New advanced version of GeM by August

In a bid to provide better experience in government procurement, the Centre is soon likely to come up with a new revamped version of Government e-Marketplace (GeM).

Launched in August 2016, under the aegis of ministry of commerce and industry, GeM is an online platform for public procurement, created with an aim to have a transparent and inclusive procurement platform for the government.

GeM 4.0 will be more smart, unified, intelligent and more inclusive. A technology road map has been created that enhances each and every step of the user experience on the portal.

The new advanced version, according to sources in the know told CNBC-TV18 that "it will be more dynamic, transformational and vibrant by adding advanced features such as powerful search engine, revamped brand and product approval process and faster creation of categories for goods and services through tender analysis."

Unified Public Procurement System for the country would mean bringing the functionalities of a number of government e-Procurement portals (publishing portals) on GeM to reduce duplicity and enable a unified and streamlined approach to procurement. GeM will prompt buyers to publish a bid on GeM itself if the products or services that a buyer is looking for is not available on the platform.

This will provide a single user flow for government buyers, consolidating all government procurement onto a single platform leading to economies of scale, better price discovery and sharing of best practices.

The use of cutting edge technology on the portal will enable GeM to analyse patterns of behaviour of buyers and sellers to improve buyers and sellers journeys on the platform, facilitate effective and efficient search, introduce hyper ledger for traceability and distributed trust and smart contracts and carry out marketplace enhancements for fast, easy and transparent procurement with cost savings.

The new advanced version of GeM will be based on largest use of advanced technology in any government platform around the world. The Voice of the Customer initiative in GeM will have a virtual assistant to provide on the spot assistance and hand holding to buyers and sellers. A revamped help desk integrated with the systems in GeM will provide for prompt and effective redressal of grievances of buyers and sellers.

The transformational portal will have a host of advanced features and functionalities ranging from demand aggregation to price variation clauses besides a number of enhancements for the marketplace, improvements in the catalog management system and a revamped bidding and rating system of sellers where ratings of sellers can be used as a filter by buyers.

Buyers will be able to create their own specifications in categories, add special terms and conditions at the category level and upload drawings as part of specifications for a category or across multiple categories at the time of creating bids.

Both the processes for L1 (level 1) procurement up to Rs 5 lakh and bids for procurement above Rs 5 lakh will be significantly revamped to provide for more transparency, prevent unfair and unjust rejections during technical evaluation of bids and provide value for money to buyers.

GeM aims to uplift the marginalised and underprivileged sections of society and be part of their growth story with a special focus on MSMEs, self help groups, artisans, weavers, craftsmen and TRIFED products.

Further, to give the necessary push to MSMEs of the country, GeM will also encourage more and more MSME procurement/ sales through special filters on the portal for direct sales to Government organisations, throught the revamped version, sources added.

There will be a special focus on the implementation of the PPP-MII and PPP-MSE policies for promoting local manufacturing and value addition through the portal.