TCS To Partner With Government On 'Government E-Market'
Tata Consultancy Services will partner with the Government of India on transforming the GeM – Government e Marketplace–, in to a well-equipped public procurement platform which would boast of enhanced transparency, efficiency and inclusivity. The partnership deal is for 6 years, further details were not disclosed. Gross merchandise value-based milestones (GMV) would be a major goal for the timeline of the partnership.
GeM is an online market place which delivers common use goods and services in an efficient and transparent manner to central and state government bodies which also include public sector undertakings and organisations. It provides tools for e-bidding, reverse e-auction and demand aggregation for the government users to reap value for their money.
The statement from TCS said that a better user experience would be provided along with more inclusivity and greater democratised access to the e market or the public sector market. TCS is to run the platform for next 5 years after taking the initial 18-21 to implement the changes. A team of 14 TCS leaders is to submit proposal and present the solutions to the GeM management.
The transparency features include the use of data analytics and AI/MI technologies. Data analytics to foretell projections and to improve the management of supply chain and advanced AI/MI technologies to identify any fraud. The interoperability and cloud neutrality designed in the new platform along with technology security features is expected to ease the entry of new sellers, improve and allow greater participation of vendors with diverse base like SMEs/MSMEs in a transparent manner.
The current GeM platform, though successful is said to have architectural challenges and needs to be scaled up. TCS is to build and design a new, better and modern interface while keeping the current platform. A highly scalable, accommodative platform which is based on e-commerce and e-market with multi-vendors, multi-lingual, open source and open API is to be brought in along with a GMV growth of six-fold in next six years. Of now, the e-market has a GMV of more than 2 trillion purchased by buyers above 70,000 from above 6.5 million sellers and service providers, including medium and small enterprises which account to above 800,000.
The CEO of GeM, P K Singh, optimistic and looking forward to the partnership has said that with TCS and GeM, there is “unmatched experience, rigor, and passion to develop a world class solution with resilient design, enriched user experience and innovative services” TCS India, Business Head, Public Services, Tej Paul Bhatla stressed on transforming GeM, the public procurement with enhanced user experience, improved transparency, and greater inclusivity while further saying that the partnership would be an addition to the long list of contributions of TCS’s to Digital India. The TCS’ Public Services India business has expertise in delivering services to both the central and state governments with above 90 customers. Some of the national mission mode programmes that it has powered being passport issuance, health insurance, financial inclusion, investor facilitation, and pensions administration.
The e-market which was came into being on 9 August 2016, is managed by GeM special purpose vehicle which is a wholly owned company under the commerce department. As of now, it is run by Intellect Design Arena, Infibeam and Tata Communications .
