A top official on Monday said that the Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technnology (Meity) will scale up the availability of products and services of start-ups on GeM or Government eMarketplace platform.
"The GeM is an online marketplace for departments and PSUs to purchase. We have already started the process to put in products of start-ups in a small way. But it needs to be scaled up. We will do it in the next few months. It is going to be very beneficial for the start-ups", Ajay Prakash Sawhney, IT Secretary, said.
Ministries, PSUs and departments can be prospective buyers of start-ups on the platform.
In the Meity Start-up Summit 2019, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said start-up products would also be available on the GeM. He has asked the IT Secretary to shape up the entire process at the earliest.
Recently the GeM platform data showed 49.15% of the order value has come from MSEs for public procurement.
As per the government policy to weed out corruption in purchases, Public procurement on GeM portal is mandatory for bringing transparency. It provides a solution which leaves both buyer and seller in a win-win situation. It is a bridge connecting supply and demand between government departments and sellers. GeM's aims to bring transparency & inclusivity in the system.
The minister launched BHIM 2.0 which is integrated with new features such as 'Donation' gateway, offers from merchants and option of accessing more languages over and above the existing 13 languages.
Prasad also launched the Meity Startup Hub -- a platform to promote technology startups, at the first Meity Startup Summit in Delhi. Also released was the Indian Software Product Registry -- a step towards developing software product industry in India.
Meity Startup Hub also exchanged MoUs with various organisations such as InnovateUK, NASSCOM, IIT Kanpur Alumni Association and IBM to collaborate for developing startups by creating better and more connected ecosystem of incubation centers, mentors, accelerators and venture capitalists.
Start-up India initiative was launched in 2016. As per government data till June this year, since its inception, 19,351 startups across the country have been recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) as on June 24, 2019.
The government has established Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS) with corpus of Rs 10,000 crore for startups. DPIIT is the monitoring agency and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the operating agency for FFS.
Published On : 21-10-2019
Source : SME Times
