The pre-bid meeting for the captioned work was held at 03:00 PM on May 5, 2025, over Web Ex, as per the Notice Inviting Tender published in RBI website and MSTC Portal.
2. The queries raised and the clarifications issued are as under:
| Sr. No. | Reference
(relevant page(s) in Tender Document) | Existing clause | Queries / Statements from the firm | Answers / Clarifications from the Bank's side, if any. |
| a) | Pg No – 5
B. Important instructions for e-tender
Sr. No. 1) A) | The process involves vendor’s registration with MSTC e-procurement portal which is free of cost. Only after registration, the vendor(s) can submit his/her/their bids electronically. Electronic Bidding for submission of bids will be done over the internet. The Vendor should possess Class III signing type digital certificate. Vendors are to make their own arrangements for bidding from a computer connected with Internet. RBI/MSTC is not responsible for making such arrangements. (Bids will not be recorded without Digital Signature). | Request the committee to consider permitting a consortium partnership structure in bid submission. This arrangement would provide significant benefits to the esteemed RBI from technical product and services standpoint. | The same was not considered and it was clarified that the criterion remains the same as mentioned in the RFP. |
| b) | Pg No – 9
E. Scope of work
Sr. No. a) i) | The service should cover print, electronic, social media, digital, etc., and any new media which emerges during the contract period, illustrative reference detailed in Annex I and Annex II. It is desirable that the service providers should offer wide coverage of domestic as well as international news. The list of print, electronic, social media, etc., to be covered should, be mentioned separately in the bidders response. | What are the expectations for integrating "new media" during the contract period, including timelines and approval processes for adding new sources? | The new media can be any new publications, newspapers, online publications, etc. |
| c) | Pg No – 9
E. Scope of work
Sr. No. a) iii) | The broad categories of news items would be indicated by the Bank, based on which the service provider should be able to provide a daily news summary/newsletter service. This newsletter/summary of curated news should carry extracts of news articles from print, electronic, digital and online sources as per the Bank’s requirement in a standard online or internet-based format. The newspapers/ publications are illustratively listed out in Annex I and it is expected that the service provider should have subscribed to all these leading print, electronic, digital media, etc. The application should cover all the major newspapers/publications (including services of wire agencies) and all the city editions of newspapers. | Who will bear the subscription charges? | The subscription charges will be borne by the Vendor. The list is illustrative and not exhaustive. |
| d) | Pg. No – 10
E.Scope of work
Sr. No. a) iv) | The newsletter should be completely curated to pick the news of the day, most relevant to the Bank (from national and international media sources) and delivered before 0700 am IST every day, in a format as specified by the Bank from time to time and should be easily readable across various electronic platforms (viz. desktop, laptop, iPad, tablets, mobile devices etc). | Can the RBI specify the preferred format for the daily newsletter (e.g., PDF, HTML, email-based)?
Are there specific security or compatibility requirements for accessing the newsletter outside the Bank’s network, such as firewall restrictions or authentication protocols? | The newsletter preferred format must be hyperlinks containing the news articles and description. |
| e) | Pg. No – 10
E.Scope of work
Sr. No. a) vii) | The vendor should be able to provide old news articles on demand from print and electronic media as and when required. | Old news articles up to what period? | The vendor should be able to provide old news articles on demand from print and electronic media as and when required of the last few years. |
| f) | Pg. No – 10
E.Scope of work
Sr. No. a) viii) | The vendor’s platform should have the capability to search and provide news items in 11 vernacular languages (Assamese, Bengali, Oriya, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu, Marathi), apart from Hindi and English, if required. Further, it should have the capability to provide coverage from global media. The service provider should be able to provide the translated English version of vernacular and foreign language news on demand. | The bidder inquired that whether the translation cost will be borne by the vendor. | The translation cost will be borne by the vendor. |
| g) | Pg. No – 11
E.Scope of work
Sr. No. b) | Access of interface/ dashboard/ database to monitor news (including Social Media news) and Analysis Service for select users (Minimum 200 users). | Who will bear the cost of interface access for 200 users? | The cost will be borne by the vendor. |
| h) | Pg. No – 12
E.Scope of work
Sr. No. c) i) | Provide a search engine to help navigate through the social media content. Select group of users (150 users) from the Bank should have online/web access to comprehensive media database for ad-hoc and on-demand search with ability to on board users as and when required. | Who will bear the cost of access? If the agency, shall it be considered in the cost to be quoted? | The cost will be borne by the vendor. |
| i) | Pg. No – 13
E.Scope of work
Sr. No. c) i) | Give options to set a baseline threshold for the minimum number of matching tweets, articles, or blog/Facebook (Meta)/ Instagram / LinkedIn / YouTube contents. When this threshold is reached or exceeded, a facility to trigger the alerts via email, SMS, or WhatsApp may be provided. To prevent alert overload, users may be allowed to set a maximum limit for matching records, maintaining control over alert volumes and avoiding the risk of overlooking low-volume occurrences. | The bidder requested for clarification. | The dashboard should contain the facility of generating alerts of any social media mentions provided by the Bank when required. |
| j) | Pg. No – 27
Annex III
Eligibility Criteria Response Sheet
Sr. No. 3 | The average annual income from Media Monitoring (including Social Media) and analysis service should be minimum ₹50 lakh for last three years as per the audited balance sheets. | The vendor requested to consider the turnover from IT/ITES. | The same was not considered and it was clarified that the criterion remains the same as mentioned in the RFP. |
| k) | Pg. No – 28
Annex III
Eligibility Criteria Response Sheet
Sr. No. 8 | The service provider is required to provide a list of at least 3 clients, from the field of BFSI and government/semi-government organisation to whom they have been providing Media Monitoring (including Social Media) and analysis service (similar to the one mentioned in the scope of work) at least for the past three years. | The vendor requested to consider the private organization experience and remove the specific requirement of BFSI. | Same as above. |
| l) | Pg. No – 29
Annex – IV
Sr. No. 2 | Archival period for the newsletters and how long the Bank staff can retrieve the old editions of the news items from your server. | | The platform/dashboard should allow the user to search the news article on the platform with the period of the last ten years. |
| m) | Pg. No – 29
Annex – IV
Sr. No. 4 | How many clients in PSU/ Govt/ BFSI have you worked for, in the last three years
a. 3-5 clients
b. >5 clients | The vendor requested to consider the private organization experience and remove the specific requirement of BFSI. | There is no change in the criteria. |
| n) | Pg. No – 29
Annex – IV
Sr. No. 5 | In each of the last three years, the bidder should have done the job of Media Monitoring (including Social Media) and analysis service for at least one client for a value worth of
a) ₹12-20 lakh
b) ₹20-25 lakh
c) > ₹25 lakh | The vendor requested to consider the private organization experience and remove the specific requirement of BFSI. | There is no change in the criteria. |
i) This document (minutes of the Pre-Bid Meeting) shall form a part of the tender. Hence, it shall be signed and uploaded on MSTC along with the tender by the tenderers.
ii) Rest of the terms and conditions and specifications of the bid document shall continue to remain the same.
iii) The above amendments/ clarifications are issued for the information of all the intending bidders.