Local language support on GeM: Government e-marketplace (GeM), the public procurement platform of the government, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Digital India Bhashini Division (DIBD) under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), to support sellers in curating their product/services catalogue in their local language. The MoU aims to facilitate growth of language technology and generative AI solutions to promote startups industries in vernacular languages, GeM said in a post on X.
The local language technology will help sellers with inclusive growth and increase market penetration, GeM said. “This would be facilitated through integration of Bhashini platform and other related technologies available with DIBD, in the procurement solutions provided by GeM.”
Launched in July 2022 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bhashini platform, an AI-based technology solution that allows people and businesses to translate content into different Indian languages. It also allows users to effectively communicate with others who may not know the language in order to reduce the language barrier in India.
According to GeM, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has made purchases worth Rs 1,167 crores from the platform, as of October 10.
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As of October 18, as per data from the GeM platform, goods and services worth Rs 1.82 lakh crore have been procured with an order volume of 28.14 lakh across 11,861 products and 311 service categories. The platform has over 98,000 primary buyers and over 1.94 lakh secondary buyers. MSEs currently constitute 48.67 per cent of the order value.
Also read: Defence ministry among top buyers on GeM; procures Rs 13k crore goods till July in FY24
Importantly, the platform had earlier this month announced soon-to-be-launched mobile-based lending platform GeM Sahay 2.0 for collateral-free loans up to Rs 10 lakh to GeM sellers, FE Aspire had reported. The loans will be approved in 10 minutes while more banks will be encouraged to join the platform. GeM has multiple banking partners including UGRO Capital, ICICI Bank, Tata Capital, 121 Finance, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Oxyzo Finance, Kredable, LendingKart, Union Bank and ABFL.