| Table : Agenda Points |
| Sr. No | Agenda Points | Clarification/ Comments |
| 1 | Is it necessary to mention names of all additional newspapers and magazines that the service provider will cover in the bid document? | Yes, it is necessary to provide list of the all major English and Hindi newspapers. List of newspapers of vernacular languages would be an added advantage. |
| 2 | We need more clarity whether the cost of licences will be borne by RBI or service provider? | The licence fees would be borne by the bidder. |
| 3 | The history reside on the bidder's data warehouse or stored in RBI's data warehouse? | The archived news item could reside on the vendor’s warehouse. The vendor should have the capability to provide any news article as and when required by the Reserve Bank. |
| 4 | We assume the search words will be in English and applied on the English translated news content and not on original vernacular content. Also we need guidance on the list of vernacular news sources to be covered. | The bidder should have the capability to provide news articles or capsules as and when required when there is some special event, or an important announcement/circular issued by the Reserve Bank. |
| 5 | The requirement is to deliver news as it happens (Live) or daily at 8:30 AM next day? We need more clarity on this. | News is required on a real time basis which can be viewed by team members of the Reserve Bank. A consolidated news capsule should be available before 8.30 am next day. |
| 6 | Are the bids required to be submitted physically in an envelope or uploaded on the MSTC portal? | The bids would have to be submitted on the MSTC portal. The vendors should also send the documents in a sealed envelope with all the requisite signatures. If there is any mismatch between the documents submitted in hard copy and bid uploaded on the MSTC portal, the bid on the MSTC portal would be considered as final and binding. |
| 7 | What kind of certificates are needed to be provided by the bidder? | Certificates on the client‘s letterhead signed by the authorised signatory would be required. Scanned copy of the same has to be uploaded on the MSTC portal. |
| 8 | What kind of special events and their frequency can be expected? Also, what kind of coverage of these events in expected in the reports? | Special events would include but not limited to Monetary policy meetings, directions against any bank amongst other events. The frequency of these events would be not more than two such events in a month. But there could be more such events within that month. |
| 9 | In this section, the 60% minimum marks required will be based on total marks allotted (15) or 60% of the highest scored by the top bidder in this category | Marks obtained will be based on the absolute marks allotted. |
| 10 | We need more clarity on what needs to be done / submitted with reference to these 6 points under table 2 of proforma A on page 15? | The news building tool should be able to perform these six functions. Respective elaboration on design of news template may be done by bidder during presentation. |
| 11 | Should the bidder fill this on the portal only or submit/upload a copy of the Proforma too under table 1 of proforma A on page 15? | The bidder should upload a copy of the proforma too. |
| 12 | There is ambiguity with regards to the EMD submission. We need clarification on the same. | EMD would have to be submitted by the vendor. The vendor can scan and upload the EMD on MSTC portal. |
| 13 | According to the scope, tracking is required on Individual Banks and Institutions. Does it mean both private and public sector banks? Also, could you share a list of all such banks and institutions on which tracking is required? | Yes, the vendor can develop the application to the best of his/her ability, which would be presented to the Reserve Bank. |
| 14 | Annexure I does not specify any city edition of newspapers. Our understanding is to track only one major edition of these newspapers (New Delhi primarily). Is that correct? | The application should cover all the major newspapers/publications (including services of wire agencies) and all the city editions of newspapers. |
| 15 | Please confirm if the same news development has appeared across multiple media outlets, would you require it from all the sources or only 1-2 most important news stories on that development? | The application should be able to collate the same news across multiple sources. The choice would belong to the Reserve Bank to pick or leave duplicates, but the application should have the ability to list out all instances of the news. |
| 16 | News Summary should contain news items culled out from leading national and international dailies English and major Hindi publications. It should have the capability to search and provide news items in 11 vernacular languages (Assamese, Bengali, Oriya, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telegu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Urdu, Marathi), if required.– Does it mean news tracking is required across all languages or only English and Hindi? | The news summary should contain news on a daily basis covering English and Hindi. There should be capability to provide vernacular news (direct or translated) as and when needed, especially for servicing news related requirements of regional offices of RBI. |
| 17 | The database should contain full text (and other formats) content with translation from important publications across the world in major languages. Does it mean that all articles from the vernacular need to be translated? OR translation will be requested on a need basis only? Also, would you need a word-to-word translation or just a gist of the news articles in one paragraph? | All vernacular articles will need to be translated on a need basis. For vernacular language news, system generated translation would work as well. |
| 18 | Turnaround time for availability of immediate news capsules, when required, especially on non-working days. – Could you share more detail about this requirement? | Turnaround time would be as specified by RBI, with an upper limit of two hours. |
| 19 | Is the Analysis required only for events/press releases? Or would it be required on a more regular basis, like a monthly comprehensive report? What frequency are we looking at for Analysis reports? | Analysis reports would be required on a weekly basis. Also, news summary should be available on all days including weekends and holidays. Monthly reports would be desirable. |
| 20 | According to the scope, a search engine is required to help navigate through the social media content - This social media content is for which social media pages/accounts? example RBI Facebook, Twitter, etc official pages/handles or individual banks, insurance companies, IMF, etc. India and internationally too? If yes, please provide a list of all companies/institutions for which their official social media pages/handles need to be monitored? | The Reserve Bank expects the bidder to monitor three social media handles, viz., @RBI, @RBIsays, @DasShaktikanta. Going forward, if a new handle is created, it would be added to the list. Blogs, direct web mentions and other social media mentions on RBI and related matters would be provided by the bidder. Keywords would be provided by RBI for monitoring. Also, social media reports of major central banks should be available as and when required. |
| 21 | Track and analyse any markets across different topics, pertaining to different audiences - Can you provide a list of topics that need to be monitored? Are we listening only related to RBI or other financial institutions too? | The topics would include the Reserve Bank, central banking, banking, financial institutions, economy, capital market and articles among other things. |
| 22 | What is the scope for listening - only RBI related conversations, RBI and banks, insurance companies, etc? Please do provide a complete list of keywords, banks, institutions, etc | Keywords would be provided by the Reserve Bank from time to time. |
| 23 | Is there a limit to annual mentions | There would be no limit to annual mentions. |
| 24 | How many users (login access) required to view real-time campaign analytics, benchmarking, trend spotting, etc. | At least 200 login access would be required in the beginning. The bidder should have capability to increase the number for login access. |
| 25 | Does the team require historic mentions for RBI or banks, insurance, etc, and any particular social media channel, etc? | Historic mentions should be available as and when asked for. |
| 26 | Is LinkedIn search capability necessary, as LinkedIn does not allow to search. | LinkedIn search capability is not required right now. But the bidder is expected to work a way out to monitor RBI related mentions on the platform. |
| 27 | Net worth of the company should be positive. The minimum net worth of the service provider should be above Rs 50 lakh as per the last three audited annual balance sheets? Could this be relaxed? | Net worth of the company has to be positive. |
| 28 | In case of need, RBI may terminate the services of the vendor, by giving one month’s notice. However, if the vendor is not desirous or in a position to provide services to RBI, it may serve prior notice before two months from the date it desires to discontinue its services. Could this please be based on material breach and not convenience? | Notice period would be suitably mentioned in the para in the termination clause of the agreement. |
| 29 | Minimum Net worth needs to be Rs 50 lakh as per the last audited balance sheet. Please enclose copies of Annual audited Balance Sheet for the last three years along with I.T. returns. (to be uploaded) | Audited balance sheet validated by a chartered accountant would be accepted. |
| 30 | Sentiment Analysis in selected languages, will translation work | Sentiment analysis in selected language translation works. The application should cover electronic media sentiments as well. |
| 31 | Waiver of EMD for MSME company | Yes, waiver on EMD would be granted to MSMEs as per the Government of India guidelines dated November 12, 2020. |
The following Bank’s officials and representative of prospective bidder were present during the pre-bid meeting: