SIP Report

SIDDHARTH BHAVNANI; 46C; MBA (IB) 2019-21

MAHINDRA GROUP | Group Public Affairs (GPA)

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2

Project Background.........................................................................................................................2

Tasks Conducted..............................................................................................................................3

Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................4

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Introduction
This report is prepared post the completion of the author’s summer internship project at
Mahindra in the Group Management Cadre (GMC) program. The report is prepared for the
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Delhi as part of the evaluation for the SIP and provides a write-
up of the project conducted during the internship. The project will be submitted along with the
final presentation submitted to the company and both documents will be uploaded to Campus360
in a .zip file. The report is organized into four sections: Introduction, Project Background, Tasks
Conducted, and Conclusion. The composition of each of these sections is briefly presented in this
section.
The introduction section briefly mentions the context of the report, the organization of the report,
and the content of the sections included in the report. The Project background provides relevant
foundational information needed for better understanding of the not only the project but also the
part of the organization within which the author interned. The Tasks conducted section enlists
the activities done by the intern during the 10-week SIP. The final section (Conclusion) provides
a brief overview of the key learnings from the entire internship process.

Project Background
The author was assigned to the Group Public Affairs (GPA) office within the Mahindra Group.
The GPA is a part of the Group Strategy Office and is a one-stop center for all interactions the
Mahindra Group has with governmental agencies. It can be thought of as a soft lobby and
advocacy center for all Mahindra businesses. The project assigned to the author within this
context was titled “Identifying the challenges of the government procurement market specifically
with regards to the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) portal.”
The industries under the purview of this project were the Farm Equipment division, the Auto
division and to a limited extent the generator division (Powerol) as these are the Mahindra
products sold in the government (B2G) market.
The project objectives were identified and agreed upon through multiple discussions with the
buddy and guide assigned and these are synthesized as follows:
1. Understanding GeM features
2. Examining current technological trends in government procurement
3. Benchmarking GeM
4. Mapping pain areas of GeM
5. Developing recommendations

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 Tasks Conducted
As previously discussed, five goals of the project were identified and each of them were
mutually exclusive in terms of the tasks to be carried out to resolve the objectives. These tasks
that were conducted will be discussed for each of the objectives in the below table.

Project Objective Tasks Completed

 Secondary research (GeM handbook, GeM procurement manual, GeM

query resolution, Start selling on GeM, GeM website tutorial videos)
Understanding GeM features
 Primary research (interactions with Institutional sales staff across
Mahindra and additionally from Hyundai through a referral)

Examining current technological trends

 Secondary research (GeM 2.0 webpage)
in government procurement

 Selection of best countries through InCiSE ranking – New Zealand

(GETS), and Singapore (GeBiz)
Benchmarking GeM
 Secondary research (GETS website, GeBiz webpage, all policies wrt
suppliers and evaluation of bids on both GETS and GeBiz)
 Primary research (multiple interactions with members and heads of
Mapping pain areas of GeM
institutional sales at Mahindra, the GPA President, and project guide)
 Based on combination of secondary and primary research, a set of six
Developing Recommendations recommendations was developed and classified according to their
relevance to specific departments

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Conclusion
This section provides a list of the key learnings from the internship experience.
1. Adaptability: Working from home without having a home in India as my family is based
in Doha, on account of my father’s employment status, was a big challenge. While my
project was in Delhi, I was in Mumbai living alone in a two-bedroom apartment in my
cousin brother’s society. This experience reinforced the importance of adaptability
specially in the corporate sector because I was expected to perform and deliver despite
the circumstances in which I was doing my internship.
2. Communication: As the entire internship was done via online mode, the importance of
communicating your work became clear to me. I think I realized this slightly later than
the optimal time and might have been hurt by this. However, going forward I am sure that
I will do more justice to the communication aspect in all aspects of my life both personal
and professional.
3. Research: I conducted a lot of secondary research on a topic I previously knew quite little
about and to be able to understand the intricacies of the topic made me realize the value
of good research. It also crystallized for me my interest in research which I plan on
nurturing during my thesis project, topics for which I have already started shortlisting
based on my interest area and feedback from Dr. Preeti Tak.

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