E-tailing launch on GeM portal soon

E-RETAILERS LIKE AMAZON and Flipkart may soon have a new competitor in the government e-Marketplace (GeM). The public procurement portal has doubled the business it facilitated in a year by processing orders worth over Rs 4 trillion in 2023-24, and is now preparing to make itself available to the general pubic for purchase of various goods and services.

- MUKESH JAGOTA

“That (consumer orders on GeM) is a very different ecosystem. We are preparing for that.. We will do a small pilot in this area in the coming year if all the approvals are in place,” GeM chief executive officer P K Singh said. The idea is develop GeM as “unified procurement portal” for the country.

In the current fiscal year till March 28 this year, the platform has facilitated Rs 4 trillion worth of procurement by government departments, state-run companies, states and even panchayats which is almost double the level in 2022-23.