‘SWAYATT’ on GeM & GeM Start-up Runway Launched

Last Updated on April 8, 2019 by Bharat Saini

‘SWAYATT’ on GeM: Startups, Women and Youth Advantage Through e-Transactions on Government e-marketplace, an initiative that will bring together key stakeholders within Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem to Government e-Marketplace, was launched by Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, on Tuesday 19 February 2019.

GeM Start-up Runway, an initiative of GeM in association with Start-up India to facilitate Start-ups registered with Start-up India to access public procurement market and sell innovative products and services to government buyers was also dedicated on the occasion by the Minister.

Government e Marketplace, national online market place for procurement of common use goods and services by government ministries, departments and CPSEs was setup in 2016 and has 801956 products and 5197 services, with 199654 registered sellers, service providers and 33536 government buyers.  Since inception, GeM has processed 1386030 orders worth Rs. 19214 crore in gross merchandise value.

SWAYATT will:

• Promote inclusiveness by catapulting various categories of sellers and service providers,
• Take proactive steps to facilitate the training and registrations of such specific category of manufacturers and sellers,
• Develop women entrepreneurship and encourage participation of MSME sector and Start-ups in public procurement.

GeM Start-up Runway will:

• Align certified Start-ups with Government procurement orders and contracts,
• Enable Start-ups in scaling operations from ideation to growth stage in minimal time,
• Spur hyper-local job-creation and wealth-generation and for achieving socially-inclusive economic growth.
• Enable Start-ups to conduct market trials with government buyers,
• Seek time-bound feedback and gain realistic product, price comparison and market valuation from potential buyers and investors.
• Support technology development, spur research and innovation by ensuring a policy environment conducive to industrial diversification and value addition to commodities,
• Aligns with Government’s philosophy to turn Job-seekers into job-creators.
• Address goals and objectives under United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

Government has relaxed norms in Public Procurement for Start-ups by exempting them from prior experience, prior turnover and Earnest Money Deposit stipulations, subject to meeting of quality and technical specifications, product comparison and price discovery are two major constraints for Government buyers in procuring innovative products from Start-ups.

Certified Start-ups will register on GeM portal as a seller with their DPIIT number, provide basic description about the performance of their products/services along with the Test Certificates of quality, their functional utility and specify potential user Ministry/ departments where these products can be used.