Ease of doing business for MSMEs: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday hailed the government’s public procurement portal Government eMarketplace (GeM) for enabling MSMEs’ participation in government tenders. Addressing the launch of 75 Digital Banking Units (DBUs) across the country, PM Modi said, “Today our small businesses and MSMEs are participating in government tenders through platforms like GeM. They are getting new business opportunities. Orders worth Rs 2.5 lakh crore have been given on GeM so far.”
“You can imagine how the local economy of the country and our mission of Vocal for Local have benefitted through this. Through DBUs, many new opportunities will emerge in this direction. We will have to innovate in this direction,” PM Modi added.
According to the latest data available on the GeM portal, the public procurement of goods and services by central government ministries and departments has crossed Rs 3 lakh crore. The cumulative transaction value of goods and services bought by government ministries from MSMEs through the GeM portal grew around 116 per cent to Rs 3.13 lakh crore from Rs 1.44 lakh crore during October last year.
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PM Modi also urged small businesses based in villages to shift to digital transactions and requested banks to connect with at least 100 merchants through branches in their respective areas to fully switch to digital for all transactions. “I am sure, this initiative will take our banking system and economy to a stage which will be future-ready, and will have the capability to lead the global economy,” he noted.
The announcement to set up 75 DBUs was made in the budget this year by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The specific financial services to be provided by the DBUs included savings, credit, investment and insurance while on the credit delivery front, to start with, the DBUs will provide end-to-end digital processing of small ticket retail and MSME loans, starting from online applications to disbursals, said Shaktikanta Das, Governor, RBI in his remarks at the virtual launch of DBUs.
The DBUs will also provide services related to certain government-sponsored schemes, he added. The products and services in these DBUs will be provided in two modes viz., self-service and assisted modes, with the self-service mode being available on a 24x7x365 basis, Das said.
Also read: GeM: Public procurement crosses Rs 3 lakh crore; doubles in 12 months