In an announcement made on Tuesday, the largest IT services company in the country revealed that it has been chosen as a key partner by the government to upgrade GeM into a cutting-edge platform for public procurement. The aim is to enhance transparency, efficiency, and accessibility in the process.

GeM is an online marketplace that offers a comprehensive solution for both central and state government entities, as well as public sector undertakings, to procure common goods and services transparently and effectively.

Currently, the platform facilitates transactions worth over Rs 2 lakh crore, involving more than 70,000 buyer organizations and 6.5 million sellers and service providers. This includes around 800,000 medium and small businesses. Despite its success, TCS highlighted that the existing platform faces challenges in terms of scalability and meeting the changing needs of its users.

Under this collaboration, TCS will be responsible for designing and developing a new modern solution, integrating new technologies while retaining the current platform’s functionality.

TCS plans to build the new GeM platform based on the principles of e-commerce and e-marketplaces. This means it will have features like multi-tenancy, multi-rule support, multiple languages, open-source architecture, and open APIs. Furthermore, the platform will be engineered for scalability, prepared to handle an expected six-fold increase in transaction volume over the next six years. The new design will also focus on interoperability and cloud neutrality, ensuring it works seamlessly with various technologies and remains independent of specific vendors.

In addition to these technical improvements, TCS intends to enhance the user experience for all stakeholders involved in the GeM platform.