PRD No. 504 /08.01.01/2001-02

June 17, 2002

1. Press Relations Division, Reserve Bank of India, is in the process of switching over to total automation of work in the division with a view to enhance productivity, curtail overhead expenses and to do away with wasteful and time consuming activities and explore the possibilities of outsourcing such activities which cannot be attended to in-house efficiently and consume lot of time, energy and manpower.
2. Paper Clipping is such an area where the division wishes to go for automation. Presently the Division subscribes to a number of financial and general dailies and prepares folders containing news items, editorials, letters to editors etc., related to the banking, finance etc. in general and the Bank in particular. These news clipping folders are then sent to the Governor/Deputy Governors for their perusal. The division also prepares a news summary on the basis of these clippings for the benefit of the top executives.
3. The Division wishes to out source this job and is looking for such service providers who have expertise, manpower, infrastructure and capabilities to do the job on regular basis and consistently for the period covered under agreement.
4. The Division invites interested parties to submit technical as well as commercial bids for the service on the terms and conditions set out in the annexure.
5. The technical as well as commercial bids should be sent in two separate sealed covers addressed to The General Manager, Press Relations Division, Reserve Bank of India, Central Office Bldg, 23rd floor, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Marg, Mumbai-400 001 clearly superscribing on the cover "Technical/Commercial bid for Paper Clipping Service".
6. Please note that the service provider will be selected on merits of technical bids and any service provider not meeting with technical specifications set out in annexure will be rejected outright and its commercial bid will not be opened at all.
7. The Bank reserves the right to reject any or all bids without assigning any reason.

1. The bids should reach us latest by June 29, 2002.
2. For any clarification in this regard, please contact Shri Suraj Prakash on

Yours faithfully

S N Prasad
Deputy General Manager

Encl: Annexure

Annexure

Specifications for Paper Clipping Service

Technical Specifications

Service

• Names of newspapers and magazines to be covered as well as subjects and items for the service as enclosed
• Physical copies of items appearing in different editions of the newspapers should be weeded out while supplying copies to the Bank.
• The software should have a search engine to search any news item under the following headings: date, newspaper, author, centre, news item and keyword.
• The software should be able to generate summary of all important stories.
• The access should be user friendly and easy.
• The material to be supplied should be neatly and meticulously arranged subject wise and delivered in five separate sets in presentable folders.
• In case the service provider has any additional services to offer, please quote for these separately with detailed description of the service.

Company

• The service provider should have the expertise, manpower, infrastructure and capabilities to do the job on regular basis and consistently for the period covered under agreement.
• The service provider should be in the business of newspaper clipping service for a minimum of one year.
• The service provider should furnish a list of its clientele, especially in the field of banking and finance to whom similar services have been/are being offered.
• The service provider should specify whether they will use a standard software or custom-made or will customise standard software.
• The service provider should give full technical details of the software.

Commercial Specifications

• The service provider will bear the cost of subscribing to the newspapers and magazines to be covered and all other costs related to generating the package agreed upon.
• Having the ability to monitor and archive coverage on new media such as, television channels, radio channels and websites will be an added advantage.
• Please quote separately for software development and providing day-to-day clipping service.
• Please specify whether software/data will reside at your end or our end.
• The clippings should be available to us in physical and electronic forms daily by 9.00 a.m. The clippings in electronic form should be available in OCR, HTML, Doc formats. On Sundays and bank holidays, hard copies of the clippings may be supplied on the next working day.
• The software should give the facility to the end user to email, download, copy, edit, forward it to other users and add comments and print any particular news item.
• The service provider should make arrangements to create an archive of the news clippings supplied during the agreement period and keep it up-to-date. The archive should have a search engine similar to that of the online system. The service provider should also ensure security of the data available in the archive. The software and the archive, though, will be the property of the Bank.
• The service provider should supply the dbase created on a CD at periodic intervals depending on volume.
• The coverage of RBI press releases should be tracked separately and archived, indexed along with MIS such as, how many newspapers covered, centres in which covered, placement of coverage, column centimeters covered, editorials written on them, etc.
• The service provider will make arrangement to link the news folder to the intranet of the Bank and also to broadcast the same to the email addresses available on the intranet.

General Conditions

• Separate technical and commercial bids duly sealed and superscribed Quotation for Paper Clipping Service for PRD, RBI, Mumbai addressed to General Manager, Press Relations Division, Reserve Bank of India. Central Office Building, 23rd Floor, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Marg, Mumbai - 400 001 and accompanied by (i) Copy of the annual audited balance sheet for the last accounting year, and (ii) Names and addresses of the bidder’s bankers and clients, should reach us on or before 3.00 PM on June 29, 2002. Technical bids will be opened at 3.15 PM on the same day.
• Bids received late and/or not submitted in the prescribed format or in the prescribed manner, incomplete in any respect or not accompanied by prescribed documents are liable to be rejected.
• All the prices quoted by the bidder shall be in Indian Rupees, firm and not be subject to any price escalation.
• The prices quoted should be inclusive of delivery and installation charges.
• All the prices, technical specifications and other terms and conditions proposed by the bidder shall be valid for a minimum of 1 month from the date of closing of the bids.
• The Bank reserves the right to re-negotiate the prices.
• Decision of RBI in respect of evaluation of bids and/or award of contract will be final.

Time Schedule

• The vendor should specify in the technical bid the minimum and maximum possible period for delivery and installation/data/ transfer.

Right to verification

• Reserve Bank of India reserves the right to inspect the establishment of the vendors to verify the genuineness and conformity with the specifications of the service to be provided.

Delay in performance of the obligations by the vendor

• The paper clipping service as agreed upon shall be delivered on all working days within the time frame specified by the vendor. If the vendor fails to perform its obligations within the stipulated time, the Reserve Bank may, in its discretion, resort to any or both of the following:
• Impose liquidated damages at the rate of .5% per instance of delay subject to a maximum of 2.5% of the consideration amount.
• Terminate the contract fully or partly and claim liquidated damages in the event of breach of obligations and non-correction thereof within reasonable time.
• In the event of delay, default or non-performance being caused by reasons beyond its control, the vendor will continue to perform and discharge his obligations as far as they can reasonably be performed and will resume normal performance as soon as possible after the event has ceased to exist.

Arbitration etc.

• All disputes or differences of any kind whatsoever arising out of or in connection with the contract or the carrying out of the work, whether during the progress of the work or after the completion and whether before or after the determination, abandonment or breach of the contract shall be referred to by either party (Reserve Bank or the vendor) to the arbitration of a single arbitrator acceptable to both parties. The arbitration shall be deemed to be submission within the meaning of Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 or any statutory modification thereof. The venue for arbitration shall be Mumbai.
• All disputes shall be subject to jurisdiction of courts in Mumbai.

Further Clarification

Annexure

Subjects covered	National and Regional Newspapers	National Financial	International Newspapers	Areas covered
RBI Economy Finance Banking including individual banks and institutions Capital Market Insurance Infrastructure>Public Sector Undertakings Developments in International Economies Developments in International Central Bankings/Central Banks in particular, South East Asia, US, UK, EU, CHINA, JAPAN Interviews by RBI's Governor/DGs Interviews of /write ups on guest dignitaries of the Bank Any other related topic as required from time to time	Telegraph Hindustan Times The Hindu News time Pioneer Midday Afternoon Times of India Asian Age Free Press Journal DH Indian Express Statesman Any other paper as required from time to time with prior notice	Economic Times Financial Express Business Line Business Standard Any other paper as required from time to time with prior notice National Hindi Newspapers Navbharat Times Navbharat (Mumbai) And one national Daily from Delhi Financial/Business Journals Business India Business World Business Today Any other Journal	Financial Times International Herald Tribune Asia Wall Street Journal Any other paper as required from time to time with prior notice	Editorials Letters Articles News items Photos Tidbits Any other item as required from time to time