Expression of Interest

For Selection of Consulting Firm for

Setting Up of Strategy Advisory Group for NIXI NextGen

Sr. no. Project Name Details

1 Document Reference Number In Registry/009/BD/2021

2 The date for the Issue of the RFP 26-Aug-21

3 Pre-Bid Clarification by Meeting -

4 Last Date & Time for Submission of

Technical and Financial Proposals

03-Sep-21 at 15:00 Hr

5 Date & Time for opening of Technical

Proposals

03-Sep-21 at 15:00 Hr

6 Date & Time for Presentation by

selected bidders

-

7 Date & Time for opening of Financial

Bid

03-Sep-21 at 15:00 Hr

8 Bid Evaluation completion including

discussion

10-Sep-21

9 Address for Bid Submission NIXI (National Internet Exchange of India) Regd.

Off.: 9th Floor, B- Wing, Statesman House, 148,

Barakhamba Road, New Delhi- 110001

Tel.: +91- 11-48202000 Fax: +91-11-48202023

E-Mail: nixi@nixi.in

10 Website www.nixi.in

Contents 1. NIXI Overview ........................................................................................................................ 3

2. Bidding .................................................................................................................................... 4

3. Intent of EoI ............................................................................................................................. 4

4. Scope of Work ......................................................................................................................... 4

5. Eligibility Criteria .................................................................................................................... 5

6. Instructions for tender process ................................................................................................. 5

7. Evaluation Criteria – Technical & Financial Criteria .............................................................. 7

8. Team Composition .................................................................................................................. 8

9. Procedure of Evaluation .......................................................................................................... 8

10. Working Methodology ......................................................................................................... 9

11. Payment Terms .................................................................................................................... 9

12. Conflict etc. .......................................................................................................................... 9

13. Change Management ........................................................................................................... 9

14. Duration of the Assignment ................................................................................................. 9

15. Critical Information and Last Date for Response ................................................................ 9

12. Documents required to be submitted with bid. .................................................................. 10

13. General Conditions ............................................................................................................ 10

Annexure A ................................................................................................................................... 11

FORM-1: Compliance Sheet ..................................................................................................... 11

FORM 2: Particulars of Key Personnel .................................................................................... 11

Annexure B ................................................................................................................................... 12

Financial Bid ............................................................................................................................. 12

1. NIXI Overview

National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) is a not-for-profit organization set up under

section-8 of the Companies Act, 1956 (now section 8 under Companies Act, 2013) for

peering of ISPs among themselves and routing the domestic traffic within the country. It

operates under the aegis of Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY).

NIXI performs the following three activities :

• Internet Exchange

• .IN Registry and Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs)

• National Internet Registry (NIR)

Internet Exchange: Nine Internet Exchange Nodes are functional at Delhi (Noida),

Mumbai (Vashi), Mumbai (GPX) Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad

and Guwahati. The Internet Exchange nodes have ensured peering of ISPs among

themselves for routing domestic Internet traffic within India, resulting in better quality of

service (reduced latency, reduced bandwidth charges for ISPs) saving on international

bandwidth. Presently, 91 ISPs are connected with the various nodes of NIXI. The

aggregated maximum traffic exchanged at all the nodes is 245 Gbps as of May 2021.

.IN Registry: .IN Registry functions with primary responsibility for managing Country

Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs). Registration of .IN domain has crossed the 2.6 million

mark in May 2021. Presently, 138 Registrars have been accredited to offer .IN domain

name registration worldwide to customers. It has helped in proliferation of web hosting and

promotion of Internet usage in the country.

.Bharat IDN in Indian languages:

.भारत domain name in all 22 official languages namely - Hindi, Bodo(Boro), Dogri,

Konkani, Maithili, Marathi, Nepali, and Sindhi-Devanagari, Bengali and Manipuri, Telgu,

Gujaratai, Urdu, Tamil, Punjabi, Kannada, Oriya, Assamese, Sanskrit, Santali, Kashmiri,

Sindhi, Malyalam.

IDNs will be enablers to help further increase the penetration of the Internet through the

use of local languages and local vernacular content.

National Internet Registry (NIR) Coordinates Internet Protocol address space (both

IPv4 & IPv6) allocations and other Internet resource management functions at a national

level within the country.

Earlier NIR was recognized by APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Centre) which

is a Regional Internet Registry

Since its launch in 2012, NIR has registered impressive growth, the number of affiliates

registered are 3100+ as of May 2021.

2. Bidding

The bidding will have two parts:

a) Technical

b) Financial

Bidders have to submit bids in two different sealed envelopes.

3. Intent of EoI

NIXI intends to onboard a Strategy Advisory Group to help NIXI for the following

services:

1. Support NIXI in :

a On-boarding of Cloud Services (either from exiting data centre or outside) for ISPs at

all existing Nine NIXI nodes

b On-boarding of Co-location Services (either from existing data centre or outside) for ISPs at all existing Nine NIXI nodes.

c On boarding TSPS/ISPs for Lease line for providing last mile connectivity (including

fixing cost per KM)

2. Assist NIXI in Cross Connect negotiations and fixing rates of copper cross connect/fibre

cross connect at all 9 NIXI nodes.

3. Assist NIXI in Making availability of international bandwidth to ISPs at discounted rates.

4. Coordinate and organize meetings with potentially Top TSPs (like Jio, Airtel, Voda,

BSNL) to peer with NIXI at all NIXI nodes.

5. Facilitate NIXI’s Tie ups :

a With at least 4 prominent e-commerce portals for selling IN/ Bharat domain.

b b. With at least one TSP (Telecom Service Providers) and at least 5 ISPs to bundle in

with their broadband offerings.

c With content providers Google, Akamai, Amazon, Facebook at 9 NIXI nodes either on

peering and on caching.

6. Support NIXI in On boarding of at least 500 prominent universities/Academic Institutes

and 200 ISPs for IP resources - Ipv4 & IPv6.

NIXI hereby invites applications for Expression of interest from interested parties who wish

to provide consulting services to enable realization of NIXI's vision. Applicants shall ensure

that they meet the Eligibility Criteria and Qualifying requirements as defined in section 5.

The application shall be submitted along with relevant supporting documents (as mentioned

in section 5) in support of meeting Eligibility Criteria. NIXI will consider the applications for

suitability in line with the terms and conditions brought out hereunder and shortlist the bidders

based on the information provided by them vide this Expression of interest. NIXI may call the

parties who have submitted their Expression of Interest for a pre bid discussions regarding the

terms & conditions and to comply to the queries of the applicants. Applicants finally selected

based on the bidding process will be invited to enter into definitive Commercial Agreement to

this effect.

4. Scope of Work

Broad roles and works proposed for the Strategic Advisory Group include:

1. Develop market centric Approach for NIXI to achieve above objectives as per #3 –

Intent of EoI, above.

2. Business Development and marketing strategy formulation in all types of existing

businesses.

3. Creating a growth strategy to enhance NIXI’s competitiveness in the Indian and

International markets in all types of existing business

4. Liaising with TSPs, ISPs as well as e-Commerce portals to formulate a cost-effective

business model and create bundled offerings for .IN domain services and IPv6

addresses

5. Eligibility Criteria

Sr.

No.

Minimum Eligibility Criteria Supporting Document

1 The Bidder should be a company registered

Under Companies Act, 1956/2013 and in

existence for at least 5 years.

Photocopy of Certificate of

Incorporation

2 The Bidder should have PAN & GSTIN Self-certified copies

3 The Bidder should have a minimum annual

turnover of Rs. 15.0 Crore during the last

financial year i.e., 2020-2021. This must be

the individual company turnover and not that

of any group of companies.

Self-certified copies of the audited

Balance sheet and profit & loss

statement for the last 3 completed

financial years (2018-19, 2019-20,

2020-2021*) with adequate section

duly marked and tagged.

*Unaudited financial statements

with self-declaration on

company letterhead for year

2020-2021 also acceptable

2018-19 2019-20 2020-21

Turnover declaration in INR

5 Previous experience of managing large state/

central government projects with contract

values >10cr.

Work order and Completion

Certificate

6 The Vendor has never have been blacklisted/

barred/ disqualified by any regulator/ statutory

body or any PSU or any Company/ State

Government/Central Government

Self-Certification/declaration

7 The Vendor must have an office location in

Delhi NCR with space for the team to operate

6. Instructions for tender process

Bids should be completed in all respects, must be submitted on or before the last date

specified in the schedule of events.

The NIXI may, at its own discretion, extend the last date for submission of tenders.

All the bids must be valid for a period of 180 days from the last date of submission of the

tender for execution of Contract.

The bid submitted shall become invalid if: -

i) The bidder is found ineligible.

ii) The bidder does not provide all the documents as stipulated in the bid

document.

7. Evaluation Criteria – Technical & Financial Criteria

S.No. Parameter Max Score

1 Turnover for year ending 31.3.2021:

Turnover >25 cr. – 10 marks

Turnover 20 - 25 cr. – 7 marks

Turnover 15 – 20 cr. – 5 marks

Turnover <10 cr. – 0 marks

10 marks

2 Should have experience of managing large state/ central

government projects with contract values >10cr.

>= 2 assignments - 15 marks

<2 assignments - 10 marks

1 Assignment – 5 marks

No Assignment – 0 marks

15 marks

3 Experience of working with Private sector telecom clients /

telecom OEMs/e-Commerce in business development/advisory

capacity

>= 3 assignments - 10 marks

1-2 assignments - 5 marks

No Assignment – 0 marks

10 marks

4 Bidder Should have Quality, Environmental Management,

IT/Information security management certifications such as ISO

9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001, ISO 20000.

> 3 certifications – 10 marks

2 – 3 certifications – 5 marks

< 2 certifications – 0 marks

10 marks

5 5-page note on understanding of NIXI’s objective, appreciation

of vision and context

10 marks

6 Team Composition (as detailed in section 8) 25 marks

7 Financial Bid 20 marks

8 Total 100 marks

8. Team Composition

Duration: 6 Months

S.No. Role Min. Person

1 TL-Business and Strategic Planning 1

2 BD/Commercial/Procurement Expert 2

3 Telecom Consultant 1

S.No. Role and Criteria Max Score

1 TL-Business and Strategic Planning

Experience – 10+ Years [2 mark]

o B.E./B. Tech [1 mark]

o MBA/M.Tech [2 mark]

o Relevant Experience – Experience in - Business advisory,

industry partnerships, growth acceleration etc. [5 mark]

10 marks

2 BD/Commercial/Procurement Expert - 1

Experience – 5+ Years [2 mark] (3-5 years (1 Marks)

o B.E./B. Tech [1 mark]

o MBA/ relevant Post Graduation in Management [1 marks]

o Relevant Experience – Procurement experience with

Government projects, experience in ICT infrastructure

projects [1 mark]

5 marks

2 BD/Commercial/Procurement Expert – 2

Experience – 5+ Years [2 mark] (3-5 years (1 Marks)

o B.E./B. Tech [1 mark]

o MBA/ relevant Post Graduation in Management [1 marks]

Relevant Experience – Procurement experience with

Government projects, experience in ICT infrastructure projects

[1 mark]

5 marks

3 Telecom Consultant

Experience – 3+ Years [2 marks] (0-3 Years – [1 mark])

o B.E./B.Tech/Relevant Graduation [1 mark]

o MBA/M.Tech/Relevant Post Graduation [1 mark]

o Relevant Experience – Experience in Telecom/Networking

field [ 1 marks]

5 marks

Note: NIXI shall provide support for Technology Stack related components /Technical

Expertise/Technical Know-how for all requirements listed as per para (3) and (4) of this EoI.

9. Procedure of Evaluation

• NIXI will evaluate the bidders’ eligibility basis the submitted bid documents and

shortlist the bidders’ basis Evaluation criteria #1 and #2 of section 7.

• NIXI will call for interactions with the selected bidders on credentials, concepts and

approach towards NIXI’s requirement. Bidders will be ranked in the descending order

of their score against Criteria #3 to #7 of section 7.

• NIXI shall open the financial bids of the shortlisted agencies and assign score basis

their financial bids with L1 getting the highest score against the criteria #8 of clause 7

as above.

10. Working Methodology

i. Bidder will be required to submit high level activities and deliverables month-wise as

per requirement list at (3) and (4) para of this EoI, however, a detailed project plan for

6 months will be developed in joint consultation between the selected bidder and NIXI.

ii. Performance will be reviewed on fortnightly basis

iii. Consultant will work from their own office

11. Payment Terms

Payment to selected bidder for the scope of work done will be released as per the following

schedule.

The successful bidder shall submit the invoice for payment on monthly basis as per

the agreed terms.

12. Conflict etc.

Most of the time will be settled by arbitrator to be appointed by CEO, NIXI

Court jurisdiction will be Delhi/NCR in case dispute required to be settled in Court

13. Change Management

The selected agency needs to give 2 weeks of advance notice to NIXI for any change

of deployed resource during the course of the assignment.

The selected agency needs to ensure knowledge transfer and handover during change

of any resource for smooth transition.

The replacement of any resource should be approved by NIXI.

14. Duration of the Assignment

The duration of the assignment will be for a period of 6 months, further extendable

based on joint agreement and with new terms and conditions mutually agreed.

15. Critical Information and Last Date for Response

Bidder agencies are advised to study this EoI document carefully before submitting their

proposals in response to this EoI Notice. Submission of a proposal in response to this

notice shall be deemed to have been done after careful study and examination of this

document with full understanding of its terms, conditions and implications.

The last date for submission of response is 03-Sep 2021, 03:00 PM. Any response received

after the above deadline will be rejected.

The preferred mode of communication for query resolution is through email to:

CEO, NIXI,

9th Floor, B-Wing, Statesman House,

148, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi-110 001

Phone: +91-11-48202000

Email: info@nixi.in

12. Documents required to be submitted with bid.

a) Technical Bid

i) Registration Certificate / Certificate of Incorporation

ii) Audited Balance Sheet of last 3 years

iii) Copy of PAN

iv) GST registration certificate

v) Clause wise compliance of bid as per format in Form 1 in Annexure A

vi) Curriculum Vitae(CV) of Key Personnel as per format in Form 3 in

Annexure A

b) Financial bid

As per format in Annexure B

13. General Conditions

a) Bids should be submitted in physical form in sealed envelope at NIXI office

b) NIXI can reject any bid any time without giving any reasons

c) You may submit requests w.r.t. existing bid to info@nixi.in (e-mail) only

d) Any Political/bureaucratic/commercial pressure (directly/indirectly) will amount to

disqualification of bid.

Annexure A

FORM-1: Compliance Sheet

FORM 2: Particulars of Key Personnel

Sl. No. Role of Key

Personnel for

assignment

Name Education

Qualification

Length of

relevant

Professional

Experience

No. of Eligible

Assignments

Certification:

1. I am willing to work on the Project and I will be available for entire duration of the Project

assignment as required.

2. I, the undersigned, certify that to the best of my knowledge and belief, this CV correctly

describes myself, my qualifications and my experience.

Place: …………………………………….. ……………………………………………..

Signature of the Key Personnel

Full Name of the Key Personnel:

……………………………………

Signature of the Authorized

Representative

Full Name of the Authorized

Representative:

# Requirements as per EOI Response Supporting Documents Page no.

1

2

3

4

Annexure B

Financial Bid

To

Subject: EOI No. ****

Dear Sir,

We the undersigned, offer to provide the consulting services for the work cited

under subject in accordance with your Expression of Interest dated

, and our Proposal

(Technical and Financial Proposal).

Our attached financial proposal is Rs.----------- (Rupees only), exclusive of all

applicable taxes (including GST) consolidated for six months. However, payments

will be on monthly basis(1/6th of project cost)

Air Ticket and hotel accommodation outside Delhi for official purposes may be provided

by NIXI. However, out of pocket expenses including local travel will be managed by

Management Consultant.

We agree that this offer shall remain valid for a period of 180 (one hundred eighty

days) from the Proposal Due Date or such further period as may be mutually agreed

upon. We understand that you are not bound to accept any proposal you receive.

Yours faithfully,

for ---------------------------