Parliament Question: GeM adoption in panchayats and cooperatives in Odisha

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3229 ANSWERED ON 20/03/2026 GeM ADOPTION IN PANCHAYATS AND COOPERATIVES IN ODISHA 3229 SMT. MAMATA MOHANTA Will the Minister of COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY be pleased to state: (a) whether Government e-Marketplace (GeM) procurement has been strengthened in Odisha, including Panchayats and Cooperatives in Mayurbhanj district; (b) whether reforms such as removal of caution money have increased participation of local sellers and MSMEs; and (c) the safeguards in place to ensure transparency and prevent cartelisation? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (SHRI JITIN PRASADA) (a) Government e-Marketplace (GeM) procurement has been strengthened in Odisha. The total procurement made by Odisha through GeM is ₹9,218 crore. As of 8th March 2026, the total procurement made by Mayurbhanj district through GeM is ₹114.11 crore, which includes procurement worth ₹8.93 lakh by Panchayats and ₹6.36 lakh by Cooperatives. (b) Requirement of Caution Money was removed from GeM on 30th July, 2025 to promote ease of doing business on GeM. Caution Money has been refunded to more than 22,600 sellers who had previously submitted the Caution Money. In addition 1.15 lakh profile completed sellers who have registered after 30th July, 2025 were not required to submit any Caution Money. (c) GeM has following safeguards in place to ensure transparency and prevent cartelization: i. GeM publishes tender enquiries, corrigenda, bid awards, names of successful vendors, and final discovered rates in public domain. ii. GeM provides feature of "Bid Representation" window wherein buyers are mandatorily required to examine and respond to all representations submitted-by prospective bidders prior to bid opening. The system does not permit opening of bids unless such representations are addressed. 1iii. GeM has enabled a feature of "Challenge Rejection Window" wherein a bidder can represent against the disqualification from the bidding process, and a buyer is mandatorily required to provide response to such representation before proceeding for financial evaluation. iv. The IP addresses of participating bidders are displayed to the Buyer, to examine potential collusion if any before proceeding, and wherever warranted, disqualify bidders. v. GeM has deployed advanced analytics tools to detect procurement anomalies such as order splitting, suspicious bidding, abnormal pricing and potential collusion, with flagged cases reflected on primary buyer's dashboards for action. vi. Anti-competitive behaviour or cartel formation is classified as a Severe/Grave deviation under GeM's Incident Management framework, with proven cases attracting suspension of up to 365 days. ***** 2