Sellers to mention Country of Origin for 'Make in India' Public procurement Policy: GeM CEO

On Tuesday, Government E-Marketplace (GeM) CEO Talleen Kumar said that sellers will now mention the country of origin, as a part of implementing public procurement policy for 'Make in India' initiative.

Talleen Kumar told the news agency that "It is a part of the implementation of public procurement policy & preference for 'Make in India on Government E-Marketplace (GeM). Every country has supported local manufacturing & investment through government procurement, so India is no different".

Kumar added, "That is why we have implemented this on the portal or how else do you take the local content? You would have to first find out whether the origin of the product is in India or outside the country. If it is from India, we ask what is the local content."

Asked what if a product on GeM has not been made in India, GeM CEO replied that the products wouldn't be removed from the portal but the information of the product would be kept & made available to the buyer.

He said that "A buyer can apply the 'Make in India' filter in the marketplace & he can choose to buy products that have a certain specified local content. If you do not reveal the country of origin, we could remove you from the portal".

GeM has made it mandatory for sellers to enter the country of origin while registering all new products on GeM, with an aim to promote 'Make in India' & 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'.

Moreover, sellers who had already uploaded their products before are being reminded to update the country of origin, failing which their products will be removed from the GeM.

The Government E-Marketplace has also enabled a provision for indicating the percentage of local content in the listed products & has also enabled the 'Make in India' feature on its portal.

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