Government e Marketplace (GeM), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Government of India, successfully conducted a full-day orientation programme titled “GeM – Transforming Public Procurement in India” for probationers of the Indian Defence Accounts Service (IDAS) at the GeM Office, New Delhi.

Shri Mihir Kumar, CEO, GeM, in his keynote interaction, emphasised that digital procurement is central to building a transparent, accountable and future-ready governance framework. He noted that GeM’s role goes beyond simplifying procurement processes — it equips every stakeholder with tools that make decision-making faster, data-driven and compliant. He added that GeM looks forward to Defence Accounts professionals playing a pivotal role in advancing this transformation across the Defence sector.

The day-long orientation included sessions conducted by GeM’s vertical heads and domain specialists covering:

• Key procurement concepts, processes and best practices
• Buyer challenges and platform-enabled solutions
• Compliance essentials and policy frameworks
• Grievance redressal, incident management and support systems
• A comprehensive hands-on demonstration of the GeM Portal

The interactive discussions allowed probationers to engage directly with GeM teams, seek clarifications and understand the complete procurement lifecycle, from demand creation and bidding to contract management and payments.

As part of their departmental training and attachment with CGDA Headquarters, 17 IDAS probationers from the 2024 Batch visited GeM to gain practical exposure to India’s rapidly evolving digital public procurement ecosystem. The session familiarised them with GeM’s core principles, governance practices and technology-driven reforms that have enhanced transparency, competition and efficiency across government procurement.

GeM remains committed to strengthening its partnership with Defence institutions and supporting the development of the next generation of public finance and procurement professionals through structured training and capacity-building programmes.

Public procurement training focused on digital procurement, compliance, contract management and capacity building for defence finance probationers. The orientation focused on transforming public procurement through digitisation, highlighting platform-enabled management of the procurement lifecycle-demand creation, bidding, contract management and payments-together with governance frameworks, compliance essentials and grievance redressal and incident management mechanisms to secure procedural integrity. It also served as capacity building for Defence finance probationers to align departmental processes with digital procurement tools and oversight controls, promoting competition, efficiency and auditability across public procurement.