A Special Vendor Development Programme for SC/ST Vendors was organized in MRPL Employees Club on 31/08/2017. MRPL Materials department took the lead in organizing this event in which 95 SC/ST vendors participated. The meet brought together different arms under the MSME Ministry like NSIC &MSME-DI, as well as DGS&D-under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry along with the active participation of DICCI, Bangalore and DICCI South Zone.

Director (Refinery), Shri M Venkatesh presided over the function and Shri P Ravikumar, Chief General Manager, NSIC-Bangalore was the chiefguest. Shri. Socrates, Dy Director, MSME-DI, Mangalore, Shri A.F Saldanha, Asst Director, DGS&D, Shri Raja Nayak, DICCI, South Zone Coordinator, Shri Satischandra, Gen Secretary, DICCI Bangalore, Shri Suresh Babu, Chief Manager, NSIC, Bangalore Branch, were the other distinguished dignitaries who graced the occasion along with Shri BHV Prasad, GGM (HR) & Shri A Balaji, President-MSSEWA and Senior officers from Material Department.

The Programme started in the morning with the MRPL theme song. Thereafter all the dignitaries joined hands to light the lamp.Shri. VNS Venkatramana, GM (Materials) delivered the welcome address. This was followed by Director (Refinery) Shri M Venkatesh, who while delivering the presidential address, exhorted the SC/ST vendors to make use of the various facilities & learn from the specialized platform provided by MRPL at the meet, which would enable them to participate in MRPL tenders in a big way.

Shri V.J Venugopal, SM (Materials) presented an overview of the meet and laid out ways and means to enhance participation of SC/ST entrepreneurs in Public Procurements in general and MRPL Tenders in particular. Live demonstration of how to register online & demonstrate their capabilities, search MRPL tenders and how to participate and submit bids in E-tenders were given.

Shri. Socrates, Dy Director, MSME-DI and Shri Udaykumar Bhat, Asst Director, MSME-DI, Mangalore stressed the need to improve awareness on public procurement and benefits and preferences to Micro and Small Enterprises while Shri Suresh Babu, Chief Manager, NSIC, Peenya explained elaborately on the various schemes and incentives by registering with NSIC.

Shri Raja Nayak, DICCI South Zone coordinator and Shri Satischandra, Gen Secretary, DICCI Bangalore thanked MRPL for providing them a platform to know each other which would help them to participate in MRPL tenders while Shri A.F Saldanha, Asst Director, DGS&D talked on the Government E-Marketplace (GeM) portal for Government buyers I.e for Govt Departments, Institutions and PSUs.He also explained how vendors can register online with GeM portal and display their products and services.

Finally, Shri P Ravikumar, Chief General Manager, NSIC-Bangalore delivered the key note address and urged the participants to avail various benefits of Govt schemes and meet the target of 4% for SC/ST vendors in Public Procurement.

This was followed by a very interactive open session. Shri. Pownraj, DGM (Materials) proposed the vote of thanks and Shri B Sandeep Naik, DGM Materials compered the programme.