Products made by self-help groups to be listed on Centre's e-commerce platform

New Delhi : To provide wider market to products made by women self-help groups (SHGs), the rural development ministry will list them on the Centre's e-commerce platform, sources said on Sunday. The government will also help the SHGs in branding, packaging and pricing their products to make them more marketable, they said.

Now the products made by the SHGs will be a click way, a senior official in the ministry said.

The groups will be listed on the Centre's e-commerce portal Government e-Marketplace (GeM), the official said.

This step will help in a big way in making women in villages financially independent and in overall improvement of the rural economy, officials in the ministry said.

Currently, there are 58.5 lakh SHGs under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM), with a membership of over six crore women.

Ministries and departments under the central government and public sector undertakings are expected to make procurement from the GeM platform which is under the commerce ministry.

GeM was launched in August 2016 to increase transparency and efficiency in the public procurement process.

Currently, GeM has over 3.36 lakh sellers out of which 74,240 are micro and small sellers. The total transaction value stood at Rs 47, 612 crores so far.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had proposed to increase GeM's turnover to Rs 3 lakh crore ahead.