(Image source from: deccanherald.com)

The GeM platforms in the country have made it mandatory for sellers of products to mention the country of origin on products they wish to sell.

It is no secret that the world economy has been depleting with which come various other factors like recession and unemployment. This all happened after the outbreak of the global pandemic called the coronavirus. The world is soon going to hit the 10 million mark with the infected Covid-19 cases and India has already crosses the 4 lakh mark. This global crisis had made the world population to be locked down in their homes.

Prime Minister of the country while addressing the nation had announced that the only way people of the country can help in the growth on the economy is to be self-reliant. The Indian market is dominated by Chinese goods and goods from various other nations. He has urged the citizens to be self-reliant from scratch and also that the government is going to invest its full energy in the MSME enterprises.

Keeping that thought in mind and pushing the Make in India tagline, online trading platform for state run agencies called the Government e-Marketplace or GeM has made it a compulsion for the sellers to mention the country of origin on products they wish to sell on the platform. This first came to notice when the Finance Minister of the country Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned it in one of her tweets. The tweet also had the hash tags like MakeinIndia, AtmaNirbharBharat. Vocal for local has become the trend for people in the country.

Not just the new sellers on the platform, the sellers who had already uploaded their products on the platform before the announcement of this feature are constantly reminded to update the country of origin with all the products. If the sellers failed to do so they have been warned that their products will be removed from GeM.

Government e- Marketplace has also introduced a new feature on their platform which enables a provision for indication of the percentage of local content in the products. This means that the raw material used and the content in the products will also be mentioned for the buyers to know if the product was completely made in India or the raw materials of the products come from some other place in the world. Along with this a new filter called Make in India has also been enabled on the platform.

The Make in India allows the buyers to choose the product which has 50% or more local content and raw material in the products. GeM is continuously working towards promoting the self-reliant and vocal for local initiative.

The Prime Minister of the country, Mr. Narendra Modi has been rooting for the self-reliant and Make in India initiative by investing in indigenous products and also to push country’s Make in India cause.

By Deepika Agarwal