GeM, Rail e-procurement system to be integrated by year end

India's national procurement portal, Government e-Marketplace (GeM) and Railways' e-procurement system are to be integrated by the end of 2021 to simplify and unify the buying and selling process for ministries and government agencies. The GeM integration is expected to push procurement to Rs 1 lakh crore in this financial year (FY), with Rs 1.11 lakh crore purchases made on the portal since its inception in August 2016. CEO of GeM, Prashant Kumar Singh, said that higher procurement is expected from the rail integration by October or November. They are looking at August to roll out a pilot, after which they can go live. The gross merchandise value (GMV) of GeM in 2020-21 was nearly Rs 39,000 crore. Without the integration system, the Indian Railways E-procurement System (IREPS) can produce a GMV of about Rs 80 lakh crore on the portal. The integration process is complex, but GeM is on the right track, Singh said. The GeM was launched on 9 August 2016 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to make and open a transparent procurement platform of the commonly used goods and services for all government sectors, ministries, and public sectors. The GeM helps the centre and state government to get the best value for taxpayers' money by effectively carrying out public procurement using e-bidding, reverse e-auction, and demand aggregation. Earlier, physical bids, bid evaluation and finalization of the winning bid was the procurement method under the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposal. Image Source