PIB TrackerA decade of GeM: ₹20 lakh crore bought in the open
The government's procurement marketplace turns ten with cumulative orders past ₹20 lakh crore, an IIT Delhi estimate of ₹1.76 lakh crore in net social savings, and AI now watching for cartels and order-splitting.
What happened
- GeM completes ten years on 9 August 2026 with cumulative GMV over ₹20 lakh crore across 3.78 crore orders.
- Annual GMV rose from ₹422 crore in FY2016-17 to over ₹5 lakh crore in each of the last two years.
- MSEs account for ₹9.07 lakh crore — 45.6 per cent of cumulative GMV.
- An IIT Delhi study put net social savings at ₹1,76,411.46 crore over three years.
- AI and ML tools now flag suspected cartelisation, collusion and order splitting.
For Prelims
- GeM: Government e Marketplace — the single online platform for public procurement; operational since 9 August 2016.
- GMV: Gross Merchandise Value — cumulative ₹20 lakh crore across 3.78 crore orders.
- MSE share: ₹9.07 lakh crore, or 45.6 per cent of cumulative GMV.
- Inclusion: 2.24 lakh women-led MSEs (₹99,147 crore) and 42,242 startups (₹65,633 crore).
- IIT Delhi study: monetised benefit ₹86,571.69 crore, net social saving ₹1,76,411.46 crore (FY2023-24 to FY2025-26).
- Fee reform: transaction charge cut 0.50% to 0.30%, orders up to ₹10 lakh exempt — 97 per cent of orders now pay no fee.
- Earlier assessment: the Economic Survey 2021-22 had also recorded procurement savings through the platform.
For UPSC: A strong governance-plus-economy card. Use it for transparency in public procurement, digital public infrastructure for markets, MSE and women-led enterprise participation, and algorithmic detection of bid rigging.
What it is NOT: GMV is the value of orders transacted on the platform, not a measure of savings; the ₹1.76 lakh crore is a study estimate of net social benefit, not money returned to the exchequer.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS2.15 · GS3.1 · Linkage L2
Anchor
Procurement is where governance is most often bought and sold; putting it on one screen changes the odds.
Substantiation (data)
₹20 lakh crore cumulative GMV across 3.78 crore orders, with the second ₹10 lakh crore taking under two years against more than eight for the first.
Exemplification
MSEs supply 45.6 per cent of value, and 2.24 lakh women-led MSEs have fulfilled over 50 lakh orders.
Problematisation
A single marketplace concentrates procurement risk, and price comparison alone cannot certify quality or delivery.
Way-forward
Extend mandatory listing to State procurement, publish the AI cartel-detection outcomes, and audit quality complaints alongside price savings.
Position
Transparency in public spending is cheapest when it is a by-product of the transaction, not an audit after it.
Deploys into: E-governance + the economy (GS2.15, GS3.1) · transparency in public procurement, DPI for markets, and MSE participation in government demand.
Ministry of Commerce & Industry · 2026-08-07 · PRID 2296138 · PIB source ↗