E-Commerce Portal to Speed Up Government Procurement of Goods

With e-commerce industry growing fast in the country, government is developing a portal to streamline procurement of goods and services which will enable ministries to order their requirements online.

The procurement of goods is currently carried out by the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D), which is under the Commerce Ministry.

The e-commerce portal will help ministries and departments to order their requirements from this portal and also cut the time consuming paper process.

"DGS&D is developing a government e-marketplace. In the first phase, two items are being included. These are computers and vehicle management (taxi) service which are used by various government ministries/departments/organisations," according to the information put on the DGS&D website. The portal is being developed by the DGS&D.

The initiative is an example of 'Minimum Government and Maximum Governance', ease of doing business and bringing in more transparency in the procurement process.

The move would also help in saving money as prices may with more vendors vying with each other for online orders.

The commerce ministry has chosen DGS&D for this initiative and "it will be a tough task work for DGS&D which so far is engaged in rate contracts," sources said.

E-commerce is fast growing industry in the country. According to a study, which was released by Ficci last year, e-commerce market is likely to grow 10-fold in next five years to reach $100 billion on the back of increasing penetration of Internet, smartphones and spread of digital network in rural areas.