As a novel initiative, Government of Odisha has decided to issue licenses to IMFL off shops and CS shops under Excise department through eAuction. NIC has been entrusted the job to develop the platform for eAuction. A core team comprising officers from Excise Department, Project OMEGA (Odisha Modernizing Economy, Government and Administration), NIC , and SPC(State Procurement Cell)  has been formed and the team has been deliberating   on modalities of eAuction process through several meetings chaired by Principal Secretary, Excise.

A delegation from the UK based Department for International Development (DFID), led by Mr. Sam Sharpe, Country Head, DFID India visited NIC Bhubaneswar on 9th April to have an understanding of the NIC’s e-auction system. The delegation was presented the salient aspects of the eAuction process and a demo of the live e-auction platform developed by NIC. They were also presented the actions already taken so far by the Government of Odisha to introduce eAuction system in allotment of IMFL off shops and CS shops under Excise Department in Odisha which will be the first of its kind in the country. Shri Siddharth Das, ED, Earnst & Young and Project Director, OMEGA welcomed the delegates.

Shri Nilesh Kadam, Sr. Consultant, Wipro gave a presentation to the team on the activities already undertaken so far by the core team of eAuction.

Shri Trinath Behera, Deputy Manager, State Procurement Cell, Govt of Odisha along with Shri Nihar Ranjan Biswal, PSA, NIC Odisha presented the flow of the eAuction software to the DFID team.

The preparedness of the state to go ahead with eAuction was deliberated by Principal Secretary, Excise Shri S.P.Thakur. Other officers present on the occasion were Shri Biswar Nayak, Excise Commissioner, Shri M. K. Das, Excise Deputy Commissioner, Ms. Rashmi Dash, Consultant, Earnst & Young, Ms. Renu Deshpande, Governance Advisor, DFID, Ms. Supriya Patnaik, State Representative, DFID.

Shri A. K. Hota, Sr. Technical Director, NIC  and Shri Tapan Prakash Ray, Technical Director, NIC coordinated the programme   under active guidance of Shri S. K. Panda, DDG & SIO, NIC Odisha.

Mr. Sam Sharpe expressed happiness on the initiative taken by Govt. of Odisha with the help of OMEGA, NIC & SPC and congratulated the team members.