Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal held a meeting with various government agencies to review the steps taken to promote 'Make in India' products in procurement process of Indian Railways and in the Union Government, a statement by the Railway Ministry said on Sunday.Goyal emphasised the need for goods and services procurements of approximately Rs 70,000 crore on GeM platform to open up the market to industry even at remote places and specially MSMEs.Goyal, during the meeting urged officials to take measures to generate confidence in industry for corruption-free and transparent procurement environment of the Indian Railways."It was emphasised to increase the participation of local vendors in procurement process. It was also decided that local content clause in the procurement should be such that we may get more bids from local vendors/suppliers," said a statement from the Ministry.To boost the mission 'Atmanirbhar Bharat', active support of DPIIT was sought to make suitable policy revisions, if required, to facilitate the efforts of Indian Railways in this direction.In the review meeting it was decided to encourage vendors who can supply locally manufactured products. It was suggested that there is need to create a FAQ section and a helpline number so that vendors may get clarity on various issues relating to procurement process.
In the review meeting which was also attended by Minister of State for Railways Suresh C. Angadi, Railway Board members, CEO, GeM and representatives of DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce, a detailed presentation was made by the member (Materials Management), Railway Board on enhancing 'Make in India' and steps being taken to procure through GeM along with the progress made.The Indian Railways, which is one of the largest procurement agencies of the Government of India, is integrating its procurement systems with the GeM to use its full potential.The department shared the timeline for integration of Indian Railway e-Procurement system with GeM. Railway emphasised the need to have a seamless integration of the two systems eliminating need for any manual interface.Strength of both the systems of Railways -- IREPS and GeM should be productively leveraged to generate synergy to take the Railways procurement to GeM's full potential.Post integration GeM is intended to move further in the direction of becoming single point public procurement portal for all agencies of Government of India."It was decided that Railways would work more towards having a user-friendly single step vendor web based interface for all its activities. The website should, transparently, provide every interested vendor a clear idea of how to do business with Indian Railways." said a statement.