Government e-Marketplace Eyes ₹7 Lakh Crore Business in 2025: Ajit B Chavan Chavan said that GeM acts like the "Amazon of the government procurement", describing it as a very successful experiment of the Indian government in terms of bringing together the industry, policy makers on a single platform, and generating business opportunities.

The Governmemt e-Marketplace (GeM), an online procurement portal for government departments, organizations, and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in India, is hopeful to do INR 7 lakh crore worth of business in 2025, according to its Additional CEO, Ajit B Chavan, highlighting advancements in the Indian public procurement that have undergone a massive digital transformation and reshaping how government and businesses interavct.

Speaking at the Entrepreneur 2025 summit, Chavan said, "In the first year, we did a business of INR 422 crore. When we closed last year, it was 5.43 lakh crore worth of goods and services transacted on the platform in one year. This year probably we will do INR 7 lakh crore worth of business."

Chavan said that GeM acts like the "Amazon of the government procurement", describing it as a very successful experiment of the Indian government in terms of bringing together the industry, policy makers on a single platform, and generating business opportunities.

Chavan explained, "Before the creation of GeM in 2016, public procurement used to be done in a very piecemeal and fragmented manner. Each company, organization, and department would go by its own rules, regulations, and was very fragmented in the manner in which it was done."

What made the shift transformative was its sheer scale, according to Chavan who said, "Public procurement is almost 15-20 of the GDP of the country, and this includes goods, services, and works."

GeM is an "entrepreneur-agnostic" platform, according to Chavan, and it is insatiated towards onboarding more entrepreneurs, sellers, and service providers on its platform. Cumulatively, the platform has recorded INR 15 lakh crore worth of business, in cumulative Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) since its inception in 2016, and close to 45 per cent of this went to micro and small enterprises in the country.

Inclusivity is also at the heart of GeM's design. Chavan said that the platform has 1.96 lakh women MSEs, and 60,000 SC-ST-led MSEs actively doing business. The public marketplace also extends across all tiers of the government and into the rural depths of India. "Somebody who is in a remote place like Arunachal can get business from Delhi, which earlier was not there," Chavan said. The platform also features 1.66 lakh government buyers across three tiers and a total of 23.6 lakh entrepreneurs.

GeM's impact has not just been economic, but also has been about efficiency in governance, according to Chavan, who claimed that the World Bank came out saying the digital transformation instrument has resulted in 10 per cent savings overall to the government.

"Imagine the importance of this kind of savings for a developing country like India, where this money can be diverted to much better avenues requiring social interventions by the government," said Chavan.

GemM has "special positive affirmative action," added Chavan, who said that the startups featured on the platform have done INR 45,000 crore worth of business on the platform.

"Virtually, all the innovative products can be housed on the platform in a special place called 'Vocal for local' stores." Chavan also highlighted that the platform has virtually no cost of entry. "We don't charge like other online platforms, definitely not 30 per cent. The only charge that is levied on an entrepreneur is when he does a business of 20 lakh cumulatively in one year, and the amount of charge that we take is only 0.3 per cent of the order value."

Encouraging entrepreneurs to explore the opportunity, Chavan said, "If you are a startup or entrepreneur wanting to do business with the government, the process is simple, the cost of entry is negligible, and there is an equal playing field for everybody."