Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: Amazon of government procurement – Government eMarketplace has constructed a stellar seller base of more than 23 lakh MSMEs and other folks, of which more than 7 lakh are micro and little sellers in practically 5 years. The platform has currently seen 5 technologies iterations and is gearing up for the fifth one that would stretch the use case for artificial intelligence (AI), machine understanding (ML), and also blockchain. The company-to-government marketplace has also expanded to lending to allow on-line loans for its sellers and could possibly quickly let operates contract as effectively. The portal is eyeing Rs 1 lakh crore in GMV this year even as “my focus is not on increasing the GMV but on the inclusivity part to make the journey for the smallest seller very seamless,” its Chief Executive Officer Prashant Kumar Singh told TheSpuzz Online’s Sandeep Soni in a wide-ranging interaction. Edited excerpts:
How you would be stepping up the use of deep technologies such as AI, deep understanding, and so forth., as we look forward to the next version of the platform — GeM 5.?
We have taken up AI, deep understanding, machine understanding, and other technologies, some of which are beneath implementation. We are hunting to go in a large way in the places of company intelligence and analytics for which we have engaged with a vendor and working on it. The complete concept is to inculcate features such as predictive evaluation for more informed selection-producing for buyers based on the substantial pile of information that we have with us and also enhancing the user interface and user encounter for these who may possibly not be digital savvy. Hopefully, in the next six months, we’ll see a lot of alter in that which includes the look of the portal, the way we access user grievances. About more than 2,000 bids are finalized just about every day, so think about the quantity of customers coming onto the GeM portal.
Currently, MSE sellers are a small more than one-third of total sellers on GeM and but their share in order worth is 56 per cent. This indicates more purchasers are displaying self-assurance in shopping for from MSEs. So, what tech and non-tech measures you are hunting at to ramp up MSE seller count?
The top quality of MSE goods is rather superior but the most important cause is a big quantity of goods and services MSEs offer you such as pencils, staplers, and so forth., that are otherwise not manufactured by large sellers. Inclusivity is really critical for us in bringing onboard little sellers and empowering them. We are actively working on the integration with the Indian Railways E-procurement System (IREPS). We anticipate that by August or September, we should really be in a position to undertake the initially pilot group. Indian Railways’ procurement should really bring in a GMV of about Rs 50,000 crore per annum. We are also obtaining into enabling goods with Geographical Indication (GI) tags. Moreover, we are also hunting at blockchain for visibility and traceability in the provide chain. The concept to adopt blockchain initially came to us for the duration of the Covid vaccine provide. Blockchain would establish the genuineness of the item (medicine) with a distributed platform that is immutable. For this, a separate vendor will be integrating blockchain in GeM, and also there will be separate storage, a separate cloud involved.
Given the size of GeM, what greatest practices do you have in location to steer clear of counterfeits?
The platform is open and visible to all. We routinely get feedback from each purchasers and sellers and professionals hunting at the platform. If you look globally in public procurement, we would be appropriate now at quantity 3 position behind South Korea’s KONEPS and Singapore’s GeBIZ. While GeM does $5 billion GMV a year, KONEPS does $63 billion and GeBIZ does $18 billion. However, in terms of seller base, GeM has nearly seven to eight occasions what KONEPS has, and possibly 50 occasions what GeBIZ has. This in itself is our hallmark in the sense that we are in a position to handle such a big quantity of sellers but there will be couple of black sheep in the complete group. Technology is the greatest answer to tackle them and bit by bit we are producing that window really narrow. It’s becoming more hard for men and women to get away with carrying out one thing incorrect.
Former MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari had mentioned on several occasions that the government is exploring opening GeM to private purchasers as effectively. Any progress on that front?
The mandate we have is strictly for the government purchasers presently. As any platform grows, there are discussions about expanding it additional in the nation and then globally to attain out to more buyers. This believed at GeM is going on but there’s practically nothing concrete at the moment. GeM can discover related development like KONEPS that has expanded to six nations. We are currently in talks with a lot of players who have contacted us for handholding. The day is not far when we will be invited to set up their procurement systems.
For loan applications via the GeM Sahay app, sellers have to have an Udyam certificate if they are availing finance from a lender who is not their principal banker or via an NBFC. How you are hunting to attain out to more sellers which includes these who are not registered on the Udyam portal but?
Even inside that category of Udyam certificate holders, it has to be a sole proprietorship. We have began with sole proprietorships and the quantity is quite higher. I do not have information as of now on that. We nevertheless have to onboard a lot of banks. Once we cross the barrier of at least 10-15 banks or NBFCs, we can leverage it to enhance the quantity of applicants. There’s no collateral involved in applying for a loan on the app. It is based on a firm’s orders on GeM. The term and the quantum of the loan can be decided by the sellers based on the bank’s offerings. There are no one-to-one meetings. For instance, there could be a loan at 4 per cent for 40 days or 3 per cent for 70 days. The purchaser can pick out based on his fund flow, and the interest price he prefers.
Subscribe to TheSpuzz SME newsletter now: Your weekly dose of news, views, and updates from the world of micro, little, and medium enterprises
Recently, the government had warned sellers of business losses for these who do not declare the percentage of nearby content in goods on GeM. What type of business loss sellers could possibly incur?
It is a self-declaration factor to share the nearby content but there are penalties if the facts uploaded is not appropriate. They may possibly be blacklisted straight away as a penalty. At just about every stage of the uploading course of action, we are displaying them clearly what issues are expected to participate in and what are the implications for delivering incorrect facts. At just about every stage, sellers are prompted about it and even suitably warned but nevertheless, there are some sellers who attempt to bid falsely about the nation of origin or the share of nearby goods in made in India goods.
Over 53,000 purchasers have been onboarded on GeM in the previous 5 years, roughly 10,000 purchasers annually. How you are hunting to accelerate the quantity?
We are, in reality, type of close to saturation now. The development now will not be as higher as in the initial days. By and big, the majority of government purchasers are now currently on the platform. This contains all the CPSEs and their offices and so forth. So, the development price will not be at the exact same level as earlier. However, wherever it is doable, the addition is becoming accomplished.
What GMV you are expecting for GeM this year?
In 4-and-a-half years, we clocked about Rs 1 lakh crore. Now, we are internally targeting to comprehensive Rs 1 lakh crore this year itself. GeM’s GMV should really also be close to lakh crore rupees topic to the circumstances like railway integration. For the initially time, it occurred in the history of GeM that we did more company in Q1 than in Q4 as the highest procurement normally takes place about March. However, we did about Rs 19,000 crore GMV in Q1 this year compared to about Rs 18,500 crore in Q4 last year. This implied that development would be about close to Rs 80,000 crore on annual basis and if there is a all-natural enhance towards the later quarter this year, then we would be really close to Rs 1 lakh crore GMV mark.
GeM had last year come out with an approach paper towards bringing operates contract on its platform to widen the platform’s scope. Will it take place this year?
The current mandate is only for goods and services. There has been mixed feedback. Some men and women are saying it may possibly not be expected, even though some are saying it is a superior concept. We are working on it and will decide by mid-August and then would leave it to the government. They will do the consultation, and based on the outcome, issues will move ahead. We have to look at what worth add it brings to our portal. There are benefits such as contract becomes much easier and there is transparency as effectively. Based on the feedback, the modalities will have to be worked out.
What do you consider of the amendments that the government has recommended to the Consumer Protection (E-commerce) Rules, 2020 such as about flash sales?
Sorry, I do not have comments on this. At GeM, my focus is not on escalating the GMV but on the inclusivity component to make the journey for the smallest seller really seamless with minimal complaints, no delays, more rapidly response to queries, zero security breaches, and so forth.