Nudging more states to mandate procurement through GeM, says CEO

The Government e-Marketplace (GeM), an initiative to bring all public procurement by multiple government departments and agencies into a single portal, is now looking to convince more States to exclusively use its platform for procuring public goods and services.  

 

In 2024-25, about 10.5 per cent of the total government procurements worth ₹5.42 trillion carried out through the GeM portal were from States. Uttar Pradesh accounted for a little under 30 per cent of States’ GeM purchases last year worth ₹57,200 crore.

 

While the central government has made it mandatory for all departments to procure goods and services through the GeM, which is completing nine years, just eight States have done the same. Although 36 States and Union Territories have used the GeM, many States have their own procurement platforms that they stick to.

 

Mihir Kumar, the CEO of GeM, outlined a new strategy to accelerate state-level adoption on Friday, and sought to address concerns about States that using the Centre-backed GeM platform could deprive opportunities for businesses in their own jurisdictions. 

 

“Coming to the GeM portal doesn’t adversely affect the local seller,” Kumar said, pointing to transaction data showing strong participation by vendors based in states. About 2.35 million sellers from across the country are registered on the GeM platform. Maharashtra-based sellers, for instance, have received orders worth over ₹1.84 trillion since GeM’s inception.

 

To put that in context, since its launch in August 2016 till July 31, 2025, over 3 crore orders had been placed on GeM worth ₹14.81 trillion. Nearly 37 per cent of this procurement value has been from micro and small enterprises. So far this year, the digital procurement platform has recorded a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of ₹1.41 trillion.

 

Kumar, who is planning to visit 10 states that procure high GMV over the next three months, emphasised that the objective of bringing more states fully onto GeM is not just to pursue growth in volumes.

 

“We are not only chasing numbers. We are basically trying to see that the public procurement improves in the country. That’s why we have deliberately decided that this year, we will try to convince the states that GeM brings a lot of benefits when you do business through it,” he said.