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The government has appointed Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) as a strategic partner to revamp the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), the IT firm said. The objective is to transform GeM into a state-of-the-art public procurement platform and enhance transparency, efficiency, and inclusivity.
At present, GeM boasts a gross merchandise value (GMV) of over Rs 2 trillion, facilitating transactions between more than 70,000 buyer organisations and an excess of 6.5 million sellers and service providers. These include 800,000 medium and small enterprises.
GeM serves as an end-to-end online marketplace for central and state government bodies, including public sector undertakings. It streamlines the procurement of common use goods and services.
While the current platform has seen success, there are architectural challenges that need to be addressed. The partnership with TCS aims to overcome these challenges and meet the evolving requirements of both buyers and sellers.
On partnering with TCS, P K Singh, CEO of GeM, said, “In its next avatar, GeM is envisioned to be an all-inclusive platform for government procurement, offering improved ease of doing business and transparency.” He added that the government was looking forward to TCS’ expertise of managing mission mode programmes.
TCS will undertake the design and development of a modern solution that leverages new technologies while maintaining the current platform. The new GeM platform will embrace e-commerce and e-marketplace principles, featuring a multi-tenant, multi-rule, multilingual, open-source, and open-API-based architecture. The aim is to make the platform scalable and designed to accommodate the anticipated six-fold growth in GMV over the next six years, the company said.
Designed for interoperability and cloud neutrality, the platform will be agnostic to specific technologies and vendors. Advanced data analytics will be employed to empower projection forecasting and refined supply chain management. Cutting-edge artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) technologies will be deployed to identify potential fraud, thus ensuring enhanced transparency.
Tej Paul Bhatla, business head of Public Services-India at TCS, added, “The new GeM platform will transform public procurement with enhanced user experience, improved transparency, and greater inclusivity.”
TCS’ Public Services India business unit provides services to central and state governments. Over the last two decades, it has powered several national mission-mode programmes. These include passport issuance, health insurance, financial inclusion, investor facilitation, and pensions administration.
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