We are extremely conscious of empowering MSMEs, handholding them and helping in getting business as well: GeM CEO
Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Government eMarketplace (GeM) as a platform is extremely conscious about empowering MSMEs, getting them on board on the portal, and making life easier for them, said its Chief Executive Officer Prashant Kumar Singh. “We will not just handhold MSMEs having innovative products or services but also help them in getting business,” Singh said at an event organised by Financial Express Online recently. Launched in August 2016, the Modi government’s public procurement portal has added over 61,000 government organisations and departments as buyers while nearly 47 lakh MSMEs are registered on the portal as sellers. Out of the total sellers, nearly 8 lakh are micro and small sellers with a share of over 55 per cent in the order value currently.
“We have consistently maintained MSE share of almost 55 to 60 per cent in the past four or five years,” said Singh. However, not all 47 lakh sellers on the GeM portal are active. “I don’t claim that all of these people are transacting but it was possibly because of Covid that we couldn’t reach out to them properly,” said Singh.
In an interaction with Financial Express Online, Singh in March this year had informed that since GeM is integrated with the Udyam registration portal, a lot of sellers get directly registered on the portal. As a result, GeM is looking to delist sellers that are not active on the platform, Singh had said. “This would clear the clutter and make active sellers more visible on the platform with more opportunities to sell to the government.” The current count of active seller base wasn’t disclosed.
Singh in his address at the MSME Business Conclave on June 28, 2022, said that in order to handhold sellers, GeM has tied up with Common Services Centers across the country. “We are doing the hand training (first) and then master trainers go to the block level and to village level entrepreneurs to train them on the process of onboarding and the benefits of selling on GeM,” he added.
GeM is now looking to double its turnover in the current fiscal year to Rs 2 lakh crore from Rs 106,647 crore in FY22. “This growth of Rs 1.06 lakh crore is 17 times more than the first year when GeM came into being and almost 55 per cent of the cumulative (turnover) in the previous financial (year). This shows excellent growth from MSMEs, PSUs, and states,” Singh said.