The Union Cabinet under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the registration of cooperative organizations as ‘consumers’ in the Government forum at Marketplace (GeM). This will enable partner organizations to locate more than 45 Lakh vendors in one location and pursue a transparent, economical and effective procurement plan. Under the leadership of Union Co-operative Minister Shri Amit Shah, the Co-operative Department encourages Multi State Cooperative Societies and Cooperative Societies under the auspices of the State Cooperative Act to join the GeM forum for the benefit of its members and hopes more unions will find it benefit from this by joining the GeM forum.
Currently, there are approximately 8.54 lakh cooperatives in India with about 29 crore members. They have been engaged in various activities to produce goods and services. These co-operatives buy more goods and services in the open market to support their operations. There has been a need to provide a platform for them to get competitive prices through a transparent and effective process that leads to the benefit of members of co-operatives. Government at Marketplace (GeM) has been established as a National Procurement Portal to provide an end-to-end online marketplace for Departments / Departments of Central and Regional Government, and PSUs etc. to obtain goods and services that are regularly used in a transparent and efficient manner. The Gross Merchandise Value for Procurement using GeM was over Rs.1 lakh crore in FY 2021-22. There are approximately 54 lakh products in the list of 9,702 product categories and 279 service categories. There was an estimated storage of approximately Rs.10,000 crores in FY 2021-22.
GeM purchases will provide the following benefits:
• Co-operatives will receive competitive prices through an open and transparent process, and this can be economically beneficial to community members.
• Co-operatives can find up to 45 lakh authorized retailers / service providers located nationwide in one GeM area,
• Adherence to standard procedures in GeM can lead to time savings and reduced administrative responsibility.
• It can improve the credibility of co-operatives as complaints of financial mismanagement will be reduced.
GeM officials will provide dedicated co-operative riding systems, technical infrastructure and ride support and operations, using available communication centers, in-house training, and other support services.
