GOVERNMENT E-MARKETPLACE (Syllabus: GS Paper 2 – Government Scheme)

Context: Recently, the Ministry of Defence has risen to prominence, surpassing 56 other Ministries/Departments participating in the Government eMarketplace (GeM), achieving the highest rankings in both order value and order quantity.

Government eMarketplace (GeM)

• About: It is an online public procurement platform in India.
• Launched: In August 2016
• Nodal Ministry: Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India
• Objective: To create an open and transparent procurement platform for government buyers to facilitate the online procurement of goods and services.
• Other details: Private individuals are not allowed to make purchases on the platform, but they are permitted to offer their products to government entities through the portal.

o It is a completely paperless, cashless and system driven e-marketplace that enables procurement of common use goods and services with minimal human interface