Ease of Doing Business for MSMEs: The initiative to increase seller registration and onboarding of weavers and artisans launched by Government e-Marketplace (GeM) on its platform in July last year has recorded 28,374 new artisans and 1,49,422 weavers joining the platform till August 30, 2021. According to the government, the initiative was launched with the assistance of officials from the Office of Development Commissioner Handloom and Development Commissioner Handicrafts to enable weavers and artisans sell straight to government departments and public sector units. “Officers from 56 Handicraft Service Centres and 28 Weaver Service Centres were trained and engaged in the seller registration process.” Textiles ministry stated in a statement.
28 exclusive solution categories had been developed for handloom goods along with 170 custom solution categories for handicraft goods, devoted internet banners, and marketplace pages for Indian handloom and Indian handicrafts made by artisans, weavers, cooperative societies, self-enable groups, and producer businesses. The ministry stated the initiative was focused on supplying direct marketplace access possibilities to about 35.22 lakh handloom workers and 27 lakh handicraft artisans whilst carrying out away with the intermediaries.
In June last year, former textiles minister Smriti Irani had stated that the government is seeking to connect 50 lakh weavers and artisans with the GeM portal for direct access to government departments. In an on the web interaction organized by business body FICCI, Irani had stated that the government is jointly working with the National Informatics Centre “to ensure that we have a platform which can help commercialize the potential of our artisans and weavers.”
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However, GeM, which has more than 27.51 lakh sellers on its platform and has processed almost 76 lakh orders so far with transaction worth worth Rs 1.38 lakh crore as per the present information from the portal, accounts for only 5 per cent of the total government procurement. Addressing the CII’s National Public Procurement Conclave in August this year, Commerce Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam had stated that GeM tends to make up for only 5 per cent of the government purchases worth about Rs 20 lakh crore even as it has helped save 10 per cent in expense – about Rs 10,000 crore in cumulative procurement of Rs 1 lakh crore in 5 years.
“If this (GeM) was a startup, probably it would be a unicorn listed for billion dollars plus in the market. The potential is huge as even if you look at the very modest government procurement figures, GeM only accounts for five per cent of what is procured in government,” Subrahmanyam had stated.