Publication
The tender was issued/published on 04/09/2026.
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Appointment of an Industry partner for the AI-CoE project.
Department of Information Technology, Electronics and Communications · Altinho, Goa2026_IT_31621_1
Written by TenderKart AI from the documents published when it was generated. Check the tender for later corrigenda before you bid.
4 Sept 2026
30 Sept 2026
₹8 L
All important dates as they stand after corrigenda: publication, pre-bid/clarification deadline, bid submission deadline, bid opening, and bid validity period.
The tender was issued/published on 04/09/2026.
Written clarification queries are due by 21/09/2026 at 05:30 PM. Corrigendum I fixes the online pre-bid meeting at 22/09/2026 3:30 PM and provides https://meet.google.com/qeo-rfmc-mdn. The notice states 28/09/2026 at 05:30 PM as the last date for response to clarification.
Completed online bids are due on 30/09/2026 at 05:30 PM. The RFP separately requires hard-copy Eligibility Qualification documents by 28/09/2026 at 05:30 PM; this physical deadline conflicts with the notice's description of that same timestamp as the clarification-response deadline and should be confirmed.
Bid opening is scheduled for 01/10/2026 at 04:00 PM; only technically qualified financial bids are opened later on a separately communicated date.
Bids remain valid for 180 days from the Bid Submission Deadline (30/09/2026); DITE&C may request an extension, which a bidder may decline without EMD forfeiture.
Tender value or estimated cost, EMD/bid security (amount, acceptable forms, validity), tender document fees, performance security, and key payment terms.
The approved project cost is ₹20.00 Crore. The selected Industry Partner must commit at least ₹4.00 Crore (20% under the stated 40:40:20 framework), with at least 50% as unconditional cash; the balance may be accepted in-kind contribution valued under the RFP.
The finally applicable Tender Document Fee is Rs. 8,000/- (non-refundable) and the Tender Processing Fee is Rs. 3,000/- (non-refundable), paid online through the prescribed e-payment/challan process; upload the scanned payment challans. The RFP's Rs. 3,000 tender-fee entry conflicts with the specific Tender Notice and does not prevail.
EMD is ₹8,00,000/- (Rupees Eight Lakh only). The Tender Notice requires online NEFT/RTGS/net banking through the portal-generated challan and says any other form is unacceptable; the RFP additionally refers to the portal's electronic mode/e-Bank Guarantee facility. EMD must remain valid 45 days beyond bid validity and be extended with any validity extension.
The selected bidder must furnish an unconditional, irrevocable, on-demand PBG from a scheduled commercial bank operating in India, equal to 10% of accepted committed contribution and not less than ₹40,00,000/-. It is due within 30 days of LoI and before agreement execution or release of Government funds, whichever is earlier.
This is a co-funded partnership rather than a conventional fee-for-service price bid. Government funds are released through the SPV against certified milestones, and the Partner must release its contribution in the same proportion: M1 15%, M2 20%, M3 25%, M4 15%, M5 10%, M6 10%, M7 5%.
Every pass/fail eligibility and qualification requirement: experience and past performance, turnover/net worth, registrations and certifications, consortium/JV rules, and debarment or blacklisting conditions.
Bidder must be a legally constituted single entity with authority to contract. Consortium, JV and unincorporated group bids are prohibited. A legally constituted industry association or not-for-profit may bid in its own name, but must independently satisfy all requirements and retain sole responsibility.
A genuine unresolved conflict exists: Clause 9 requires at least 10 years continuous operation including 3 years relevant AI/data science/advanced analytics/AI infrastructure/innovation-programme/technology-CoE experience, while the more-specific Schedule 3 states at least 5 years operation including 3 relevant years. Relevant assignments must cover AI/ML, AI infrastructure, CoE/innovation labs, startup incubation or ecosystem development and be evidenced by contracts, work orders and client/completion records.
Clause 9 requires average turnover of INR 50 Crores and positive net worth for FY 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25, plus no insolvency, liquidation or material proceeding. Schedule 3 instead requires positive net worth only in the latest audited year and says turnover/solvency/liquidity thresholds will be stated in the Tender Data Sheet, but the Tender Data Sheet contains no such threshold; bidder should treat the turnover test as unresolved and obtain written clarification.
ISO 9001/equivalent and ISO/IEC 27001/equivalent are clearly mandatory. The status of CMMI Development Level 3 or higher, ISO/IEC 20000-1 and ISO 14001 is contradictory: Clause 9 lists all as mandatory, but the document checklist and Annexure II-A classify these three as conditional. Valid PAN, GST and other applicable registrations are mandatory; foreign entities provide equivalents and complete Indian registrations before contract execution.
Bidder, successor and any credential-reliance entity must not be under an operative Government/Semi-Government blacklisting, debarment, suspension or ineligibility order on the submission deadline. Disclose all concluded orders in the preceding five years, their present status, and material pending show-cause proceedings; an expired order is not an automatic disqualification. No actual/perceived conflict, corruption, collusion or multiple-bid participation is permitted.
Bidder must unconditionally accept sole contractual responsibility, minimum committed contribution, KPI obligations, data/security duties and exit/handover requirements, supported by Annexure VII, governing-body commitment and signed bid forms.
What is being procured: the work, supplies or services, deliverables and quantities, locations, phases, completion or delivery timelines, applicable standards, and notable exclusions.
Select an Industry Partner to establish, operationalise, operate, scale and hand over the Goa Artificial Intelligence Centre of Excellence at Altinho, Panaji, Goa. The partner owns end-to-end delivery from mobilisation and detailed design through Go-Live, operations, monitoring, scaling and exit transition.
Design, procure/provide, install, integrate, test and commission HPC/GPU compute, cloud, storage, networking, AI laboratories, testbeds, development environments and security tooling; maintain licences, warranties, subscriptions, asset/configuration records, helpdesk, upgrades, backup/recovery, security and service continuity.
Identify Government problem statements and deliver AI research, algorithms, models, GenAI applications, PoCs, MVPs, products, pilots and scaled deployments across tourism, healthcare, education, fisheries, agriculture, traffic/urban governance, environment and public administration.
Operate startup/MSME incubation and acceleration, mentoring, investor/market access, skilling and certification, faculty development, fellowships, industry-academia research, challenges/hackathons, innovation grants, IP filing/licensing/commercialisation, open-source AI and public/shared datasets/models.
Apply vendor-neutral, interoperable, secure and scalable designs; maintain data/model lineage and audit trails; test performance, bias, fairness, explainability, privacy and security; provide human oversight, rollback and safe decommissioning. Work must comply with applicable privacy, cybersecurity, accessibility, environmental, labour, tax, IP and procurement requirements and Safe/Trusted AI principles aligned with IndiaAI and global best practices.
Contract period is up to 12 months establishment plus 48 months mandatory operations from Go-Live (up to 60 months), extendable by up to 3 years without automatic entitlement. Milestones run to T+48 months. The partner must meet Clause 13.6/Annexure VIII KPIs, report monthly/quarterly/annually, and provide a six-month transition with asset, data, source-material, record, credential, contract and knowledge transfer.
The complete checklist of documents to submit — mandatory vs conditional, with any prescribed formats, proformas or annexures — plus how to submit: portal and mode, envelope/cover structure, digital signature requirements, signing and attestation rules, and physical originals with their deadline.
Submit online at https://eprocure.goa.gov.in/ in three distinct encrypted envelopes: Eligibility Bid, Technical Bid and Financial Bid. Financial information in the first two covers can cause rejection; Annexure X goes only in the designated financial envelope.
Every bid page must be digitally signed by the duly authorised person; include the certified Board resolution/PoA. Initial interlineations, erasures and overwriting. Bid in English; documents in another language require a duly notarised English translation, which prevails.
Deliver sealed hard copies of Eligibility Qualification documents, the original Power of Attorney and other instruments specified in the Tender Notice to the office of the Director, DITE&C. The RFP schedule gives 28/09/2026 at 05:30 PM, but the Tender Notice uses that timestamp for clarification responses rather than physical submission; obtain portal confirmation before dispatch.
Arrange and serially number Eligibility documents in Clause 12.1 order. Legal-form documents must be current consolidated versions and self-certified by the Authorised Signatory; DITE&C may demand originals, notarised copies or issuing-authority-certified copies for verification.
Every corrigendum/addendum in order — what changed (original vs amended value), its impact, and the action for the bidder — ending with the values that finally apply.
Corrigendum I dated 11/09/2026 replaces the Tender Notice's 22/09/2026 at 10:30 AM pre-bid meeting entry with 22/09/2026 at 3:30 PM and adds the Google Meet link https://meet.google.com/qeo-rfmc-mdn. Impact/action: update calendars and join using the revised online link; all other tender terms remain unchanged.
Final dates after the only corrigendum: queries 21/09/2026 05:30 PM; online pre-bid 22/09/2026 3:30 PM; clarification response 28/09/2026 05:30 PM; online bid submission 30/09/2026 05:30 PM; bid opening 01/10/2026 04:00 PM. The corrigendum changes no fee, EMD, eligibility, scope or contract condition.
Genuine conflicts within and across the documents (original vs corrigenda, clause vs annexure, tender document vs BOQ): both sides with citations, and which value prevails.
Tender Notice says 22/09/2026 at 10:30 AM, while the RFP table says 10:30 PM. Corrigendum I supersedes both: 22/09/2026 at 3:30 PM online using its stated link.
Tender Notice requires Rs. 8,000/-, but the RFP's internal NIT table says Rs. 3,000/-. The published Tender Notice is the specific fee instruction and Rs. 8,000/- applies; verify the portal challan before payment.
Clause 9 requires 10 years continuous operation; Schedule 3 requires 5 years. Page 75 says a more-specific schedule applies, suggesting 5 years, but the unresolved dual pass/fail wording warrants written confirmation.
Clause 9 sets INR 50 Crores average turnover and positive net worth for three named years. Schedule 3 requires positive net worth only in the latest year and defers turnover/solvency/liquidity thresholds to the Tender Data Sheet, where they are absent. No unambiguous final turnover threshold is stated.
Clause 9 marks CMMI, ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO/IEC 20000-1 and ISO 14001 collectively mandatory. Clause 9.1 and Annexure II-A make only ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 27001 mandatory and the other three conditional. The detailed certification annexure is more specific, but eligibility rejection risk remains without clarification.
Clauses 10.2/10.4 and Schedule 4 select on one 100-mark matrix (including 10 contribution marks), while Schedule 2 and Schedule 5 prescribe a composite score of 70% technical plus 30% evaluated contribution. Both are framed as final/specific schedules, so the selection formula is genuinely unresolved.
RFP page 8 labels 28/09/2026 at 05:30 PM as the hard-copy Eligibility submission deadline, while the Tender Notice labels the identical timestamp as the last date for response to clarification and does not list a physical deadline. Neither is later-amended; confirm physical-delivery timing on the portal.
Clause 13.10 gives the Director, DITE&C unilateral appointment power; Schedule 11 requires mutual consent, then statutory appointment if no agreement in 30 days. Under the schedule-specificity rule, Schedule 11 should prevail.
Clause 13.11 caps aggregate liability at committed contribution with four exclusions; Schedule 11 changes the basis to total contract exposure and adds broader exclusions including fraud/corruption, IP, data breach, injury/death, Government property, statutory dues and recoverable funds. The specific Schedule 11 applies, but the actual cap remains undefined until the Agreement states total exposure.
Clause 16 first requires an Exit Management Plan not later than 12 months before scheduled expiry; Schedule 11 requires an initial Exit Plan within 90 days of Go-Live and annual updates. The safer reading is that both apply, with the earlier 90-day initial plan and a refreshed final plan at least 12 months before expiry.
Only critical, tender-specific pre-bid queries that could materially change bid/no-bid, pricing, eligibility or contractual risk. Skip generic or obvious questions the documents already answer clearly.
Please issue one corrected eligibility schedule confirming (i) 5 or 10 years of operation, (ii) whether average turnover is INR 50 Crores for three years or another/TBD threshold, (iii) the applicable net-worth period, and (iv) whether CMMI Level 3+, ISO/IEC 20000-1 and ISO 14001 are mandatory or conditional. These conflicts directly determine pass/fail eligibility.
Will selection use the single 100-mark Clause 10.2 matrix, or the Schedule 5 composite score (70% Technical + 30% Evaluated Contribution)? Also clarify whether the 70/100 qualifying threshold applies before or after adding presentation and contribution marks.
Please upload the referenced Detailed Project Report, Annexure A BoQ, responsibility matrix, technical specifications, acceptance/SLA schedules, KPI definitions/weights/evidence schedule, valuation and revenue schedules, Data Processing Agreement, site inventory and complete draft Agreement. Schedule 12 says these are attached, but they are absent from the tender folder; their absence prevents reliable costing and risk allocation.
Please confirm whether hard-copy Eligibility documents are mandatory, the definitive deadline, full list of required originals/instruments, envelope marking and recipient. The RFP gives 28/09/2026 05:30 PM while the Tender Notice uses that timestamp for clarification responses.
Please confirm whether the separate financial commitment on Rs. 500 stamp paper must be registered/notarised, identify the registration authority, provide its format, and state the correct cover. Clause 11.8 prohibits financial disclosure in Eligibility/Technical covers, while the technical evaluation asks for a contribution commitment/Board resolution.
Please identify the final contracting/accepting authority, PBG beneficiary and exact approved bank/e-BG route. These remain placeholders although Schedule 12 states all such particulars were completed before publication.
Commercial, legal and execution risks a bidder should weigh: liquidated damages and penalties, unusual or one-sided clauses, tight timelines, and payment or security risks.
Partner must contribute at least ₹4.00 Crore, at least 50% in cash, in lockstep with milestone releases. In-kind valuation may be revised/rejected, deferred contribution may be discounted, and failure to deliver accepted contribution can trigger withholding, recovery, security invocation, LD and termination. Government release remains milestone-, certification-, approval- and fund-dependent.
Delay LD is 0.5% of the corresponding tranche per week or part, capped at 5% of committed contribution. A cumulative annual KPI shortfall over 20% permits withholding the next tranche; persistent KPI shortfall for two consecutive years supports termination.
PBG is at least ₹40 Lakh and runs through the entire up-to-60-month contract plus six-month claim period, with broad invocation triggers covering mobilisation, contribution, KPIs/SLAs, data, payments and handover. Invocation does not cap further recovery, LD, withholding, termination or debarment; replenishment is due within 15 days.
SPV may terminate for material breach after 60-day cure and 90-day notice, insolvency, integrity breach, persistent KPI failure or unauthorised assignment. Partner termination needs 180 days' notice and cannot take effect before three years after commissioning. DITE&C may terminate for convenience on 180 days' notice, compensating only certified expenditure incurred to termination.
The issued RFP still contains placeholders for contracting authority, dates, pre-bid details and PBG beneficiary, and the promised DPR/BoQ/SLAs/DPA/full agreement are absent despite Schedule 12 calling them attached/completed. Scope, acceptance, service levels, insurance limits, revenue sharing, security architecture and final risk allocation can therefore change materially after bid.
Personal data must be stored on India-located servers; DPA execution and DPIA are required before processing/launch, and breaches must be reported within six hours. Partner carries indemnity for data-law breach and maintains multiple insurance classes, but policy limits are deferred to the missing Agreement.
Government-funded IP is royalty-free for Government public-interest use; jointly created IP is 50:50 co-owned unless project terms say otherwise, with commercialisation revenue shared equally. Grant-funded assets, licences, source code, data/models, records and contracts must be handed over free of encumbrance, while operations continue during a six-month transition; PBG/final payment waits for certified handover.
Main-clause and Schedule 11 liability caps/exclusions conflict, leaving actual exposure undefined; arbitration appointment also conflicts, though the schedule supports mutual selection. Final Agreement negotiation could materially alter these positions after selection.
The inviting authority and relevant contacts: office, person, designation, address, phone and email — and which address receives physical submissions, if any.
Kabir K. Shirgaonkar, Director (ITE&C), Department of Information Technology, Electronics and Communications, Government of Goa. Office: 2nd Floor, IT Hub, Altinho, Panaji, Goa 403001.
Phone: +91 (832) 2221505 / 2221509. Fax: +91 (832) 2221490. Email: [email protected].
Sealed physical Eligibility documents/original PoA go to the office of the Director, DITE&C, 2nd Floor, IT Hub Building, opposite Government ITI, Altinho, Panaji, Goa – 403001.