Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on August 8 announced that it has been chosen as a strategic partner to transform the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) by bringing in more transparency and efficiency into the public procurement process.
This is the second government project the software exporter has bagged since winning the BSNL contract earlier this year. The second deal win makes TCS one of the preferred IT services firms for public scale work.
The company plans to redesign the platform for interoperability and cloud neutrality, making it technology-agnostic and vendor-independent. It will be built in an open-API-based architecture to make it highly scalable and sufficiently flexible to accommodate the anticipated six-fold growth in GMV over the next six years.
The design also aims to ease onboarding of new sellers, to get more diverse vendor base, especially SMEs /MSMEs, resulting in greater inclusivity and a more democratised access to the public sector market, the company said. The platform will have data analytics capabilities too to forecast demand and improve supply chain management along with better overall security.
The GeM platform in its current form, despite the architectural and scalability issues, is an end-to-end online marketplace for central and state government bodies, including public sector undertakings, for procurement of common use goods and services in a transparent and efficient manner.
TCS handles a Gross Merchandize Value (GMV) of over Rs 2 trillion purchased by 70,000-plus buyer groups from over 6.5 million sellers and service providers, including over 800,000 medium and small enterprises.
“In its next avatar, the GeM is envisioned to be an all-inclusive platform for government procurement, offering improved ease of doing business and transparency. With TCS as our SI partner, we are assured of architecting the new GeM with unmatched experience, rigor, and passion to develop a world class solution with resilient design, enriched user experience and innovative services," GeM chief executive PK Singh said.
"We also look forward to TCS’ expertise in managing mission mode programs. We have a strong aspiration to scale up GeM to transcend geographies,” he added.
“We are proud to partner with the Government of India for the GeM platform’s digital transformation, adding to our long list of contributions to Digital India,” Tej Paul Bhatla, Business Head, Public Services – India at TCS, said.
This project will be undertaken under TCS’ Public Services India business unit which provides services to the central and state governments, building innovative technology-led solutions that enhance transparency and efficiency, and contributing to the development of Digital India.
Government partnerships
In May 2023, TCS-led a consortium which bagged a $1.8-billion deal from the government-owned telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to deploy 4G network across the country.
According to CEO and MD K Krithivasan, the company views such deals as an opportunity for 'nation building' and not for mere financial gains and profitability.
Unlike other IT services companies, TCS has had better track record of executing government projects. Some of its previous works include the Indian Railways’ IRCTC site, and India Post’s digital project. TCS' contract for running the Passport Seva Programme was renewed last year in a deal worth Rs 8,000 crore, according to industry sources.
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