The pre-bid meeting for the captioned work was held at 03:00 PM on August 1, 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. |
| 1. | General Clarification | On perusal of the RFP, we have observed that there is no mention of our liability under this engagement. | In accordance with standard industry practice, our aggregate liability under this RFP and in connection with the services shall be for direct damages only and shall, in all circumstances and events, be limited to one time the fees paid to us under the engagement. We shall not be liable for any indirect or consequential losses. | Please refer to following paras
i) Pg No – 9
E. Scope of Work Sl. No. a) ii)
ii) Pg No – 11
E. Scope of Work Sl. No. b) vii)
The bidders should take liability for copyrights, license of content provided to RBI. |
| 2. | Pg No – 3
A. Bid Schedule – Sl. No. 8 | Amount of EMD | Kindly exempt for MSMEs, as most Central Government
entities do. | MSMEs are exempted from providing Earnest Money Deposit (EMD) for work orders up to ₹10 lakhs. In this case, total cost of work is ₹1.5 crore, hence there will be no exemption from EMD. |
| 3. | Pg No – 9
E. Scope of work
Sr. No. a) i) | The list of print, electronic, social media, etc., to be covered should, be mentioned separately in the bidders response. | Do we need to track Social & electronic tracking? | The bidders have to track social media and electronic media also. |
| 4. | Pg No – 9
E. Scope of work
Sr. No. a) i) | It is desirable that the service providers should offer wide coverage of international news. | We will check the availability of subscriptions for international publications within India and revert accordingly. In case any specific publication is not accessible, we will inform you. Kindly confirm if this is okay. | The bidders should have subscriptions so that copyrights and premium content issues should not come in the way accessing and sharing the news within RBI. |
| 5. | Pg No – 9
E. Scope of work
Sr. No. a) ii) | The service provider should have licence and copyrights to provide the contents to the Bank and allow the Bank to further redistribute the contents internally. The licence fees would be borne by the bidder (if any). | No such licence is required for these services, if Content is shared inhouse, as mentioned in the Tender document. Unlike in the UK, India does not have a government backed authority that licences media monitoring content.
Kindly share details of the license type, scope, and issuing authority. | The bidders should ensure we are able to share content internally by taking up the responsibility for copyrights, subscriptions, license etc. if any. |
| 6. | Pg No – 9
E. Scope of work
Sr. No. a) iii) | The application should cover all the major newspapers/publications (including services of wire agencies) and all the city editions of newspapers. The bidders should provide a declaration that they will cover all editions as mentioned in Annex XI | We propose to monitor print publications across 11 key city editions — New Delhi, Guwahati, Kolkata, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Kochi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, and Mumbai — covering newspapers with the highest circulation. Please confirm if this approach works for you. | The bidders should be covering all editions of the newspapers mentioned in Annex I at the minimum |
| 7. | Pg No – 9
E. Scope of work
Sr. No. a) iv) | The newsletter should be completely curated by picking the news of the day, most relevant to the Bank (from national and international media sources) and delivered before 0700 am IST every day | English news articles from six metro editions — New Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai — can be shared between 6:00 AM and 8:30 AM. Regional language coverage will be completed by noon. Based on priority, we can attempt early delivery of select vernacular coverage (Hindi, Marathi, Telugu, and Kannada). | It was clarified that the criterion remains the same as mentioned in the RFP. |
| 8. | Pg No – 9
E. Scope of work
Sr. No. a) v) | This service has to be delivered on all days, including bank holidays, Saturdays and Sundays. Since users may access their mail outside the Bank network using reliable browsers as well, access to the full newspaper service should be available even when the Bank user accesses his/her mails outside internal network of the Bank. | Regular updates will be shared Monday through Saturday. In case of Sundays or public holidays, coverage will be provided on the next working day. | It was clarified that the criterion remains the same as mentioned in the RFP. |
| 9. | Pg No – 10
E. Scope of work
Sr. No. a) x) | The service provider’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. | Please note we will not be able to provide coverage from Urdu & foreign language in the current scope of work. | It was clarified that the criterion remains the same as mentioned in the RFP. |
| 10. | Pg No – 11
E. Scope of work
Sr. No. b) iii) | There should be facility for these users to perform media analytics. Tools for measuring media space in terms of column, centimetres, bytes, etc., and presenting the results in graphs or other visualisations to facilitate and assist the Bank in this process should be part of the offer. | Most countries including all big clients moved to word count instead of Column centimetres.
It takes care of all formats of news clips uniformly. Kindly accept word count as a measurement unit. | This criterion has been modified. (Refer to Addendum) |
| 11. | Pg No – 11
E. Scope of work
Sr. No. b) vii) | The service provider should have licence and sufficient rights to provide the contents to the Bank and allow the Bank to further redistribute the contents internally without any copyrights issue. | No such licence is required for these services, if Content is shared inhouse, as mentioned in the Tender document. Unlike in the UK, India does not have a government backed authority that licences media monitoring content.
Kindly share details of the license type, scope, and issuing authority. | The bidders should ensure we are able to share content internally by taking up the responsibility for copyrights, subscriptions, license etc. if any. |
| 12. | Pg No – 22
I. Terms and Conditions
Sr. No. 10) i) | The obligation to observe provisions of laws of India and those of other countries, if applicable, relating to copyright or intellectual property right
shall be with the service provider/service provider and the Bank will not be
liable for any violation of the same by the service provider/service provider. | No specific query raised | - |
| 13. | Pg No – 25
Annex II -
Illustrative Social Media Platforms to be covered | Illustrative Social Media Platforms to be covered - X (formerly Twitter)
- (firehose)
- YouTube (real time)
- Facebook (Meta)
- LinkedIn
| Wanted to understand the need for a firehose. No Indian company has a firehose. Also, it is not required for any kind of content. We use inhouse crawlers as well as other tools from companies that have firehose anyways. Hope that is good enough. Our timelines for YouTube are in minutes, but it is not technically REAL TIME.
Want to understand the need, since RBI has not asked for Real Time updation from any other channel. Public post data from Meta Platform and LinkedIn data will be provided. | This criterion has been modified. (Refer to Addendum) |
| 14. | Pg No – 26
Annex III -
Eligibility Criteria – Sl. No. 3 | The average annual income from Media Monitoring and Analysis Service should be minimum ₹50 lakh for last three financial years that is – 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25* as per the audited balance sheets. | i) Kindly relax this clause as- The average annual income from Digital marketing/ social media management/ Grievance management/ Media Monitoring and Analysis Services should be minimum ₹50 lakh for last three financial years that is – 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25* as per the audited balance sheets.
ii) Our audit for FY 2024-25 is currently underway. Kindly Allow for audited balance sheets for FY 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24, along with the provisional balance sheet for FY 2024-25.
(One should be allowed time till date of start of the project) | i) There is no change in the criteria.
ii) The bidders can furnish provisional balance sheet for FY 2024-25. However the selected bidder has to furnish the audited balance sheets in due course before signing the agreement. |
| 15. | Pg No – 26
Annex III -
Eligibility Criteria – Sl. No. 5 | For each of the past three financial years that is – 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25, the company must have provided Media Monitoring and Analysis Services with a minimum annual value of either ₹12 lakh from a single client, ₹20 lakh from two clients, or ₹25 lakh from three clients. | i) Kindly relax this clause as-For each of the past three financial years that is – 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25, the company must have provided Grievance management/Social Media management/ Monitoring and Analysis Services with a minimum annual value of either ₹12 lakh from a single client, ₹20 lakh from two clients, or ₹25 lakh from three clients.
ii) Can we Submit 3 Clients Invoices which combines value of 25 Lakhs or required single client with 12 Lakhs
(or)
Can we submit three client with different Sectors or required only In BFSI
(or)
Can we submit invoices with Media Monitoring services where we have not a separate components as Analysis in our Invoice methods. | i) There is no change in the criteria.
ii) Yes, the bidders can furnish invoices from 3 clients which combinedly has a minimum value of ₹25 lakh.
Yes, can be submitted from different sectors
Yes, can be submitted |
| 16. | Pg No – 26
Annex III -
Eligibility Criteria – Sl. No. 6 | The service provider is required to have experience of at least three years that is – 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 in Media Monitoring and Analysis Service. | Kindly relax this clause as-The service provider is required to have experience of at least three years that is – 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25 in Digital marketing/ social media management/Grievance management/Media Monitoring and Analysis Service. | There is no change in the criteria. |
| 17. | Pg No – 27
Annex III -
Eligibility Criteria – Sl. No. 7 | The service provider is required to provide a detailed description of the infrastructure, Business Continuity Strategy, and the profile of its employees, including the number of employees and their qualifications that are engaged in Media Monitoring and Analysis Service.
Service provider should have sufficient number of regular employees for Media Monitoring and analytics. | 1. Clarification on Business Continuity Plan (BCP):
o Could you please specify the expected level of detail to be included in the Business Continuity Plan?
o Should the BCP specifically address social media monitoring and analytics operations, or would a general agency wide BCP suffice?
2. Scope of “Number of Employees”:
o Does this refer to the total organizational strength or only those involved in the proposed project?
o Should a functional breakdown of analytics, monitoring, content, etc. be provided?
3. Social Media Monitoring and Analytics Staff:
o Are third-party or outsourced professionals allowed, provided EPF and compliance documentation is available?
o Is there a minimum staff count requirement for eligibility?
4. Proof of Employment and EPF Records:
o What specific documents are required as proof of EPF compliance—will EPF registration and latest challans suffice?
o Would a self-attested employee list or HR certification be acceptable?
5. Definition of Regular Employee:
o Kindly clarify whether contract employees (on payroll with EPF) qualify as “regular employees” under this clause. | The bidders should have adequate infrastructure in terms of number of employees, their qualifications, IT, BCP etc so that they are able to provide uninterrupted services to RBI 24x7x365.
Specifics are left to the discretion of the bidders. |
| 18. | Pg No – 27
Annex III -
Eligibility Criteria – Sl. No. 8 | The service provider is required to provide a list of atleast 3 clients, from the field of BFSI and government/semi-government organisation to whom they have been providing Media Monitoring and Analysis Service (similar to the one mentioned in the scope of work) at least for the past three years that is – 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25. | Kindly relax this clause as-The service provider is required to provide a list of atleast 3 clients, from the field of BFSI and government/semi-government organisation/PSU to whom they have been providing Digital marketing/ social media management/Grievance management/Media Monitoring and Analysis Service (similar to the one mentioned in the scope of work) at least for the past three years that is – 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25. | There is no change in the criteria. |
| 19. | Pg No – 27
Annex III -
Eligibility Criteria – Sl. No. 10 | Self-certification by the MD/CEO on the company letterhead with Signature and Company Seal and a certificate duly signed by Chartered Accountant to be submitted giving details as to whether involved in any litigation or any legal, criminal, civil, taxation and other cases pending against the Agency/ Directors/ Proprietors etc. If yes, give details, including details of conviction, if any (Annex VII). | Our Chartered Accountant doesn’t find any role for himself in this. We recommend that this point be dropped, while we focus on the quality of the product and deliveries. | There is no change in the criteria. |
| 20. | Pg No – 28
Annex IV -
Technical Evaluation – Sl. No. 1 | Experience of the bidder in years in Media Monitoring and Analysis Service. a) 3-5 years b) 5 – 8 years c) More than 8 years | Kindly relax this clause as-Experience of the bidder in years in Digital marketing/ social media management/Grievance management/ Media Monitoring and Analysis Service. a) 3-5 years b) 5 – 8 years c) More than 8 years | There is no change in the criteria. |
| 21. | Pg No – 29
Annex IV -
Technical Evaluation – Sl. No. 5 | In each of the last three years that is – 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25, the bidder should have done the job of Media Monitoring and Analysis Service for atleast one client for a value worth of a) ₹12-20 lakh b) ₹20-25 lakh c) > ₹25 lakh | In each of the last three years that is – 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25, the bidder should have done the job of Digital marketing/ social media management/Grievance management/Media Monitoring and Analysis Service for atleast one client for a value worth of a) ₹12-20 lakh b) ₹20-25 lakh c) > ₹25 lakh | 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.