PIB Summary- 16th January, 2023 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

Womaniya Initiative

Why in News?
GeM holds event to commemorate success of Women entrepreneurs on GeM.

“Womaniya” initiative

• The “Womaniya” initiative was launched in 2019 to encourage the participation of women entrepreneurs and self-help groups (SHG) from the informal sector on the GeM portal and facilitate the sale of their products directly to various Government buyers, sans intermediaries.
• Generic product categories were created for listing of handicrafts and handloom, accessories, jute and coir products, bamboo products, organic foods, spices, home décor and office furnishings to facilitate ease-in product catalogue listing and procurement from women entrepreneurs.

Success of the Initiative

• Presently, 1.44 lakh+ Udyam-verified women micro, small enterprises (MSE) known as “Womaniya” are registered as sellers and service-providers on the GeM portal and have fulfilled 14.76 lakh+ orders worth INR 21,265 Crore in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV).
• The ratio of the order value is 74 percent (%) in products to 26 percent (%) in Service categories.

Objectives

• The objective of “Womaniya” is to develop women entrepreneurship on the margins of society who face challenges in accessing public procurement markets, and work towards achieving gender inclusive economic growth of under-served seller groups such as women-owned and led MSEs, tribal entrepreneurs, Divyangjan, Startups, SHGs, artisan and weavers.
• The initiative aligns with the Government’s initiative to set aside a target of three (3) percent (%) in public procurement for women-owned and led MSEs.

Addressing Challenges

• The “Womaniya” initiative seeks to address the triple challenge of “access to markets”, “access to finance” and “access to value-addition” faced by women entrepreneurs and strives to align the untapped entrepreneurial energy of last-mile producers and service-providers in India with local Government buyers.
• This will spur hyper-local procurement thereby integrating local value-chains through “Vocal for Local” and “Make in India” initiatives of the Government, thereby furthering the aim of ensuring a self-reliant “Atmanirbhar Bharat”.

About Government e-Marketplace (GeM)

• The Government e Marketplace (GeM) was launched on August 9, 2016.
• To create an open and transparent procurement platform for Government buyers.
• A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) by the name of Government e- Marketplace (GeM SPV) was set up as the National Public Procurement Portal
• It has been developed by Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (Ministry of Commerce and Industry) with technical support of National e-governance Division (Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology).
• It is a completely paperless, cashless and system driven e-market place that enables procurement of common use goods and services with minimal human interface.
•  At present, the platform is open for procurement by all government buyers: central and state ministries, departments, public sector enterprises, autonomous institutions, local bodies, etc.
• As per existing mandate, GeM is not available for use by private sector buyers.
• Suppliers (sellers) can be from across all segments: government or private.

The following are the objectives of the online platform:

• Easier availability of various goods and services for the government buyers.
• Create transparency in public procurement.
• Cost saving on government expenditure.
• Achieve and promote cashless transactions.

Geospatial Hackathon

Why in News?
Union Minister of Science & Technology recently launched Geospatial Hackathon to promote Innovation and Start-Ups in India’s Geospatial ecosystem.

About Geospatial Hackathon

• The Geospatial Hackathon is an event organized to create interest in geospatial technology and specifically build solutions leveraging maps and satellite data for solving India’s problems.
• The event is launched by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) in partnership with IIIT Hyderabad and Microsoft.

Structure of the Hackathon

The Geospatial Hackathon will be divided into 2 parts:

• Research Challenge: This part of the hackathon is organized by the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board and IIIT Hyderabad, with the goal of promoting the use of geospatial technologies in solving real-world problems and fostering innovation in the Indian geospatial ecosystem.
• Startup Challenge: This part of the hackathon is specific to the problem statements given by DST (Survey of India). The challenge focuses on fostering the adoption of geospatial technologies and promoting innovation in India’s Geospatial ecosystem, through Geospatial Data Processing, Solution development, and Servicing Challenge.