Context: Recently, Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry has made it mandatory for all sellers on the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) to list the Country of Origin while registering new products.
Key Provision

• It is now mandatory for sellers to enter the Country of Origin while registering all new products on GeM.
• Sellers, who had already uploaded their products before the introduction of this new feature on GeM, have to regularly update the Country of Origin.
• There shall be a provision for indication of the percentage of local content in products.
• ‘Make in India’ filter has now been enabled on the portal. Buyers can choose to buy only those products that meet the minimum 50% local content criteria.
• In case of bids, buyers can now reserve any bid for Class I Local suppliers (Local Content > 50%). For those bids below INR 200 crore, only Class I and Class II Local Suppliers (Local content > 50% and > 20% respectively) are eligible to bid, with Class I suppliers getting purchase preference.

About Government e-Marketplace (GeM)

• It is a one-stop National Public Procurement Portal to facilitate online procurement of Goods & Services required by various Central and State Government Departments / Organizations /Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
• It was launched in 2016 to bring transparency and efficiency in the government buying process.
• GeM provides tools for Direct Purchase, bidding and reverse auction for efficient procurement.
• It operates under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• The purchases through GeM by government users have been authorized and made mandatory by Ministry of Finance by adding a new Rule No. 149 in the General Financial Rules, 2017.

Benefits of GeM to the Government, Sellers and the Indian industry and economy

• Transparency: GeM eliminates human interface in vendor registration, order placement and payment processing, to a great extent. Being an open platform, GeM offers no entry barriers to bonafide suppliers who wish to do business with the Government. At every step, SMS and e-Mail notifications are sent to both buyer, his/her head of organisation, paying authorities as well as sellers.
• Efficiency: Direct purchase on GeM can be done in a matter of minutes and the entire process in online, end to end integrated and with online tools for assessing price reasonability. For procurements of higher value, the bidding facility on GeM is among the most transparent and efficient, in comparison to e-procurement systems in vogue within the Government sector. For creating a bid, the buyer does not need to create his/her own technical specifications as they have been standardised on GeM. 
• Secure and safe: GeM is a completely secure platform and all the documents on GeM are e-Signed at various stages by the buyers and sellers. The antecedents of the suppliers are verified online and automatically through MCA21, Aadhar and PAN databases. In addition, SEBI empaneled credit rating agencies are also being used for conducting third-party assessment of suppliers, an e-Bank Guarantee is also being introduced.
• Savings to the Government: The transparency, efficiency and ease of use of the GeM portal has resulted in a substantial reduction in prices on GeM, in comparison to the tender, Rate Contract and direct purchase rates.