In News 

• Government eMarketplace [GeM] and Self Employed Women’s Association [SEWA] inked a Memorandum of Understanding [MoU] for the advocacy, outreach, mobilization and capacity-building of last-mile women-led micro and small enterprises, women entrepreneurs, SHGs, Associations, Cooperatives, Collectives, Not-for-Profit Section 8 Companies, and various Voluntary Organizations [VO] as sellers and service providers in public procurement. 

Details 

• GeM will train SEWA members to assist and enable women-led micro and small enterprises, women entrepreneurs, SHGs among others, with GeM processes related to seller registration and on-boarding on the platform, upload/ update of product/ service catalogues, acceptance of orders, participation in bids floated by Govt buyers, fulfilment of orders and invoice generation to receive payments directly into their bank accounts through the unified online national public procurement platform.
• Vernacular language-based training curriculum in print and digital media for women entrepreneurs and SHGs based on the requirement of the participants will being developed by GeM in consultation with SEWA.
• Presently, 1.31 lakh+ women MSE entrepreneurs are registered on the GeM portal and they have fulfilled approx. 5.7 lakh+ orders worth INR 10,752 Crore in gross merchandise value.

Government e Marketplace [GeM]

• GeM is a Section 8 company setup under the administrative control of the Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, for procurement of goods and services by Central Ministries, State Departments, PSEs and Autonomous Bodies.

Self-Employed Women’s Association [SEWA]

• SEWA is the premier Women’s organization in India that aligns women organizations with Government programs, facilitating market linkages for informal women workers to develop their livelihoods and strengthening collective bargaining power of women workers by offering them new livelihood opportunities, amongst various other objectives.

Source-PIB