A Press Information Bureau released on June 23 mentioned that the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) has made it mandatory for sellers to enter the country of origin while registering new projects on the GeM portal. Sellers who had already registered their product before the introduction of the feature have to update the ‘country of origin’ item for the product. It has been warned that the products shall be removed if not updated.
This is considered as a step towards promoting Atmanirbhar Bharat and Make-in-India.
A provision to mention the percentage of local content in the products has also been introduced. With this, both the country of origin and the percentage of local contents will be made visible on all products brought.
Also, a ‘Make-in-India’ filter has been introduced. Buyers can now choose to buy only those products that have more than 50% local content.
GeM, a special purpose vehicle under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry is an online portal for procurement of common use goods and services required by central and state government departments, public sector organizations, and other government organizations.