The National Mission on GeM was launched by Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, on 5^th of September 2018. Twenty States and UTs joined the Mission which aims at creating awareness about GeM, train buyers and sellers, get them registered on GeM and increase the procurement through GeM. This drive has been taken up for the promotion of inclusiveness of all sections of categories of sellers and service providers, highlighting and communicating the value addition in joining GeM, achieving cashless, contactless and paperless transactions, increasing overall efficiency and maximising ease of availability of goods and services.

During this awareness period, a buyer registration drive has been launched for on-boarding and increasing procurement by Central, State and local agencies on GeM and a vendor registration drive for on-boarding additional categories and populating the available ones on GeM with more vendors. Central Ministries, States and their agencies, including local offices, have been tasked with sharing a list of key vendors for registering on GeM and its reach has moved from a Central and State Headquarter level to Sub- district and local body level.

 Seven percent more sellers have listed their products in September 2018, total of 857 Start-ups have been registered on GeM, 1234 MSME sellers have been registered on GeM and 834 new organizations on-boarded. MSME sellers have been awarded 40,000 orders worth ₹ 551 crore, transaction volumes of FY 17-18 (3.78 lacs) have been achieved in less than 6 months in FY 18-19 (4.31 lakh), 121 new sub categories have been added on the GeM platform, 100 new sub categories got populated giving a wider choice to buyers and 92 new subcategories saw transactions.

The ongoing National Mission has led to an average saving of 25% across categories.

Procurement digitisation increases vendor onboarding and platform transactions, expanding MSME and startup participation while improving efficiency. The National Mission on GeM advances Public Procurement Digitisation by coordinating central, state and local agencies to onboard buyers and vendors, extend outreach to sub-district levels, and promote inclusiveness of startups and MSMEs through cashless, contactless and paperless transactions. Operational measures include vendor and buyer registration drives, category expansion on the platform, increased seller listings and organisational onboardings, higher transaction volumes and targeted awards to MSME sellers, yielding an average procurement saving across categories.