MSTC - largest e-commerce standalone PSU in India

Face-to-Face
MSTC - largest e-commerce
standalone PSU in India
Shri S.K.TRIPATH
What is the procedure for e-auction of coal blocks ?
Shri S.K.TRIPATH
CMD, MSTC Ltd
M
STC Limited is a Mini Ratna Category-I
PSU under the administrative control of
the Ministry of Steel, Government of
India. The company was set up on in 9th September
1964 to act as a regulating authority for export of
ferrous scrap with an investment of Rs 6 lakh.
Government of India, Members ofSteel Arc Furnace
Association and members of ISSAI had made with
the investment. MSTC became a subsidiary of SAIL in
1974. In 1982, it got delinked from SAIL and became
an independent company under Ministry of Steel. It
was a canalizing agency for import of ferrous scrap
till 1992.
“It is a matter of pride for MSTC that MSTC's eauction system has been well accepted by the
highest offices of the country. The Hon'ble Supreme
Court of India had engaged MSTC as the service
provider for sale of confiscated iron ore in Karnataka
in 2011.” says Shri S.K.TRIPATH- CMD , MSTC Ltd in an
exclusive interview with Steelworld. Excerpts
As the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India cancelled the
allotment of 204 Coal Blocks, the present Government decided
to adopt a transparent and fair system for allotment of such
cancelled coal blocks. Since MSTC was already in the business
of e-commerce for a long time, and has developed a very strong
infrastructure in line with the CVC guidelines, we were in fact
directed by the Ministry of Coal, to conduct the e-auction of all
the coal mines through MSTC portal. For this, we developed a
special coal portal that was launched by the Hon'ble Minister of
Coal, Power & Renewable Energy, Shri Piyush Goyal ji, on 25th
Dec., 2014. A dedicated team of MSTC officials worked 24X7
basis at various locations with full back office support. MSTC
facilitated workshops, trainings and various pre-bid meetings
with interested bidders for coal blocks, besides answering
emails and telephonic queries from prospective bidders. The
entire bidding process was divided in two stages. Stage I
involved two cover e-tendering which included Technical Bid
and Initial Price Offer (IPO). The e-tenders were opened
electronically in the presence of bidders. After evaluation of
technical bids, IPOs of the technically qualified bids were
opened. The top 50% ranked bidders of IPO were asked to
participate in the e-auction process (stage II), developed
specifically for this purpose, and submit their bids through their
Digital Signatures. The e-auction for the power sector was in
the reverse mode so as to give maximum benefit to the
consumers in the shape of reduced tariff, whereas for others
(like Steel, Cement, etc), was in the forward mode.
What back end infrastructure is required for this
procedure ?
MSTC has its own Data Centre and DR site with IBM
Servers. A high power p- series server is installed in Kolkatta
that can take more than 10000 concurrent hits. Separate e-mail
server is in operation to facilitate communication. Firewall &
256 SSL is in place for data security. System of digitally signed
bids is adopted. Dedicated 100 Mbps leased line for round the
clock high connectivity is available to all users. High Security
area for the server set-up has controlled access. These are the
bare minimum requirements. Besides the process should be
architecture in such a manner that it should have all the CVC
guidelines incorporated in the infrastructure and the programs
for running the auction. Quality standards as per ISO
27001:2005, STQC etc. are met rigorously by MSTC's eauction process. The complete bidding for Coal Mines was
webcasted and was open for public viewing.
What has been MSTC's experience in conducting such
auctions in the Past ?
MSTC, being in the government sector, initially faced stiff
resistance from all quarters, since nobody was in favour of
change from the physical tender/auction system. However,
20 March 2015
Face-to-Face
after much of the assurances given by
MSTC that e-commerce is going to be the
fair and user friendly process, some of the
Government Departments reluctantly
agreed to convert into e-auction system.
Seeing the benefits of the e-auction
system, the flow of work built up and in
the year 2014-15 over a lac crore worth of
business was transacted throughout
portal. The Government underlined the
importance of e-commerce as the only
option for better e-governance. MSTC,
being the only PSU offering full scale ecommerce services without outsourcing
any part of its activities/services to any
person or agency, stand to be the only
credible and eligible agency for the job.
The long experience of e-auction backed
by the commercial experience of 50 years
makes MSTC the only organization with
such combined expertise. This has helped
MSTC to create a brand for itself in ecommerce space where customer
satisfaction is the key driver for growth.
Today MSTC is the largest e-commerce
standalone PSU in India which has no
conflict of interest with any buyer or
seller.
Tell us something about MSTC, its
present activities, future plans etc.
MSTC Limited (formerly known as
Metal Scrap Trade Corporation Limited)
has been a service provider since its
inception in 1964. During the period of
canalization, it acted as the single window
for import of ferrous scrap for the steel
industry. The imports were made on the
strength of back to back purchase
agreements with domestic industries.
Since 1992, in the post de-canalized
scenario, the company has been trying to
diversify its business portfolios for
survival as well as maintaining a positive
growth curve. From mid eighties, the
company has also started to organize the
domestic scrap market and by the mid
nineties, it has created a very strong and
organized electronic marketplace for sale
& purchase of all types of scrap, surplus
stores and obsolete items.
During the first decade of the 21st century,
the world has seen the exponential growth
of Information Technology and internet
became a household name in the country.
India today has one of the highest numbers
of internet users and the internet based
new business applications are coming up
almost on daily basis. MSTC had
embraced upon this new technology and
prior to 1990 had created a web based
application called e-auction for selling all
types of commodities globally. MSTC is
regularly conducting e-auction of non
linked coal for Coal India Limited since
2004 by which Coal India Limited is
earning thousands of crores of rupees
every year. Through its e-auction system,
MSTC has contributed significantly in
creating a vibrant market for coal trading
in India which has augmented availability
of coal for Indian consumers.
It is a matter of pride for MSTC that
24 March 2015
MSTC's e-auction system has been well
accepted by the highest offices of the
country. The Hon'ble Supreme Court of
India had engaged MSTC as the service
provider for sale of confiscated iron ore in
Karnataka in 2011. Given the sensitive
nature of the case, it was a big challenge
for MSTC to honour the trust of the Apex
court by providing an error free, time
bound and transparent system so that the
objective could be achieved. MSTC has
successfully conducted the e-auctions
since September 2011 and facilitated the
sale of more than 40 million MT of iron
ore. This has not only helped the state
government to earn additional revenue
through royalty, but has also ensured
continuous supply of raw material to the
industries in the region. This is a classic
example of how MSTC's e-auction system
has ensured a transparent method of
distribution of natural resource like iron
ore for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Likewise, government of Goa also
engaged MSTC in 2014 for conducting eauction for sale of iron ore under another
order from the Apex court.
How do you envisage as a road map
for MSTC and its contribution to
promote fair and transparent
government transactions?
Our Hon'ble Prime Minister had time and
again laid stress on e-Governance which
translates into easy governance, effective
governance and economic governance
leading towards good governance.
There are unlimited opportunities in ecommerce which need to be exploited by
the government like having a platform for
sale of forest produce, allocation of
government land on lease, allotment of
berths in ports, procurement of general
stores for the Defence forces through
reverse auction, allocation of air waves,
allocation of non coal mines, an e-market
portal for industrial products, e-mandi for
vegetables / fruits, allotment of prime
advertisement space in government
establishments like railway stations /
airports / public places etc. MSTC is fully
geared up to take up new challenges in
these areas. Necessary directives from the
government are sought to enable MSTC
leverage its resources and capabilities in
the best interest of the nation.