| Sr. No. |
Queries |
Bank’s Clarification |
| I. |
Clause- “In case of investigators failing to accompany the Bank officials for the field verification, an amount of Rs.5000/- per investigator shall be imposed on the Agency. This will be in addition to the rejection of the interviews done by such investigator.”
Query- Kindly mention what is the norm of rejecting an interview of an investigator and will a replacement interview be accepted? |
This will apply if the investigator fails to accompany the officials from RBI for field verification. Replacement interview will be accepted subject to the condition that entire activities related to the survey including the submission of deliverables are performed within stipulated timeline as mentioned in RFP to the satisfaction of RBI. |
| II. |
Clause- “In case of any inconsistency in the data, the partial/ whole lot may be rejected. If such inconsistencies are observed/ repeated in the interviews conducted by a particular investigator, he/ she would be debarred from canvassing of the survey. Repetitive occurrence of such inconsistencies may result in termination of the contract.”
Query- What will be criteria for identifying the inconsistency? |
Inconsistencies refer to the discrepancies in the data submitted by the agency for the survey in various different formats (charts/ tables/ reports, audio recordings, field verification and any wrong information). |
| III. |
Clause- “Wherever fake interviews are noticed, whole or part of the work done by the investigator concerned shall be rejected and such investigator shall not be allowed to engage with any future round of the survey. Repeated incidents may result in termination of the contract.”
Query- What will be criteria for identifying an interview as fraud? |
An interview will be rejected if:
- there are inconsistencies found in the data given by agency
- there are inconsistencies found in field verification
- an interview is not found to be genuine
- any similar issue of serious nature.
|
| IV. |
Clause– “In case the selected agency fails to undertake the work or does not meet the Bank’s requirements in terms of quality and timeliness, the Bank, without prejudice to its other remedies under this document the bank would invoke the Performance Bank Guarantee. The decision of the Bank shall be final and binding on all concerned.”
Query- What will be conditions when it will be treated that the agency has failed to meet the Bank’s requirement? |
Inability to submit the deliverables within stipulated timeline as mentioned in the RFP to the satisfaction of RBI will amount to failure in meeting the requirement. |
| V. |
Query- Will the agency be allowed to choose the districts in the mentioned states and select the towns, blocks villages within the selected district? |
Yes, subject to the fulfilment of conditions as stated in the RFP. |
| VI. |
Query- Will RBI provide any list of sellers within a particular geography? |
No. It is to be selected by the agency. |
| VII. |
Query- To ensure the 2% of the buyers, the prescribed right hand thumb rule may not be useful, therefore will the purposive sampling be acceptable for this purpose? Also, can the agency select the distribution of these 150 VIR, on their own fulfil the criteria? |
It is understood that the query is in connection with Visually Impaired Respondents (VIR). It is clarified that to cover over at least 2 per cent of sample from VIR for buyer’s category, the agency should try to follow the methodology applicable for buyers category. If not possible, then agency can go for purposive sampling across the country to collect responses from VIR. |
| VIII. |
Query- As per GOI’s norms, MSMEs are exempted from the EMD. Is that norm applicable on here, in case a MSME applies for the proposal? |
Yes; as mentioned in RFP (under Earnest Money Deposit section) the agency (other than MSME) is required to submit the Earnest Money Deposit. However, If the agency is an MSME, supporting documents certifying the same from competent authority need to be submitted. |
| IX. |
Query- Will the audio recording be for the complete interviews for the surveys? |
Yes. |
| X. |
Clause- Complete and clear audio recording of all the interviews ensuring the quality of audio recording. The data and audio recordings/ files shall be made available (online) to the Bank on daily basis for monitoring purpose. The interviews conducted on a particular day should be uploaded and made available to RBI (DCM) within a week from the date of conducting that interviews
Query- It will be challenging to conduct 100% audio recording. We kindly request that you reduce it to 15%. |
The request to reduce the requirement of audio recording to 15 per cent is not accepted. |
| XI. |
Clause- The details of previous experience and work for RBI in any of the centers may be provided separately for each survey.
Query- Please clarify the footnote. |
In case the agency has conducted any survey for RBI in any of the centers then the agency should submit the details for each of the surveys separately. |
| XII. |
Clause- To check the robustness of the questionnaire and quality of survey responses and understand the challenges being faced in administering the survey, pilot testing of the survey shall be conducted in any three States/ UTs (Annex M), before rolling out Pan-India survey. For pilot testing, agency shall be required to undertake survey of 15 respondents of buyers and 15 respondents of small retail sellers, which will not be part of the 7,500 respondents of buyers or 7,500 respondents of small retail sellers
Query- Are we supposed to cover 15 respondents of buyers and 15 respondents of small retail sellers from each of the 3 states or a total of 15 respondents from all states combined? |
For pilot survey, the 15 respondents of buyers category and 15 respondents of small retail sellers category should be distributed equally across the three States/ UTs chosen for conducing the pilot survey. |
| XIII. |
Clause- No advance payment will be made to the Agency for the survey (including submission of deliverables).
Query- We kindly request you to consider an advance payment |
As mentioned in the RFP, no advance payment will be made. |
| XIV. |
Clause- The agency should provide documentary evidence (TDS/ work order) towards execution of surveys amounting to a total sum of minimum Rs.50 Lakhs and above, completed/ ongoing in each of the preceding four accounting years, in respect of households surveys.
Query- We understand that the agency should have conducted studies worth 50 lakhs in total each year, not that each study should be worth 50 lakhs.
Could you please clarify? |
It is clarified that the agency should provide documentary evidence (TDS/ work order) towards completion of at least one survey of amount Rs.50 Lakhs and above in any of the preceding four accounting years, in respect of household surveys. |
| XV. |
Clause- The agency must submit at least three certificates from category of bid (household) from the organizations where they have successfully completed the CAPI based household survey, each worth of Rs.30 Lakhs and above in past five years, along with the technical bid. Inability to do so will render their technical bid invalid.
Query- Could you please clarify which certificate needs to be submitted? |
In case the certificates do not mention ‘CAPI’, the bidder may submit an undertaking mentioning the successful completion of the household survey using CAPI, along with the certificates. |
| XVI. |
Clause- The agency should submit certificates from the present and past clients (preferably Government/ Public Sector/ Reputed Firms) regarding their performances as per proforma in Annex G. Please note awarding of the work by the client will not be treated as client’s certificate.
Annex G: Client Certificate CLIENT’S CERTIFICATE REGARDING PERFORMANCE OF APPLICANT
(Certificate should be in client’s official letterhead).
Query- The client certificate in the particular format (Annex G) is difficult to obtain. We request you to accept the Completion Certificate issued by the client, which mentions satisfactory completion.
Are we supposed to submit 3 certificates (as mentioned in Page 18 Pt g)? |
In case the agency is not able to submit the format as given in Annex G, the agency has to submit two certificates as mentioned below:
(i) A Completion Certificate mentioning satisfactory completion of the survey (name of the survey), issued by the competent authority from the organization where the survey was done by the agency
(ii) The details of the surveys as per Annex G for which completion certificates were obtained.
Yes, the agency needs to submit 3 certificates (as mentioned in Page 18 clause g). |
| XVII. |
Query- Please clarify if there is any other (experience, Turnover) exemption for MSMEs. |
Exemption is given to MSME only in connection with EMD. |
| XVIII. |
Query- Please clarify if anonymity needs to be maintained while interviewing respondents. |
Before taking the interview, interviewer should take consent of the respondent to record his/ her name in the interview. In case the consent is not provided, the interview will be recorded maintaining the anonymity. |
| XIX. |
Query- Please clarify is there any restriction in selection of respondents to cover a representative demographic mix based on education, income, age, occupation. |
The selection of the respondents should be judiciously done so as to cover all the categories as mentioned in RFP under section ‘Type of Respondents’. |
