The recent approval by the cabinet of Public Procurement Policy (PPP) to give preference to domestically manufactured goods promoting the 'Make in India' initiative is a welcome step indeed. The move, according to the Commerce ministry, would facilitate local manufacturing and boost domestic demand for locally manufactured products.

 Marketing has been a serious issue with the MSMEs sector and the process of procurement guided by 'tendering' has been full of maladies like bid rigging, collusive bidding or bid suppression limiting the whole process to a few enterprises with influence and resources.

To make the procurement process transparent and wide open, the government has decided to extend its marketing arm by mooting GeM (Government e-Marketing) which will offset the role of DGS&D. GeM will enhance transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement. It will also provide the tools of e-bidding and reverse e-auction as well as demand aggregation to facilitate the government users to achieve the best value for the money.

To make the GeM fool-proof inviting maximum sellers, a range of prices can be fixed for each item based on parameters like quality, Innovation etc. so that maximum number of suppliers participate. All those who qualify can be enlisted.

The procurement can be made through all the enlisted ones turn by turn thereby affording a chance to maximum number of sellers. This process will not only address the marketing issue but will induce quality and innovation as a competition consequence.