London-based Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply (CIPS) has adjudged India’s state-run e-commerce portal—Government e Marketplace (GeM)—as the winner of the CIPS Excellence in Procurement Awards 2021 in the ‘Best Use of Digital Technology’ outshining contenders like Jaguar Land Rover, Royal Dutch Shell and Vendigital, an official statement said.
The GeM portal—a public procurement platform—has served about 7.61 million orders worth ₹1,39,884 crore from over 2.7 million registered sellers and service providers for more than 54,600 government buyers since its inception in August 2017. More than 56.9% of the total order value catered to over 723,000 small enterprises.
“GeM emerged the winner in this category after competing with some of the biggest and best names in procurement across the public and private sector globally, including GEP, Jaguar Land Rover, Royal Dutch Shell and Vendigital,” the commerce and industry ministry said. GeM, a wholly-owned company of the government, is administered by the Department of Commerce for procurement of goods and services by central and state government organisations.
GeM was also shortlisted as a finalist in two additional categories—Public Procurement Project of the Year’ and ‘Best Initiative to Build a Diverse Supply Base’. The award was received on behalf of GeM by Rohit Vadhwana, first secretary, High Commission of India, in the UK at a ceremony held in London on Wednesday.
The CIPS Awards are one of the leading recognitions around procurement globally. CIPS is a global not-for-profit organisation and professional body dedicated to promoting good practices in procurement and supply management, with a community across 150 countries.
“In less than five years since, GeM has completely disrupted this ecosystem through its unified digital marketplace and vast and diverse ecosystem of buyer organizations and sellers… This is a testament to the power of a forward-looking technology-driven approach- leveraging cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence including machine learning, natural language processing, blockchain etc—in reinforcing users’ growing faith on the platform,” CIPS Award citation said.
GeM has brought its technology-driven innovations and strategic business processes in pursuit of three fundamental goals: driving transparency, efficiency and inclusiveness in public procurement, a government official said who did not wish to be named. The current CEO of the portal is Prashant Kumar Singh, a 1993-batch IAS officer with IIT Delhi background.
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