Latest news with #MSE
Daily Mirror
21 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Martin Lewis issues credit card warning to Brits abroad
You could be hit with some unexpected extra fees. Martin Lewis has issued an urgent alert to Brits about the use of credit cards while on holiday. The finance expert has drawn attention to the potential hazards of withdrawing cash with this type of card. Figuring out the most cost-effective way to spend money while on holiday can be a challenge. Some countries still largely rely on cash, whereas others are more open to card and mobile payments. And in certain destinations, such as Morocco, it's not possible to get local currency before leaving the UK. Regardless of where you're headed, Martin strongly discourages using your credit card for cash withdrawals. On his website Money Saving Expert, he expanded on his guidance. Martin said: "Withdrawing cash on a credit card abroad?". As reported by GlasgowLive, he highlighted that this habit could have a detrimental effect on your credit score. "It could impact your credit rating," he further explained. "We get this question a lot, as we warn against credit card ATM withdrawals in the UK, as it risks high interest and many lenders see it as a debt-problem indicator." However, infrequent use of this method is generally not an issue. He stated: "Yet if you only do it occasionally abroad on a specialist card, it's not a biggie, just don't overdo it and pay it off in full" He also mentioned that in some countries, using a UK card can be a "bit trickier". This includes: In Japan, you may need special ATMs to use international cards In China, hotels take cards, but elsewhere Alipay is easier In India, some shops and restaurants won't take international cards As well as using credit cards for cash withdrawals he also advised against using them to top up prepayment cards. He clarified: "You'll likely pay fees and interest. "Most credit-card providers count these as a cash transaction - so charge withdrawal fees and interest. It's always better to use a debit card if you can." For those planning a holiday and seeking to exchange currency beforehand, MSE's online travel money comparison tool here can be a handy resource.
Economic Times
a day ago
- Business
- Economic Times
From Rs 422 cr to Rs 5.43-lakh cr: A Government ‘startup experiment' is redefining public procurement
ET Online Ajit B Chavan, Additional CEO and Chief Seller Officer, GeM. The Government e-Marketplace, the platform for India's small and medium enterprises to sell to the government, has seen tremendous growth in terms of GMV (Gross Merchandise Value), number of sellers as well as leveraging technology to optimise the public procurement ecosystem. In an interaction with ET Digital, Ajit B Chavan, Additional CEO and Chief Seller Officer at GeM talks about how the organisation aims to onboard more Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) through partnerships and programs and its entrance into the state and regional governments. Edited excerpts: Economic Times (ET): What are your current GMV numbers and orders? What new sectors or buyer segments do you see as high-growth opportunities? Ajit Chavan (AC): GeM is a startup experiment of the government of India. Our GMV in 2016 was Rs 422 crores in 2016, we have reached Rs 5.43 lakh crores in the last financial year and it is ever growing. So in terms of GMV, it has really multiplied more than 1000 times. We have also reached about a good amount of inroads into three tiers of governments, that is the central government and its organisations, as well as the state governments and the local administration. ET: GeM aims to remain inclusive, with over 10.5 lakh MSE sellers and 31,566 startups. But if you look at the total number of MSMEs in the country, the sellers registered are still a small amount. What steps are being taken to onboard more enterprises? AC: Well, we are very conscious about the fact that there is a huge number of MSEs available in the market who might be wanting to do business with GeM, and we are not satisfied with the numbers that we have. So yes, we are trying to take proactive steps towards onboarding them in terms of aligning with various MSME and MSE organisations and associations. So they are our MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) partners, and we are having regular meetings and workshops with them to ensure that more and more MSEs come. We also have a very good working relationship and collaborations with the Ministry of MSME, where we do combined programs to ensure that you know not only MSEs, but women-led MSEs, SC/ST-led MSEs, startups, divyang and other weavers, artisans, all of them, as part of our inclusion mandate, are on board with the platform. ET: The GeM SAHAY app helps proprietors avail loans. How do you assess its impact so far, and what future features can users expect? The GeM portal is set to introduce a collateral-free loan facility for registered vendors. Tell us more about that. AC: The GeM Sahay app has been a transformative intervention at GeM. We had done a pilot, and we now rolled out the India skill program. Its official launch is also awaited. The idea is small ticket loans, collateral free for the proprietors currently. Later on, the length and breadth of the program will involve all the sellers of the platform. The endeavour is to give a collateral free short ticket and short duration loan of up to Rs 10 lakh within 10 minutes time, preferably at very competitive rates. So the impact would actually be very far reaching when the India skill program is launched in terms of empowering the small MSEs to participate in more and more bids onto the are in the process of onboarding as many lending partners as possible. It works on the highest level of FinTech architecture. There is also a specific focus on the banking partners, so that the cost of lending comes down and more beneficiaries are being on board. So once you have beneficiaries who are willing to take up this program, and when there are lenders who are willing to lend onto the platform, it's one step closer to the empowerment of micro and small enterprises. ET: Independent assessments report nearly 10% cost savings for buyers. What practices or algorithms does GeM employ to ensure optimal price discovery and competitive bidding? AC: It is basic economics, it is about the seller base. The larger the seller base, the more the supply, the more competitive is the pricing. So there are studies which say every additional seller in a bit reduces the price by 0.5%. So that is point number one. Then there is a healthy mix of technology tools- Lot of business analytics, AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning) use cases have been deployed to ensure that price discovery is optimum. It is a democratic place. So more and more sellers from across the country are able to participate. And by virtue of that, and by virtue also of technology, in terms of breaking the buyer-seller collision, we are able to provide a very good pricing to our customers, that are our buyers. And very conservative, documented estimates say that at least 10% savings has been accrued to our buyers. So if we are talking about a cumulative GMV of Rs 14 lakh crores, you can just imagine the kind of impact in terms of cost efficiencies that this platform has been able to bring in. ET: Can you share more examples of how AI/ML and data analytics have improved supplier discovery or pricing efficiency on the platform? AC: So whatever is required for the buyers to make a very informed decision, be it in terms of what has been the price at which the product or a similar product that has been transacted on the platform? or what is the price at which, in certain cases, the price at which this similar product is available outside of the marketplace? That information has been made available using advanced analytics. It's a continuous, ongoing work. We have come out with a very interactive chat bot, where a lot of queries, a lot of resolutions would be done by the chat bot. So this chat bot is available in about 12 Indian languages and the idea is basically to empower the chat bot to make it so good and user-friendly to enable more interfacing. Be it buyer or seller, just make best use of technology for their day-to-day operations. ET: Since listing 'country of origin' became mandatory in 2020, how has it affected buyer behaviour and policy compliance among sellers? AC: Well, if you are referring to the Land Border Sharing Declaration, which came into being in 2020, then yes, it has, it has definitely helped in terms of propelling the Make in India, philosophy of the government. In terms of sellers, it does mean that seller has to go through a certain amount of scrutiny to ensure that they are in compliance with the land border sharing, in terms of, control of ownership, where the established sellers are incorporated, and we make sure that we have mechanism on the platform where we ensure that this important policy is implemented properly. ET: What progress has been made in integrating GeM with other government procurement systems? What challenges remain? AC: Well, we are moving towards a unified public procurement, largest unified public procurement, end-to-end platform. Towards that, we are required to integrate with a huge number of databases, huge number of buyer ERPs (Enterprise Resource Planning). Currently, if I am not mistaken, we have almost 75 integrations to create innovation, be it integrations with the Aadhaar database, PAN database, or MCA database or BIS database, or even ERPs of certain important Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). So this is an ongoing work. ET: With the General Financial Rules now mandating GeM procurement, how do you support government departments in capacity-building and digital adoption? AC: Of course, this is an ongoing business. This is an ongoing pitch, also for the government of India and its organisations. It's not mandatory yet but we have a pitch made to all the states. All the states have signed up MOUs with us. We have also added cooperatives as a buyer. We are continuously in touch with our buyers. We have nominated senior level officers who will go into the states, and this year, we'll probably have a much more extensive outreach with our stakeholders, especially other than the central government organisations. ET: GeM has launched green categories in the past (like eco‑friendly ACs and bamboo products). What are your plans to expand the portal's contribution to India's sustainable procurement roadmap? AC: On a very basic level, if you just imagine the amount of paper we have saved through our online procurement system and the amount of carbon footprint it would have generated otherwise. We processed about 72 lakh orders last year. A good number of them are bids. And it has been happening for eight years. We take our responsibility towards sustainability very seriously. We are in touch with the MOEF (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) as other standard making bodies so that we can introduce more and more sustainable products. ET: How do you envision GeM's role evolving over the next 3–5 years, particularly in achieving deeper market penetration among state governments and local bodies? AC: This year our focus would be more on the state outreach. So states are going to be a very important integral part of our GMV growth business. Of course, CPSE (Central Public Centre Enterprises) and the central government account for almost a majority of our GMV. So then the next step is the local self governments. Then we are also trying to get more and more cooperative buyers. Apart from that, we are trying to see if we can give more modalities of purchase and then add rate contract. So probably three, five years down the line, we would emerge as the world's largest public procurement platform. On World MSME Day, on June 27, 2025, ET Digital will also open registrations for its sixth edition of the ET MSME Awards 2025. The coveted award programme celebrates India's top MSMEs for their achievements and contribution to the nation's economic development.
Time of India
a day ago
- Business
- Time of India
From Rs 422 cr to Rs 5.43-lakh cr: A Government ‘startup experiment' is redefining public procurement
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The Government e-Marketplace, the platform for India's small and medium enterprises to sell to the government, has seen tremendous growth in terms of GMV (Gross Merchandise Value), number of sellers as well as leveraging technology to optimise the public procurement ecosystem. In an interaction with ET Digital, Ajit B Chavan , Additional CEO and Chief Seller Officer at GeM talks about how the organisation aims to onboard more Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) through partnerships and programs and its entrance into the state and regional excerpts:GeM is a startup experiment of the government of India. Our GMV in 2016 was Rs 422 crores in 2016, we have reached Rs 5.43 lakh crores in the last financial year and it is ever growing. So in terms of GMV, it has really multiplied more than 1000 times. We have also reached about a good amount of inroads into three tiers of governments, that is the central government and its organisations, as well as the state governments and the local we are very conscious about the fact that there is a huge number of MSEs available in the market who might be wanting to do business with GeM, and we are not satisfied with the numbers that we have. So yes, we are trying to take proactive steps towards onboarding them in terms of aligning with various MSME and MSE organisations and associations. So they are our MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) partners, and we are having regular meetings and workshops with them to ensure that more and more MSEs come. We also have a very good working relationship and collaborations with the Ministry of MSME, where we do combined programs to ensure that you know not only MSEs, but women-led MSEs, SC/ST-led MSEs, startups, divyang and other weavers, artisans, all of them, as part of our inclusion mandate, are on board with the GeM Sahay app has been a transformative intervention at GeM. We had done a pilot, and we now rolled out the India skill program. Its official launch is also awaited. The idea is small ticket loans, collateral free for the proprietors currently. Later on, the length and breadth of the program will involve all the sellers of the platform. The endeavour is to give a collateral free short ticket and short duration loan of up to Rs 10 lakh within 10 minutes time, preferably at very competitive rates. So the impact would actually be very far reaching when the India skill program is launched in terms of empowering the small MSEs to participate in more and more bids onto the are in the process of onboarding as many lending partners as possible. It works on the highest level of FinTech architecture. There is also a specific focus on the banking partners, so that the cost of lending comes down and more beneficiaries are being on board. So once you have beneficiaries who are willing to take up this program, and when there are lenders who are willing to lend onto the platform, it's one step closer to the empowerment of micro and small is basic economics, it is about the seller base. The larger the seller base, the more the supply, the more competitive is the pricing. So there are studies which say every additional seller in a bit reduces the price by 0.5%. So that is point number one. Then there is a healthy mix of technology tools- Lot of business analytics, AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning) use cases have been deployed to ensure that price discovery is optimum. It is a democratic place. So more and more sellers from across the country are able to participate. And by virtue of that, and by virtue also of technology, in terms of breaking the buyer-seller collision, we are able to provide a very good pricing to our customers, that are our buyers. And very conservative, documented estimates say that at least 10% savings has been accrued to our buyers. So if we are talking about a cumulative GMV of Rs 14 lakh crores, you can just imagine the kind of impact in terms of cost efficiencies that this platform has been able to bring whatever is required for the buyers to make a very informed decision, be it in terms of what has been the price at which the product or a similar product that has been transacted on the platform? or what is the price at which, in certain cases, the price at which this similar product is available outside of the marketplace? That information has been made available using advanced analytics. It's a continuous, ongoing work. We have come out with a very interactive chat bot, where a lot of queries, a lot of resolutions would be done by the chat bot. So this chat bot is available in about 12 Indian languages and the idea is basically to empower the chat bot to make it so good and user-friendly to enable more interfacing. Be it buyer or seller, just make best use of technology for their day-to-day if you are referring to the Land Border Sharing Declaration, which came into being in 2020, then yes, it has, it has definitely helped in terms of propelling the Make in India, philosophy of the government. In terms of sellers, it does mean that seller has to go through a certain amount of scrutiny to ensure that they are in compliance with the land border sharing, in terms of, control of ownership, where the established sellers are incorporated, and we make sure that we have mechanism on the platform where we ensure that this important policy is implemented we are moving towards a unified public procurement, largest unified public procurement, end-to-end platform. Towards that, we are required to integrate with a huge number of databases, huge number of buyer ERPs (Enterprise Resource Planning). Currently, if I am not mistaken, we have almost 75 integrations to create innovation, be it integrations with the Aadhaar database, PAN database, or MCA database or BIS database, or even ERPs of certain important Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). So this is an ongoing course, this is an ongoing business. This is an ongoing pitch, also for the government of India and its organisations. It's not mandatory yet but we have a pitch made to all the states. All the states have signed up MOUs with us. We have also added cooperatives as a buyer. We are continuously in touch with our buyers. We have nominated senior level officers who will go into the states, and this year, we'll probably have a much more extensive outreach with our stakeholders, especially other than the central government a very basic level, if you just imagine the amount of paper we have saved through our online procurement system and the amount of carbon footprint it would have generated otherwise. We processed about 72 lakh orders last year. A good number of them are bids. And it has been happening for eight years. We take our responsibility towards sustainability very seriously. We are in touch with the MOEF (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change) as other standard making bodies so that we can introduce more and more sustainable year our focus would be more on the state outreach. So states are going to be a very important integral part of our GMV growth business. Of course, CPSE (Central Public Centre Enterprises) and the central government account for almost a majority of our GMV. So then the next step is the local self governments. Then we are also trying to get more and more cooperative buyers. Apart from that, we are trying to see if we can give more modalities of purchase and then add rate contract. So probably three, five years down the line, we would emerge as the world's largest public procurement World MSME Day , on June 27, 2025, ET Digital will also open registrations for its sixth edition of the ET MSME Awards 2025. The coveted award programme celebrates India's top MSMEs for their achievements and contribution to the nation's economic development.
Wales Online
a day ago
- Business
- Wales Online
Martin Lewis issues urgent holiday warning for Brits using their credit cards
Martin Lewis issues urgent holiday warning for Brits using their credit cards The finance expert has warned Brits against using a credit card to withdraw cash while on holiday Martin Lewis issued a warning about using credit cards abroad (Image: Getty ) A finance expert has issued a pressing credit card warning to Brits on holiday. Martin Lewis highlighted the potential risks of withdrawing cash using your card. Understanding the best way to spend money abroad can be challenging. Some countries still predominantly operate with cash, while others readily accept card and phone payments. For some destinations, such as Morocco, obtaining the currency from the UK before your trip is not possible, making things even more complicated. However, regardless of your destination, Martin Lewis strongly advises against using your credit card to withdraw cash. In an article on his website Money Saving Expert, he elaborated further, saying: "Withdrawing cash on a credit card abroad?". He pointed out that this could negatively affect your credit rating. "It could impact your credit rating," he added. Article continues below "We receive this query frequently, as we caution against credit card ATM withdrawals in the UK, due to the risk of high interest and many lenders viewing it as an indicator of debt problems." Doing this sporadically is usually not an issue, however. He stated: "Yet if you only do it occasionally abroad on a specialist card, it's not a biggie, just don't overdo it and pay it off in full." He also noted that in a few countries, using a UK card can be a "bit trickier". This includes: In Japan, you may need special ATMs to use international cards In China, hotels take cards, but elsewhere Alipay is easier In India, some shops & restaurants won't take international cards Adding to these tips, Martin advised against using a credit card to purchase cash or load a prepaid card, warning: "You'll likely pay fees and interest." He explained the reason by saying, "Most credit-card providers count these as a cash transaction - so charge withdrawal fees and interest. It's always better to use a debit card if you can." Article continues below For those looking to exchange currency prior to travelling, you can use MSE's online travel money comparison tool available here.
Wales Online
2 days ago
- Business
- Wales Online
Lloyds, Halifax, and RBS customers with an overdraft given major warning
Lloyds, Halifax, and RBS customers with an overdraft given major warning The change will see some customers paying less while others will pay more Customers should look out for a letter, text or online banking message (Image: WalesOnline/Rob Browne ) Millions of bank customers have been warned about a major change coming to their overdrafts. Lloyds Banking Group, which includes Halifax and Bank of Scotland, is changing its overdraft charges and says millions of its customers will pay less, but some will pay more. Money Saving Expert (MSE), founded by Martin Lewis, explained that the rate you will get will be based on an "affordability assessment", including your credit history and how you use any accounts you have with the banks. However, the group shared that 29.9% will become its new standard rate, down from 39.9% previously. The £100 interest-free buffer on the Club Lloyds and Halifax Reward accounts will remain. To find your current rate on your bank account statement, MSE advises searching 'Manage my overdraft' in the iPhone app, or try calling or web chatting with the bank. Customers should look out for a letter, text or online banking message from the bank which will set out the changes. If you do not receive any correspondence it means nothing should change for you. For money-saving tips, sign up to our Money newsletter here Article continues below According to MSE the changes are being rolled out in stages. If your rate is going down you should get seven days' notice before the rate automatically reduces. If your rate is rising, you will get 60 days' notice. Earlier this year Martin Lewis issued a warning about overdrafts and offered tips to help people pay them off on The Martin Lewis Money Show. Overdrafts are a way of borrowing money from your bank to allow you to spend more money than you have in your account. During the ITV show Martin said many people hold the view that credit card debt is worse than being in an overdraft. Article continues below However, he said it is important to debunk that myth. He explained: "Many think credit cards 'bad', debit cards 'good'. "Yet, if you 're overdrawn it's credit cards bad, debit cards worse as most overdrafts are 40% E.A.R Most overdrafts with virtually all high street banks and many others are ar 40% E.A.R. Credit cards [are at] 25%. "Overdrafts are the most expensive form of high street debt. Treat it like a debt, you want to get out of it."
