- Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu on February 19, 2019 launched SWAYATT in New Delhi.
- What is it: SWAYATT is an initiative to promote Start-ups, Women and Youth Advantage Through eTransactions on Government e Marketplace (GeM). This will bring together the key stakeholders within the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem to Government e-Marketplace the national procurement portal.
- On this occasion, Commerce Minister also dedicated GeM Start-up Runway-an initiative of GeM in association with Start -up India to facilitate Start-ups registered with Start -up India to access the public procurement market and sell innovative products and services to government buyers.
- GeM Start-up Runway seeks to align certified Start-ups with Government procurement orders and contracts, to enable Start-ups in scaling operations from ideation to growth stage in minimal time, and spur hyper-local job-creation and wealth-generation and for achieving socially-inclusive economic growth.
- While Government has relaxed norms in Public Procurement for Start-ups by exempting them from prior experience, prior turnover and Earnest Money Deposit [EMD] stipulations, subject to meeting of quality and technical specifications, product comparison and price discovery are two major constraints for Government buyers in procuring innovative products from Start-ups.
- Start-up Runway will enable Start-ups to conduct market trials with government buyers, seek time-bound feedback and gain realistic product, price comparison and market valuation from potential buyers and investors.
- Certified Start-ups will register on GeM portal as a seller with their DPIIT number, provide basic description about the performance of their products/services along with the Test Certificates of quality, their functional utility and specify potential user Ministry/ departments where these products can be used.
- Ministries and departments will be sensitised proactively through system generated messages/ alerts in Marketplace about availability of such innovative products on the portal Potential buyers can evaluate these products and services with respect to their utility, uniqueness with respect to design, process and concept, and provide feedback in a time-bound interval and manner. Innovative products with 3+ ratings on a rating scale of (1-5) from 3 or more buyers will be accepted for listing as a regular product or service on GeM
- Approximately 1,516 Start-ups are presently registered on GeM with 12,915 products to offer and have received more than 5,000 orders till date.
- GeM Start-up Runway seeks to support technology development, spur research and innovation by ensuring a conducive policy environment for industrial diversification and value addition to commodities, and aligns with Government’s philosophy to turn Job-seekers into job-creators.
- GeM Start-up Runway will address goals and objectives under United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 9: Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.
- Government e Marketplace, an online market place for procurement of common use goods and services by government ministries, departments and CPSEs was setup in 2016 and has 801,956 products and 5,197 services, with 199,654 registered sellers, service providers and 33,536 government buyers. Since inception, GeM has processed 1,386,030 orders worth Rs. 19,214 crore in gross merchandise value.
