GeM to surpass South Korea's KONEPS, achieves 136% GMV growth in Q1 FY 24-25

The Government e Marketplace (GeM) is set to become the largest Government procurement platform in the world, surpassing South Korea's KONEPS by the end of the current financial year, Prashant Kumar Singh, CEO, GeM said during a press conference on Thursday.

In Q1 FY 24-25, GeM achieved a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of Rs 1,24,761 crore, a 136% increase from last year's Rs 52,670 crore.

Launched in 2016, GeM has streamlined government procurement into a unified platform used by a nationwide network of sellers and service providers.

The services segment led the growth, with a GMV of over Rs 80,500 crore, a 330% rise from the previous year. Central Ministries, including CPSEs, procured goods worth over Rs 1 lakh crore, with CPSEs contributing Rs 91,000 crore.

"In Q1 FY 23-24, procurement by Central Government bodies stood at Rs 42,500 Crore. This FY has seen a substantial surge in their procurement. As key participants, central bodies have continued to drive procurement reforms, reaffirming their commitment to optimising resource allocation for national development,' said Prashant Kumar Singh, CEO, GeM.

The Marketplace will also reduce the quantum of transaction charges leviable on sellers. For order values above Rs 5 lakh, which usually require bidding to be arranged, the service charge has been reduced 0.30% of the order value, as opposed to 0.45% which was levied earlier.

It also noted that in FY23-24 96.5% of transactions did not attract any transaction service fees as these were orders valued below Rs 5 lakh.

Accelerating seller onboarding

To aid sellers and accelerate their onboarding on the marketplace GeM plans to launch the 'GeM SAHAYAK' program, training 6,000-7,000 accredited trainers to assist sellers in navigating the platform and boosting business opportunities.

It has also created a GenAI-based chatbot which will help sellers onboard the marketplace. If a vendor wants to determine if there's active or past government procurement for certain products they're selling, they can ask detailed questions to the chatbot.

"To maintain its pole position in the public procurement space, GeM is all set to deploy its generative Al-based chatbot called "GeMAI" in the coming quarter. The Al tool has been trained to provide solutions based on a nuanced analysis of queries raised by buyers and sellers through various complaint and feedback mechanisms. Conversational analytics and business intelligence using generative Al are also being harnessed to build a robust Al-powered chatbot," Singh said.