Government e-Marketplace, the national public procurement platform, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Indian Steel Association (ISA). The platform shared the news through a post on its handle on X (formerly Twitter). The post read, “GeM inked an MoU with Indian Steel Association (ISA) today in New Delhi. ISA is membered by prominent organizations like SAIL, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India, and other esteemed steel organizations.
This partnership intends to bring all ISA members onto the GeM platform as sellers, promoting a diverse business environment regardless of their size. The MoU promotes knowledge exchange and direct communication between the two organizations, aiming to improve accessibility for association members to the public procurement market.”
Indian Steel Association represents 65 per cent of the crude steel industry in the country, with 16 members, 7 executives comprising all the major steel industrialists, and 2 associate members.
According to the tweet, the partnership between GeM and ISA will help the members of ISA onboard GeM, where they would be able to deal with the government bodies, which are one of the prime consumers of steel products.
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According to the annual report of the Ministry of Steel, India was the second-largest producer of steel in the world during the calendar year 2022. India produced 118.71 million tonnes of finished steel in 2022. The steel sector contributes a little over 2 per cent to India’s GDP.
The GeM platform has crossed Rs 1.5 lakh crore gross merchandise value in the current financial year and is expected to surpass its yearly-best business figures of Rs 2.01 crore in the Financial year 2023. The first Rs 1-lakh-crore procurement was achieved by GeM in four-and-a-half years while the second Rs 1 lakh crore mark was achieved in the financial year 2021-22 itself. In 2017, it achieved business of about Rs 400 crore and in the second year, it reported about Rs 5,800 crore business. It has from around Rs 35,000 crore two years ago and tripled last year to Rs 1.06 lakh crore.