Government e Marketplace

 Government e Marketplace (GeM) is an online platform for public procurement in India. The initiative was launched on August 9, 2016 by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India with the objective to create an open and transparent procurement platform for government buyers. The platform is owned by GeM SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) which is a 100 per cent Government-owned, non-profit company under the Ministry of Commerce and Industries, Government of India. 
GeM is a contactless, paperless and cashless online marketplace that replaced the Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D) in 2016. Since its inception, GeM has brought in the visibility and transparency in public procurement. The portal has transformed public procurement in India by driving its three pillars, namely, inclusion, usability and transparency and efficiency and cost savings. According to an independent assessment made by the World Bank, average savings for buyers in Government e Marketplace portal is about 9.75% on the median price. The Government of India has made it mandatory for sellers to display the 'country of origin' on products to be sold on GeM portal.
The present Chief Executive Officer of Government e Marketplace is Prashant Kumar, who is a 1993 batch IAS officer of Manipur cadre.
History.
The Government e-Marketplace was launched in August 2016 for online procurement of goods and services by central and state government organizations. 
The initial version of GeM portal was developed and hosted by Directorate General of Supplies and Disposals (DGS&D) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry with technical support of National E-Governance Division (NeGD), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. The present GeM Portal is developed and being maintained by a Managed Service Provider (MSP). It has partnered with various banks and ERP system of large buyers for payment services.
Objective.
The platform aims to increase transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement along with inclusion. It provides all modes of procurement, viz., direct purchase, e-bidding, bidding with reverse e-auction and direct reverse auction. The digital platform enables economies of scale, efficient price discovery and dissemination of best practices. The procurement of goods and services by ministries or government departments will be mandatory for Goods or Services available on GeM portal, as embodied in Rule 149 of the General Financial Rules, 2017.
Financials.
As of October 2020, it has completed public procurement worth .
Statistics.
As of November 2020, GeM has 6.48 lakh registered sellers and service providers out of which more than 1.56 lakh are micro and small sellers with a majority share of 57.54 per cent in the total order value placed through GeM. As of November 2020, it has more than 16 lakh products in about 10,101 product categories, and it has 170 service categories.
In April 2020, the platform added 146 categories of medical products and 8 services categories on its platform to help the government fight COVID-19 pandemic.