What is Udyam registration?
Udyam (formerly Udyog Aadhaar) is the government's MSME classification certificate. It classifies businesses as Micro, Small, or Medium enterprise based on annual turnover and investment in plant/machinery.
Registration is free, entirely online at udyamregistration.gov.in, and requires only Aadhaar and PAN. You receive a Udyam Registration Certificate (URC) with a unique URN immediately after verification.
Is Udyam mandatory for GeM seller registration?
Udyam is not strictly mandatory to register on GeM — you can complete registration as a non-MSME seller without it. However, not having Udyam means you lose three major advantages on the platform.
Without Udyam: you must pay EMD on every bid, you are not eligible for the 25% procurement reservation for MSMEs, and you cannot participate in the MSME-only bid category on GeM.
Benefits of Udyam specifically on GeM
EMD exemption: saves 1–3% of bid value on every submission, directly improving your cash flow. On ₹50 lakh of bids per year, that's up to ₹1.5 lakh not tied up in deposits.
25% procurement reservation: the government mandates 25% of its procurement spend go to MSMEs. Buyers actively look for MSME sellers for these allocations — your catalogue and bids appear in MSME-filtered searches.
Price preference: in L1 bidding, MSME sellers within a price band of the L1 non-MSME can be given preference. This means you can win even if your price is slightly higher than a large company's.
How to register for Udyam
Visit udyamregistration.gov.in. For new entrepreneurs: register with Aadhaar. The portal auto-fills business details from Income Tax and GSTIN databases.
After OTP verification, you receive your URC immediately. Download the PDF and upload it to your GeM seller profile under the MSME section. Keep the URC current — Udyam certificates do not expire but your classification can change if turnover crosses thresholds.
GemSetu's free registration readiness wizard at gemsetu.com/get-started checks whether your profile has Udyam correctly linked before you start bidding.