If you are looking to participate in government tenders, you need to first know where to find them. Finding relevant tenders suited to your business can help your business improve their growth and reputation. It is necessary to track down the latest tender updates to give you enough time to go through the tender details and submit the tender application without any errors.
How to find the latest tenders online?
There are two ways to find a government tender online.
- Government tender portals
- Private tender portals
Government tender portals
Government tender portals are where tenders are first published. There are two government tender portals in India:
- Government eMarketplace (GeM)
GeM was introduced as an online procurement portal for common goods and services required by various government departments/organisations/PSUs. To apply for tenders on GeM you should register yourself and list your products under specific product categories. Once you create a username and password follow these steps to find tenders on the GeM portal.
- Login to GeM portal
- Click on ‘Bids’ given at the right side of the homepage
- Tap on ‘List of bids’ that appears in the dropdown menu
A list of tender invitations will appear according to the categories you have chosen for your products. This is the page that will display the latest active tenders according to the products you sell. Logging into and checking tender updates on GeM will keep you posted about the latest active tenders.
It is recommended to understand the GeM portal fees and charges before you apply for tenders.
- Central Public Procurement Portal (CPPP)
Central Public Procurement Portal or CPPP is the main tender platform hosted by the government to enhance public procurement by government departments and PSUs. This is how you search for tenders on the public procurement portal:
- Go to CPPP portal (https://eprocure.gov.in/)
- Click on search option displayed on the homepage
- Fill in the filters that appear (you need not fill all the filters, entering a few relevant filters will give you suitable results.
- Click on search
A list of tenders will appear according to the filters you have applied to your search. Here are the filters that appears during the search:
- Tender type (e.g., open tenders, closed tenders)
- Tender ID
- Tender reference number
- Work/Item title
- Tender category
- Product category
- Organisation
- Department
- Division
- Sub-division
- Form of contract
- Pin Code
- Value criteria
- Date criteria
You can enter Tender ID, Tender reference number and Work/Item title if you have already been notified of a tender that you wish to participate in and know the details of the tender.
Another way to search for tender on CPPP is to scroll down the homepage and choose the eProcure option under the label eProcure/ePublish. This will take you to a page which will allow you to search for tenders by organisation, classification and location (e.g., search by state – Kerala state latest tenders, Mahatenders in 2023, and more.
Private tender portals
There are many private tender portals in India that keep a track of all the government tenders published daily. They also obtain tenders floated by private companies including large corporates for their subscribers. The private tender portals offer you a bunch of features and make you tender search easy by sending you tender updates straight to your inbox.
Private portals are easier and more convenient when it comes to finding tenders because these platforms send tender notifications that can be accessed from different devices (i.e., phone, laptop, desktop etc.). And with a single click you can get tender details and instructions on how to participate in the bid. Searching for tenders on government portals would mean that you have to log in to the website every day and manually search for tenders.
How to get government tender details?
Tender details are easy to obtain once you know where to find the tender. Once you find a tender on the GeM portal click on the participate button next to the tender. This will take you to the tender notice and bid documents. Clicking on a tender announcement on the CPP portal will take you to the tender notice and attached documents. These bid documents contain instructions to bidders, eligibility criteria, forms for submission and the list of documents required. Therefore, it should be carefully read before applying for tenders.
Things to keep in mind while applying for government tenders
Preparing an accurate tender response that can outperform the tender bids of your competitors is necessary to win a government tender bid. You can either study the tender bidding process and apply for the tender yourself or hire bid writers who are experts at preparing bid proposals. Also, it would help to know how tenders are offered and awarded to enable you to prepare your tender application better.
There are a few things to keep in mind before applying for government eTenders:
- Keep track of active tenders that are published on government tender portals.
- Download all bid documents and carefully read through all the requirements.
- Perform a complete cost analysis of the project and forecast what your competitors might quote before quoting a price for eTenders.
- If you are beginner start with small tender projects.
Priyanka is a seasoned content marketing professional with more than 6 years of experience crafting various forms of business and technology sector content. Her insightful writing tackles critical issues faced by small-scale manufacturing businesses. Priyanka’s clear and concise communication empowers businesses to make informed decisions and thrive in today’s dynamic business environment.
