Centre looking to buy goods from start-ups

NEW DELHI: Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday invited startups to register at public procurement portal GeM and offer goods as well as services to government organisations and PSUs.

He said that about 4,000 startups have already registered at Government e-marketplace (GeM).

The commerce ministry launched GeM in August 2016 to create an open and transparent procurement platform for the government, which runs in several lakh crore.

"I invite all startups to list their products and start offering goods and services to government organisations, PSUs, state government bodies, hospitals, schools, and colleges run by the government," Goyal said at the National Startup Awards 2020 event.

The minister also said that about Rs 4,000 crore was already disbursed through Fund of Funds for startups, "giving it out to about 361 startups".

He added that huge potential is there for startups in areas including railways, airport services, food processing, education, healthcare, agriculture, electronics and defence.

"I believe startups will be playing an increasingly important role in many strategic sectors going forward," he said.

Further, the minister also called for creating a large pool of language interpreters.

"What we should do to have a large pool of interpreters of Indian and international languages in the country. How we can quickly develop a large pool," Goyal said.