on ‘New Market Opportunities for MSME in Government e-Marketplace as a Seller during COVID – 19′ with an august gathering of delegates. The objective of the webinar was to bring the onboard maximum number of MSME sellers and understand GeM registration and the role of trade receivables and others.
Shri. Talleen Kumar, IAS, CEO, Government E-Market Place, while deliberating about the digital modals and technologies which are molding the working of business mentioned that GeM is more that procurement as it has engineer one of the largest transformational exercises in the country digitally which largest number of procurement done on its platform. The GeM is rapidly growing in digitalization which has helped in providing visibility to procurement.
He talked about the 3 pillars of GeM which are Inclusivity, Usability and Transparency, and Efficiency and Cost saving. It has brought the government closer to the people. The GeM is powerful in implementation in a transparent manner. To prevent any malpractices at the same time developing GeM, we are incorporating advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. We will use national language processing which will improve the customer’s search and other innovative modules which will help in ease of procurement and upscale transparency and usability.
While giving a detailed deliberation of the unified procurement system, he said that GeM has created an availability report and past transaction summary which will help the buyer to get a uniformed experience and functionality of other procurement portals is also brought on GeM.
Shri. Talleen Kumar highlighted that we are rapidly moving toward GeM 4.0 which will be much smarter and powerful. Some of the features include item wise bidding; price variation process; enable staggered delivery and demand aggregation and many more. This will allow big buyers to also procure from GeM.
Mr. Suraj Sharma, Senior Trainer, GeM gave a detailed presentation on new features being introduced by GeM and in GeM 4.0. He gave a brief outlook about GeM which is a one-stop online procurement portal for all Government Buyers including ministries, departments, bodies, and PSUs. It aims to enhance efficiency, transparency, inclusiveness in public procurement, and provides tools of e-bidding, reverse auction, and direct procurement to facilitate government users to have the best value for their money. He shared the advantages of using GeM which includes Efficiency, Transparency, and Economy.
He deliberated about the advantages of GeM for sellers which included direct access to all government departments; a one-stop-shop for bids/reverse auction on products/services; dynamic pricing; strong vendor rating system; new product suggestion facility; seller-friendly dashboard; news and event section and new product addition. He discussed the multiple procurement options which included direct purchase, L1, Bid/Ra, Intent of buying-PAC, and Intent of buying-Bid. He further deliberated about the various public procurement policies for MSMEs, its evolution, and its benefits.
Mr. Manoj Lal, General Manager, (SG), NSIC Ltd while talking about NSIC mentioned that various schemes that benefit the MSMEs and industry. He discussed the benefits of the Consocia Tender Market Scheme.
Mr. Ketan Gaikwad, Managing Director & CEO, RXIL, Receivables Exchange of India Limited (RXIL) deliberated about the working mechanism and process of RXIL, its benefits for buyers, sellers, and financier. He gave a brief overview of the formation of various government reforms for the MSMEs. He suggested the PSU should also come under the treats so that MSME payment is not stuck.
Mr. Sanjay Aggarwal, Senior Vice President, PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry in his welcome address mentioned that Government e-marketplace (GeM) has successfully established a vibrant E-Marketplace and believes that MSME with a digital presence will grow faster. While appreciating the initiatives by GeM, he said that this is an extraordinary platform for the MSME Sector. He also lauded and shared the success story of GeM over time.
Mr. Aggarwal mentioned that with the coming of the unprecedented crisis of COVID-19 pandemic, it has left the enterprisers to think about business continuity. At this juncture, digital platforms are playing a pivotal role, and GeM uses technology to reduce barriers for bona fide sellers leading to creating a vibrant e-marketplace with a wide range of goods and services.
Talking about the benefits of the digital presence of MSMEs, he said that through digital presence MSMEs will grow faster. E-Commerce will increase in the future giving a new turn in the market with new methods of working and customer handling. He also gave suggestions that will give a boost to the MSME in the future.
Mr. D.P Goel, Co-Chairman, MSME Committee, PHD Chamber while giving an industry perspective shared that GeM is an extremely good platform to deal with the Government which benefited the MSMEs and Government. He shared the problems faced by the industry and gave suggestions on ways to popularize the portal of GeM which will help to industry smoothen growth and development.
The session was followed by a question and answer session by Mr. Deepesh Gehlot, ISS, Director Government e-marketplace (GeM) and Mr. Rajesh Jain, Deputy CEO, Government e-marketplace (GeM).
Dr. Ranjeet Mehta, Principal Director, PHD Chamber while moderating the session, mentioned the challenges faced by MSME in today’s time which are market access, technology, and finance. While appraising the initiatives undertaken by GeM, he also delivered a vote of thanks to all the delegates and participants.
The session witnessed a participation of more than 75 industry stalwarts’ pan-India.