(Bloomberg) -- India has amended rules for purchases by government departments, making it mandatory for suppliers to mention the country of origin in a move to push for local products and keep out Chinese manufacturers.
New sellers on the Government e-Marketplace, an Amazon-like online procurement platform, will have to register the origin of their products while those already available must meet the new requirement or risk being removed, according to a government statement on Tuesday. The platform will allow buyers to filter products based on the country of origin and select those with a high percentage of local content. Buyers can choose to buy only those products that meet the minimum 50% local content criteria.
The push for products made in India comes amid rising public clamor for a boycott of Chinese goods as the two nations are engaged in their deadliest border conflict in four decades.
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The platform, which serves India's government departments, recorded sales worth 400 billion rupees ($5.3 billion) in the last fiscal year and has 324,000 vendors.
Earlier this month, India also modified public procurement rules to give maximum preference to companies whose goods and services have 50% or more local content, with an aim to promote Prime Minister Narendra Modi's “Make in India” program in response to calls to make the country self-reliant.
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