Binoy Kumar appointed Special Secretary in commerce ministry

Senior IAS officer Binoy Kumar has been appointed Special Secretary in the commerce ministry, an official order issued today said.
The 1983-batch IAS officer of the Telangana cadre is the Director General of Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D), the procurement arm of the central government that will be closed on October 31.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved his appointment as the Special Secretary (Logistics), Department of Commerce, the order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training said.
The closure of the DGS&D follows the government's shift to the commerce ministry's e-market platform (GeM) launched last year for public procurement of goods and services.

About 1,100 of its employees are being shifted to different departments, a senior official said.
The DGS&D has its origins in the India Stores Department, which was established in 1860 in London by the British for centralised purchase of goods for India.

In 1922, the department was established in India to arrange purchases for the government's civil departments as well as the military. In 1951, the set-up of Purchase and Inspection was reorganised and DGS&D was constituted to handle all government purchases centrally.
The GeM has been set up to to bring greater transparency and efficiency in public procurement. It has eliminated human interface in vendor registration, order placement and payment processing to a great extent.

The central and state governments procure goods and services worth over Rs 5 lakh crore annually.