rti call centre portal project - right to information act (india)

Volume I

Department of Personnel & Training

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions

RTI Call Centre

&

Portal Project

National Institute for Smart Government

RTI Call Centre and Portal Project Request For Proposal - Volume I

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Table of Contents

1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 5

1.1 Request For Proposal Structure .............................................................................................. 6

1.2 What is the Right to Information? .......................................................................................... 6

1.2.1 Critical challenges in Implementation ............................................................................ 7

1.2.1.1 Citizen side challenges ................................................................................................ 7

1.2.1.2 Government side challenges ....................................................................................... 7

1.3 Project Background ................................................................................................................. 8

1.3.1 About Department of Personnel & Training ................................................................... 8

1.3.2 Project Objective ............................................................................................................. 8

1.3.3 Key Stakeholders ............................................................................................................. 9

1.3.4 Envisaged benefits ........................................................................................................ 10

1.3.4.1 Benefits to the Citizen ............................................................................................... 10

1.3.4.2 Benefits to the Government ..................................................................................... 10

2 SolutionOverview .......................................................................................................................... 12

2.1 RTI applications and First Appeal Trends .............................................................................. 13

2.2 Proposed Alternate Communication Channels ..................................................................... 13

2.2.1 Call Centre Communication Channel ............................................................................ 14

2.2.1.1 Call Centre Access Numbers ..................................................................................... 16

2.2.2 Web Portal Communication Channel............................................................................ 16

2.2.2.1 Payment Gateway service ......................................................................................... 17

2.2.2.2 Process steps ............................................................................................................. 17

2.2.3 Dropped calls or Web Portal Interruptions ................................................................... 19

2.2.4 Department of Personnel & TrainingApplications dealing with subjects related to

different central public authorities ............................................................................................... 19

2.2.5 Geographical Scope of Project ...................................................................................... 19

2.2.6 RTI Application and First Appeal Process Flow ............................................................. 20

2.2.7 Back End Processing ...................................................................................................... 22

2.2.7.1 RTI Application Processing ........................................................................................ 22

2.2.7.2 First Appeal Processing ............................................................................................. 24

3 Scope of Work ............................................................................................................................... 27

3.1 Scope of Work ....................................................................................................................... 27

3.1.1 Setup, Operate and Maintain RTI Call Centre ............................................................... 27

3.1.2 Develop, Implement and Maintain RTI Portal .............................................................. 31


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3.1.3 Provisioning of Data Centre–Disaster Recovery Centre services for hosting of Portal 34

3.1.4 Training to Government Personnel on Portal ............................................................... 37

3.2 Detailed Scope of Work ........................................................................................................ 37

3.2.1 Software Development Process .................................................................................... 37

3.2.2 Audits and Testing ......................................................................................................... 39

3.2.3 Third Party Application Testing ..................................................................................... 39

3.2.4 Quality Audits ................................................................................................................ 40

3.2.5 Security Audit for Hosting at Data Centre - Disaster Recovery Centre ......................... 40

3.2.6 Security Audit for Integration with Payment Gateway ................................................. 41

3.2.7 Training ......................................................................................................................... 41

3.2.8 Adherence to Standards ............................................................................................... 42

3.2.8.1 Preference for Open standards ................................................................................. 42

3.2.8.2 Compliance with Industry Standards ........................................................................ 42

4 Technical Requirements ................................................................................................................ 44

4.1 Call Centre ............................................................................................................................. 44

4.1.1 Automatic Call Detection .............................................................................................. 45

4.1.2 Use of Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) ........................................................ 45

4.1.3 Computer Telephony Integration ................................................................................. 46

4.1.4 Logger ............................................................................................................................ 46

4.1.5 Customer Relationship Management ........................................................................... 46

4.2 Portal ..................................................................................................................................... 47

4.2.1 Presentation Layer ........................................................................................................ 48

4.2.2 Application Layer .......................................................................................................... 49

4.2.3 Data Layer ..................................................................................................................... 49

4.2.4 Content Management (CM) .......................................................................................... 50

4.2.5 General Architecture Specifications ............................................................................. 50

4.2.6 Hardware Requirement for Portal Deployment ........................................................... 51

4.2.6.1 Specifications for Servers .......................................................................................... 51

4.2.6.2 SAN Storage Disk System Specifications ................................................................... 52

4.2.6.3 SMS Gateway Specifications ..................................................................................... 52

4.2.7 Suggested Deployment Architecture ............................................................................ 52

4.3 Data Centre ........................................................................................................................... 54

4.3.1 Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery .................................................................. 55

4.3.2 Problem and Incident Management ............................................................................. 55


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4.3.3 Network Related ........................................................................................................... 57

4.3.4 Availability ..................................................................................................................... 58

4.4 Strategic Control and Security .............................................................................................. 58

4.4.1 Power Supply ................................................................................................................ 59

4.4.2 Environmental Conditions............................................................................................. 60

4.4.3 Physical Security ............................................................................................................ 61

5 Functional Requirements .............................................................................................................. 63

5.1 Generic Functional Requirements ........................................................................................ 63

5.2 Call Centre Functional Requirements ................................................................................... 67

5.2.1 SMS ............................................................................................................................... 71

5.3 Portal Functional Requirements ........................................................................................... 72

5.3.1 Functional view of Portal .............................................................................................. 72

5.3.2 Functional requirements of Web Portal ....................................................................... 74

5.3.2.1 Email .......................................................................................................................... 77

5.3.2.2 Payment Gateway ..................................................................................................... 78

6 Operational,Security and Reporting Requirements ...................................................................... 79

6.1 Operational and Maintenance Requirements under this Project: ....................................... 79

6.2 Security Requirements under this Project ............................................................................ 85

6.3 Reporting requirements under this Project .......................................................................... 89

7 Deliverables and Implementation Schedule ................................................................................. 92

7.1 Project Deliverables .............................................................................................................. 92

7.2 Implementation Schedule ..................................................................................................... 94


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1 Introduction

In order to promote transparency and accountability in administration across government

departments, the Indian Parliament enacted the Right to Information Act (henceforth referred

to as ‘Act’) in the year 2005. The Act, which came into force on 12 October 2005 empowers

Indian citizens to seek information from a Public Authority and is aimed at making the

Government and its functionaries more accountable and responsible. The Act has now been

in operation for over five years and has benefited many, including the poor and the

underprivileged. It is a matter of pride that we have given to ourselves, a tool which has the

potential to usher in transparency, and reduce corruption.

The following achievements are notable:

a. The basic tenets of the Act have been implemented and the institutional mechanism is

in place and is in use by citizens

b. Civil society organizations and the media are using the Act for bringing in

transparency and objectivity

c. Government employees / Public Authorities are aware of the basic elements of the

Act

d. Various State Governments have taken up initiatives, which go beyond the

stipulations of the Act, and further the spirit of the Act

Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is the nodal Department of the Government of

India responsible to provide administrative support for the implementation of Act. In 2009,

Department of Personnel & Training sponsored a study on Understanding the “Key Issues

and Constraints” in implementing the Act. The report highlighted among others, the

following key findings:

i. Inconvenience to Citizens in filing RTI Requests

ii. Ineffective record management practices leading to delays in processing RTI requests

iii. Low awareness level among citizens on their rights under the Act

Taking insights from the study and its recommendations, Department of Personnel &

Training has initiated a project to bring in more citizen centricity in RTI service delivery

across Central Public Authorities, approximately 2000 in numbers across the country,

especially targeted towards improving access for the illiterate and rural citizens, with the help

of Information and Communication Technology tools and applying industry-standard Portal

and Call Centre management practices. The project has been named ‘RTI Call Centre and

Portal Project’.

To implement this project, Department of Personnel & Training has decided that it will

engage a professional Implementation agency to design, develop, set up, operate and

maintain the proposed integrated service delivery system and the associated infrastructure as

specified in this Request for Proposal. Department of Personnel & Training is looking at this

engagement as a complete solution to be provided by the selected Implementation Agency

and not as a hardware & software supply agency.


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To this end, the specifications laid out in this Request for Proposal are indicative of the

minimum requirements and the bidders are expected to focus on the objectives of this Project

and formulate their solution offerings in a manner that enables achieving those objectives

both in letter and spirit.

1.1 Request For Proposal Structure

The content of this Request For Proposal has been structured in three volumes as explained

below:

Volume I: Functional and Technical Requirements

Volume I of Request For Proposal intends to bring out all the details with respect to the

solution and other requirements that Department deems necessary to share with the potential

bidders. The information set out in this volume has been broadly categorized as Functional,

Technical, and Operational covering multiple aspects of the requirements.

Volume II: Commercial and Bidding Terms

Volume II details out all that may be needed by the potential bidders to understand the

commercial terms and various bidding processes.

Volume III: Draft Agreement including Service Levels

Volume III explains the contractual terms that Department wishes to specify at this stage. It

basically consists of a draft of Agreement that needs to be signed between the Department

and the successful bidder (Implementation Agency). This Agreement includes a separate

Article on Service Levels.

This volume is Volume I.

1.2 What is the Right to Information?

This section gives a brief about RTI for understanding of the bidders in keeping with the

provision of RTI Act.

"Right to information" means the right to information accessible under this Act which is held

by or under the control of any public authority and includes the right to:

Inspection of work, documents, records;

Taking notes, extracts or certified copies of documents or records;

Taking certified samples of material;

Obtaining information in the form of diskettes, floppies, tapes, video cassettes or in

any other electronic mode or through printouts where such information is stored in a

computer or in any other device

The Right to Information Act, 2005 gives Indian citizens a powerful tool to obtain

information from the Government as a matter of right. The Act is very comprehensive and


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covers virtually all matters of governance. It has the widest possible reach, being applicable

to Government at all levels – Union, State and Local – as well as recipients of government

grants. The Act empowers citizens to inspect work and documents and to seek certified

photocopies of records from the Government that are held by the public authorities. A citizen

who desires to obtain information from a public authority is required to send, along with the

application, a demand draft, banker’s cheque, Indian Postal Order or pay in person the RTI

fee of Rs 10.

Through this Act, the Government seeks to inculcate a culture of transparency and

accountability in the working of public authorities. The smooth implementation of the Act is

crucial to its effectiveness and its ability to reach the masses. Experience shows that

information seekers face problems in making use of the Act and that the officers of the public

authorities face problems in implementing the provisions of the Act in earnest.

1.2.1 Critical challenges in Implementation

In 2009, Department of Personnel & Training sponsored a study on Understanding the “Key

Issues and Constraints” in implementing the Act. The report highlighted several challenges in

the implementation of the RTI Act. Some of the critical challenges are:

1.2.1.1 Citizen side challenges

1. Many Citizens are illiterate.

2. Citizens do not know whether or not they are writing to the correct Central Public

Authority.

3. Each Central Public Authority has numerous Central Public Information Officers

and Appellate Authorities.

4. Depositing the application fee of Rs. 10 is time consuming for citizens. One has to

either go in person to the concerned office to deposit cash or make a demand draft or

a postal order to send it by post.

5. Applicants incur substantial transaction costs (transportation or postal charges, DD

or PO charges, printing charges, etc.) in submitting RTI applications, in addition to

the RTI fee.

1.2.1.2 Government side challenges

Apart from the challenges underlying the access of service, bottlenecks are prevalent

also on the delivery side. Some of the supply side issues are given below.

1. Record retention schedules are not properly followed, with the result that the

concerned Central Public Information Officers/ Appellate Authorities have difficulty

in tracing records.

2. Almost all the information under the purview of RTI is available in a physical

format. Thus, obtaining the right information quickly to address an RTI query

becomes extremely difficult.


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3. Unavailability of adequate staff as compared to the increase in the workload after the

introduction of the RTI Act in a Central Public Authority is an issue.

4. Identifying and categorizing the documents or files pertaining to RTI requests or

those that are subject to RTI requests is difficult.

5. Senior officials of the Central Public Authority cannot track and monitor the status

of RTI applications as the system is manual, and there may be no Management

Information System in place.

6. A large number of applications are non-contextual or are concerned with grievance

redressal and are thus out of the purview of the RTI Act. Processing of these

applications wastes a lot of the Government’s time.

A copy of the RTI Act, 2005 can be found at www.persmin.gov.in .

1.3 Project Background

1.3.1 About Department of Personnel & Training

Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) is the nodal Department of the Government of

India responsible for administrative support for the implementation of Act. The role of

Department of Personnel & Training can be conceptually divided into two parts. In its large

nodal role, it acts as the formulator of policy and the watchdog of the Government, ensuring

that certain accepted standards and norms, as laid down by it, are followed by all Ministries/

Departments in the recruitment, regulation of service conditions, posting/ transfers and

deputation of personnel as well as other related issues and issues guidelines for the same.

Secondly, it is the co-coordinating Department for RTI and issues guidelines to all the

Central Ministries/ Departments for its successful implementation.

1.3.2 Project Objective

The e-governance strategy is based on the vision that all services which can be electronically

delivered should be available in that manner to citizens. The strategy proposes that these

services should be accessible over the Internet and through a Call Centre. The strategy sets

forward a vision for electronic service delivery that does not do away with the need for

personal contact but rather calls for it to be better supported by new technologies.

Ensuring effective implementation of the Act for people’s empowerment and its effectiveness

in reducing inefficient practices in government offices, Department of Personnel & Training

has embarked upon this project to use Information and Communication Technology

innovatively and effectively to meet the following objectives:

Simplify the process of filing RTI applications and first appeals by opening alternate

channels

Ensure accessibility of these alternate channels to citizens and help them in filing RTI

applications

Make the entire process of filing RTI applications and first appeals, user friendly,

convenient, efficient and transparent.

http://www.persmin.gov.in/


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Make it easier for the respective Ministry/ Department to track the status of RTI

applications through the Portal and to monitor the applications through Management

Information System reports

1.3.3 Key Stakeholders

Following are the key stakeholders in the proposed project. The various channels and

stakeholders’ interaction with the system through these channels are also indicated in the

table:

Sl.

No

Stakeholder Roles Interface

1 Citizen

Files RTI application

Tracks RTI application and appeals

Mediated

interface at Call

Centre via

telephone

Direct interface

at RTI portal

2 Central Public

Information

Officer

Downloads RTI application from

interface

Processes RTI Application

Sends response to applicant

electronically and by post

Closes the request by entering closure

information in system

Direct Interface

at Portal

3 Appellate

Authority

Receives first appeal

Responds to appeal

Direct Interface

at Portal

4 Call Centre

Executive

Responds to calls for RTI

information, application and appeals

Submit RTI application on behalf of

citizen in system

Submit RTI first appeal on behalf of

Citizen in system

Indirect

Interface at

Portal

6 Central Public

Authority

Provide facility for conducting capacity

building trainings

Nominate Nodal Central Public

Information Officers to provide response

to RTI applications / Appeals

Direct Interface

at Portal to

Central Public

Authority

officials


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Sl.

No

Stakeholder Roles Interface

7 Implementation

Agency

Design, develop, implement, manage,

operate and maintain the proposed

system

Keep this initiative in context as

specified in this Request For Proposal

Provide the Data Centre (and Disaster

Recovery Centre) facilities for the

System

Developer of the

system

8 Nodal Officer,

DOPT

Primarily responsible for supporting

Department of Personnel & Training in

supervising, monitoring and evaluating

the development and implementation of

the project

Direct Interface

at Portal and

Call Centre

9 Project Sponsor /

Department of

Personnel &

Training

Responsible for RTI and its

implementation

Direct Interface

at Portal and

Call Centre

Table 1: Key Stakeholders of this Project

1.3.4 Envisaged benefits

1.3.4.1 Benefits to the Citizen

Power of information is just a phone call away

Removes the hassles of physical presence at Central Public Authority for filing

application

Money saved by way of travel time / wage loss as well as for making Drafts/ Postal

Order from Bank and Post Offices

Government bears the cost of transmitting the application to the Central Public

Authority

Citizen’s handicap arising out of literacy level variations could be overcome by the

Call Centre executives, who would understand, screen and do the necessary

handholding in filing RTI applications

1.3.4.2 Benefits to the Government

Systematic management and real time monitoring of RTI applications and first

appeals

Further improvement in transparency in government functioning

Empowerment of Common man through easy information dissemination


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Man-hours spent by individual departments in collecting RTI applications can be

saved by centralizing the process on the Portal.

Support data analysis indicating area of improvement as well as sectors demanding

intervention


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2 Solution Overview

The Proposed Solution is to provide alternate channels to ensure that the Citizen can have

Anywhere Anytime access to RTI services. These proposed alternate channels are:

a. Computer Telephony Integration enabled Call Centre

Setup a call Centre which would provide information on RTI Act, file RTI / First

appeal applications over the phone and track application/first appeal status and

maintain the Call Centre.

b. Web Portal

Develop a portal which would provide information on RTI Act, file RTI / first appeal

application online and track the application/first appeal status and maintain the Portal.

Call Centre and Portal would be integrated to ensure timely information flow to and fro

between Call Centre and the Portal application. The Portal application would also be the

interface of the system to Public Authorities officials. The Portal application will be hosted

on servers to be located in Data Centre. Call Centre Operations shall be based on a ‘Cost per

connect minute’ basis.

The figure below shows the process involved in submitting an RTI/First appeal application

and providing a response to the application using the proposed alternate channels

Figure 1 : Process involved in the submission of RTI application /first appeal


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2.1 RTI applications and First Appeal Trends

The historical trend in the receipt of RTI applications / appeals is as follows:

Historical Trend (in Lacs) 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11

Historical trend in RTI

Applications / Appeals

received over the previous years

0.56 1.71 2.63 4.00 6.27 5.55

Annual Reports of the Central Information Commission can be accessed at www.cic.gov.in

Table 2: Historical trends of RTI Applications /Appeals

It is expected that the current trend of annual growth is 30-35% in RTI applications will

continue for some more years before it stabilizes. It is DOPTs assessment that due to ease of

filing, the Call Centre and Portal will become the single largest mode of filing RTI

Applications in a years to come. However, DOPT, GoI does not guarantee specific volumes

and the bidders are required to make their own assessment about the growth in the volumes of

RTI Applications/Appeals which would be handled through the Call Centre and Portal. Call

Centre payment shall be based on the actual number of Call minutes (refer Volume II of this

Request for Proposal for payment terms)

2.2 Proposed Alternate Communication Channels

The figure below depicts the various access channels available to citizens for filing RTI

application / First appeal

Figure 2 :Communication channels available to citizens

Proposed Alternate

Channels

Existing Channels CPA

Post

RTI Portal

Users

RTI

Facilitation

Centre

Call

Centre

CPA

CPA

http://www.cic.gov.in/


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With the addition of the new channels, Citizens would be able to file RTI application/ First

appeal by using the following channels:

a. Send an RTI application/First appeal directly by post to the Central Government Public

Authority or directly to a particular Central Government Public Authority

b. File an RTI application/First appeal in person at Central Government Public Authority

c. Call the proposed RTI Call Centre to file an RTI application/First appeal to the Central

Government Public Authorities only

d. File an RTI application/First appeal on the proposed Portal to the Central Government Public

Authorities only

RTI requests via all the above mentioned channels shall be logged in the proposed Portal

application.

2.2.1 Call Centre Communication Channel

Citizens can contact the Call Centre for the following purposes:

To seek information on the RTI Act .

To know the process for submitting RTI application/First appeal to the Central

Government Public Authorities only

To submit a RTI application / First Appeal to the Central Government Public Authorities

only

To know the status of the submitted application/First appeal of the Central Government

Public Authorities

This facility primarily targets the following sections of society:

Illiterate citizens or those who have difficulty in writing RTI applications/First appeals

Common citizens who face difficulties in submitting RTI applications/First appeals

through the existing channel

Citizens who are technology savvy and wish to use available electronic facilities for their

convenience

The Call Centre channel will work on the following broad level parameters:

All calls to the Call Centre would be chargeable

Originating Calls would be Pan India Pan Telecom Operator

Call charges shall be either Non premium or Premium rate depending on the purpose of

the call

Calls seeking information, status check, and transcribing of RTI application/first

appeal shall be charged non premium charges. These charges would be as per the

caller’s existing call plan.

To submit statutory fee for RTI application, premium rate shall be applicable and

this shall be deducted in his phone bill. This charge would be in addition to his

existing normal call plan.


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The mandatory requirement is to charge RTI application fee (Rs.10/-) from the caller without

physical transaction of money. This shall be fulfilled with the help of Premium Rate Services.

Premium Service (the RTI application fee plus a transaction charge) is basically a special

service availed over the phone network by paying at a premium rate i.e. higher than the

normal call tariff. At present there is no provision of charging of fee for filing of First

Appeals. If in future, rules may change regarding charging of fee for First Appeals then such

provision may need to be made for filing of First Appeals through the Call Centre and the

Portal.

Procedure of filing RTI application:

Citizens can call the Call Centre from any number anywhere in the country supported by any

Telecom Service Provider. When a citizen calls in, the Call Centre Agent will provide

required information on RTI and if a RTI application is to be filed, obtain RTI details along

with mandatory information including, his/her name and address.

Once the RTI application is transcribed, a Unique Reference Number (URN) will be

generated and provided to the Caller. There will also be a provision for informing applicants

of their Unique Reference Numbers (URN) through SMS. Till this time, the RTI application

will be stored in the Call Centre and it will not be considered as the filed RTI application by

the applicant. Once the Caller will make the payment of statutory RTI fee against its URN by

calling/ sending SMS to “RTI fee line”, then only after receiving the confirmation of the

payment of RTI fee, each RTI application shall be assigned to the appropriate Central Public

Authority’s Nodal Central Public Information Officer in the Portal and shall be considered as

filed RTI application. Caller is required to make payment of Statutory RTI fee within 24

hours of receiving the Unique Reference Number. As the RTI application statutory fee

submission has a premium charge, public telephone booths are currently out of scope of this

project, i.e., callers cannot use public telephone booths to call the Call Centre for submitting a

RTI application.

Procedure of filing RTI First Appeal:

Procedure for filing RTI First appeal is same as the procedure described for RTI application,

except for the payment of statutory RTI fee.

Each Central Public Authority will have one Nodal Central Public Information Officer and

he/ she will coordinate with other concerned Central Public Information Officers in the

Central Public Authority. In order to assess the number of nodal Central Public Information

Officers, please refer to the list of Central Government Public Authorities as detailed out in

the annual reports of Central Information Commission, Government of India. However, the

list of nodal Central Public Information Officers will be frozen during the implementation

phase of the Project where email ids and other relevant details of all nodal Central Public

Information Officers will be provided to the Implementation Agency.

The Call Centre will currently support operations in two languages – Hindi and English with

a provision to support regional languages in the future. It will operate on a 12X7X365 basis,

i.e., 8 AM to 8 PM, seven days a week in a year. The Call Centre Agent’s responsibility for


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an RTI application/first appeal ends after the application/first appeal is recorded and saved in

the Call Centre Customer Relationship Management application.

2.2.1.1 Call Centre Access Numbers

The Call Centre shall be accessible through two different tolled lines owned by

Department of Personnel & Training through DOT.

1. RTI Application line:

The information line shall be used by a citizen to ask any general questions on RTI, check

the status of his/her RTI application/first appeal, as well as to submit the RTI

application/first appeal. This number shall be a tolled number with normal call charges

(chargeable to the caller). The Call Centre agentshall understand the requirements of the

caller and transcribe the RTI application/first appeal. After finalization of the RTI

application/first appeal a unique reference number would be generated against the RTI

application/first appeal. The RTI application at this point shall not be registered in the

system as the statutory RTI fee is still to be collected from the caller.

2. RTI Fee line:

The RTI fee line shall be used to formally register a RTI application. The RTI fee line is

not required for RTI first appeal. This second tolled number would be for charging the

statutory RTI fee (plus a transaction cost) and this would be added to the telephone bill of

the applicant. Once RTI application is finalized, the applicant is required to call the RTI

fee line and punch in the unique reference number to formally submit the RTI application.

Department of Personnel & Training shall have the tie up with primary Telecom Service

Provider (TSP) to provide for the required ISDN PRI (E1) line(s) and with Department of

Telecommunication (DOT) for allocation of the two tolled Numbers. The required

mapping of the two tolled numbers with the E1 line shall be done by TSP. The E1 line

shall be terminated at the Call Centre premises. Implementation Agency will ensure that

the Call Centre shall enable the E1 line termination from TSP. The necessary policy level

agreement to ensure that calls can be made to these two numbers from any service

provider’s phones/ mobiles shall be ensured by Department of Personnel & Training

through Department of Telecommunications, (DOT) GoI. The tolled numbers and E1 line

shall be made available by Department of Personnel & Training through DOT.

2.2.2 Web Portal Communication Channel

Citizens, who are comfortable using the Internet can access the Portal, find information on

the RTI Act, submit their RTI applications and first appeals, deposit the RTI fees and obtain

their Unique Reference Numbers online. They can also check the status of their applications

on the Portal. A provision will be made to send Unique Reference Numbers to citizens by

SMS and or e-mail after the submission of their RTI applications/first appeal through the

Portal.


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There will be a Management Information System in the Portal to be developed by

Implementation Agency. Ministries can generate various reports related to the RTI applications

received through the Call Centre and Portal for internal review and monitoring purposes.

2.2.2.1 Payment Gateway service

The payment gateway services are only required for the RTI applications and not for the RTI

first appeals. The provision of a payment gateway facility allows citizens to pay their RTI

application fee online (via Portal channel) using any Visa/Master Credit/Debit card or using

Internet Banking facility. Card details of citizens will be protected by encrypting the data on a

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) connection. State Bank of India shall provide payment gateway

services. It shall be the responsibility of the Implementation Agency to ensure that the Portal

application is tested / accredited by a third party security audit agency(empanelled Security

Auditors list is available on http://www.cert-in.org.in/ ) before integrating with SBI’s

payment gateway. The diagram below shows the steps involved in making the payment

through the payment gateway on the RTI Portal.

Figure 3 :Payments through payment gateway on the portal

2.2.2.2 Process steps

Implementation Agency shall be responsible for RTI Portal related steps whereas Payment

Gateway steps shall be the responsibility of SBI.

a. An RTI applicant shall complete the RTI application form on the RTI Portal and

proceed to pay the RTI fee. RTI Portal shall provide two payment modes

Payment through Debit / Credit Card (all banks)

Payment through Internet Banking facility

a. Based on payment mode selected, RTI Portal shall send required parameters

including the below mandatory ones, to SBI’s Payment Gateway through

secured SSL encrypted connection:

http://www.cert-in.org.in/


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Department of Personnel & Training unique identifier code (Bank

assigned)

Unique Reference Number (of RTI request)

Amount

<Any other parameter to be identified during System Requirement

Specifications phase>

b. RTI applicant is taken to SBI’s payment gateway Portal.

c. Based on the opted payment mode, RTI applicant is requested to provide requisite

information. Payment Gateway verifies the provided information to authenticate the

credential.

d. On successful verification, RTI fee amount is deducted from the applicant’s credit

card or SBI account, as per opted payment mode.

e. Payment confirmation details are provided to RTI applicant. The format of this

confirmation shall be decided during the System Requirement Specifications phase.

This shall be the E-receipt which can be printed for record keeping by the applicant.

f. Payment Gateway shall then send a response back to Department of Personnel &

Training Portal, with required parameters including the below mandatory ones

through secured SSL encrypted connection:

Bank unique reference number (Bank generated)

Unique Reference Number (of RTI request)

Amount

Status (success/failure)

Status description

<Any other parameter to be identified during System Requirement

Specifications phase>

g. RTI Portal shall also conduct an independent verification of the completed transaction

directly with the Payment Gateway server. This should be done both in case of receipt

and non-receipt of response from the Payment gateway. Details to be worked out

during the System Requirement Specifications phase.

h. The Bank shall deposit the RTI fee into Department of Personnel & Training’s

Pooling account(s) and then remit the amounts to the consolidated fund of India as per

the RBI guidelines (to PAO, Department of Personnel & Training through cheque or

DD as per agreed time period).

i. The Bank shall send a daily report of all transactions made on its gateway to the nodal

Officer DOPT and Pay & Accounts office of Department of Personnel & Training.

j. DOPT shall reconcile the bank reported transactions against the audit trail

maintained/reported by RTI Portal and close all anomalies with the Bank.

k. Pay & Accounts office shall also receive a report on the actual funds transferred to the

Consolidated Fund of India. Project Management Unit shall use the above bank


19

(reconciled) report for reconciliation of actual RTI fee amount received as reported to

the Pay & Accounts office.

2.2.3 Dropped calls or Web Portal Interruptions

All dropped calls will be logged separately in the Call Centre and Portal system. If the call to

the Call Centre gets disconnected, the agent shall have to save the incomplete applications

with details including phone number, date and time of call. The Citizen can call back the Call

Centre and can continue to complete his application. The system shall retrieve such

incomplete application based on the caller’s phone number. Portal shall auto save

applications periodically (details to be finalised during System Requirement Specifications)

to enable Portal users to be able to retrieve last saved application status in case their

connectivity to the Portal is disrupted. Portal users can then complete their application and

submit their RTI application/first appeal.

In both scenarios, the solution shall be designed to retain the incomplete RTI applications /

first appeals only for a period of 12 hours.

2.2.4 Department of Personnel & TrainingApplications dealing with subjects related

to different central public authorities

If the information requested in the RTI application concerns two Central Public Authorities,

the Portal shall have the functionality (provided to Nodal Central Public Information Officer)

to support forwarding appropriate part of the application to the respective Central Public

Authority. However, if the information requested relates to more than two public authorities,

then the application will be processed with regard to the part that concerns the public

authority to which it is assigned and the applicant shall be informed to make a separate

application to the other concerned public authorities.

In the case of applications which require information from more than one Central Public

Information Officer within a single public authority, the nodal Central Public Information

Officer will have the facility to forward the application to multiple Central Public

Information Officers via the Portal. All these parts of the application will be linked to one

single RTI application. Multiple Central Public Information Officers can process the same

application simultaneously. When the concerned Central Public Information Officer has

prepared his response, he/she shall send it to the applicant.

2.2.5 Geographical Scope of Project

Currently RTI applications related to approximately 2000 Central Public Authorities located

in Delhi and outside Delhi can only be submitted through the Call Centre and Portal. All

citizens across the country will be able to use the Call Centre and Portal for filing RTI

applications and first appeals.

List of current registered Central Public Authorities with Central Information Commission

are available at http://www.cic.gov.in.

http://www.cic.gov.in/


20

2.2.6 RTI Application and First Appeal Process Flow

The process flow for the RTI application/first appeal and information flow from the Call

Centre and Portal is shown in the figure below. All RTI application/first appeal submitted

through the Call Centre shall be registered in the Portal. The process of periodically

transmitting such RTI application/first appeal shall be defined during System Requirement

Specifications phase. Once the RTI application/first appeal is entered in the Portal (either via

Call Centre or by Citizen) the Nodal Central Public Information Officer of the Ministry will

forward the same to the concerned Central Public Information Officer(s). These officials will

then download the RTI application/first appeal from the Portal and begin processing it in

order to provide a response to the RTI applicant. The status of the RTI application shall be

updated on the Portal by the concerned Central Public Information Officer(s) whenever there

is any change in the status of the application. The Ministry’s response will be sent to the

applicant by post to the address provided in the RTI application/First appeal and as well as

uploaded on the Portal. The link will be sent to the applicant by SMS and email. Call Centre

will be available 12x7x365 and the Portal will be available 24x7x365.


21

Figure 4 :Process flow

RTI Application & First Appeal Process Flow

Citizen of India

Citi

zen

Por

tal

Pub

lic A

utho

rity

RT

I Fac

ilita

tion

Cen

ter

Post & Courier

RTI Counter

Call center

Web Portal

Cal

l Cen

ter Is the

call for filing

RTI application

Agent Captures the details &

saves it in CRM, URN is

provided to citizen.

For RTI applications: Citizen

requested to either call or

SMS the URN to the “RTI Fee

Line” number

Citizen can via the

available channels:

- File RTI/ First appeal

Application

- Request information

about RTI Act

- Enquire about status

of hi/her application

Agent selects

appropriate CPA

against the request in

CRM

Call Ends

Agent provides required

information about RTI

Act/ Status of logged

application

Is the

call for filing

First appeal

Citizen on being

requested by

CCA, calls “RTI

Fee line” number

Citizen on being

requested by

CCA, sends SMS

to “RTI Fee line”

number

Citizen pays

Additional fees either

via Portal or sends

by Post/Courier

Citizen documents his RTI /

first appeal on the portal and

selects appropriate CPA for

his application

IVRS requests caller

to punch in the URN

CRM updated about the

receipt of RTI application

fees against the URN and

flags the request as ‘logged’.

Citizen uses Portals

ePayment gateway to

pay RTI Fee/ Additional

Fee

Portal sends email/SMS to applicant

to inform about the availability of the

response on the Portal,

Portal sends the URN

as confirmation of

logged application via

Email/SMS to applicant

If additional payment from the applicant

is received via Portal, Portal workflow

engine updates CPIO/AA about the

receipt of additional fees.

Nodal CPIO uses portal

functionality to assign the

application to either a CPIO or

an AA

CPIO / AA processes the

application and collates the

required Information

Is additional fee

required

CPIO/ AA updates status on

Portal & requests RTI

facilitation center to inform

application for additional

payment

Yes

CPIO / AA writes his response,

scans any supporting

documents & uploads the same

on the Portal.

No

CPIO requests RTI facilitation

center to dispatch the

response via Post

Facilitation center scans the application

received via Post/ Cornier/ in Person and

uploads the same as a new request on

the Portal. URN is provided to citizen. A

Nodal CPIO is assigned for the request

No

Facilitation center dispatches hard

copy response & any Supporting

documents to the applicant via Post

If additional payment from the

applicant is received via Post /

Courier, facilitation center updates

the Portal about its receipt

Additional fees paid via P

ost / Courier

Facilitation center sends request via

Post for additional payment to

applicant

CRM periodically transmits only

the logged applications to the

Portal application

Additional fees paid via Portal

No

Yes

Yes


22

RTI applications received via Call Centre & Portal after Government working office hours,

shall be deemed to have their entries logged on the next working day and their computed due

date will commence from that date and time. It will also be possible for RTI cells of the

concerned Central Public Authority to upload scans of the applications received by

post/courier/RTI counter onto the Portal. This will enable easier monitoring of the

applications and the generation of comprehensive Management Information System reports

on all RTI applications received by the Central Public Authority. If an applicant is not

supplied with information within 30 days or is not satisfied with the information furnished to

him/her, the applicant may appeal to the First Appellate Authority. A first appeal can be

made on the Portal or through the Call Centre within a period of 30 days from the date on

which the limit of 30 days for supplying information is reached or from the date on which the

information is received. First Appellate Authority can respond within 45 days of receipt of

the first appeal.

2.2.7 Back End Processing

2.2.7.1 RTI Application Processing

Sl.

No

Sub Function Description

1 Pre-condition The proposed system provides new alternate channels to citizens to file

RTI application/first appeal.

1. Citizen will be provided two tolled numbers – RTI Application

Line and RTI Fee line.

2. RTI Application Line: Citizen can dial this normal call rate number

and speak to the operator directly for general clarifications, submit

RTI application/first appeal, check status pertaining to RTI

application/first appeal.

3. RTI Fee line: Citizens can dial/SMS this premium rate number to

formally submit the RTI application.

4. Citizen can also visit the Web Portal to seek information for

general clarifications, check status pertaining to RTI and file a RTI

application/first appeal with any Central Public Authority. Citizen

can pay the RTI fee for RTI application on the Portal through the

Payment Gateway.

5. Information from all channels will converge to a central database.

Government officials can access this common database through the

Web Portal.

2 Processing Call Centre Channel:

1. Citizen calls the RTI Application Line.

2. Caller describes the type and details of information sought and

the agent services the call. Call Centre agent shall

counsel/guide the applicant and transcribe the RTI application.


23

3. For filing valid applications, Agent captures the relevant details

of the applicant to file the RTI application. Agent also resolves

to which Central Public Authority this request should be

forwarded.

4. Once filled, he reads out the RTI content to the applicant and

upon confirmation saves the form. Agent provides Unique

Reference Number of the RTI application and requests the

caller to call/SMS the Unique Reference Number to the RTI

Fee line.

5. Caller then calls/SMS the RTI Fee line and RTI fee plus a

transaction cost is charged to the caller’s telephone bill. Only

then will an application be considered to be submitted.

6. The detail so captured is in the Call Centre Customer

Relationship Management application. All filed applications

needs to be periodically transferred to the Web Portal

application.

Web-Portal Channel

1. Citizen will log on to the portal which will have basic information

about RTI such as procedures, validation criteria, fees as well as

directory of Central Public Authorities.

2. Citizen will open the relevant form for filing RTI application

3. Citizen will select the Central Public Authority concerned from the

built in directory.

4. The citizen will enter his details such as name, address, contact and

as well as information sought under RTI, its particulars and form

of delivery.

5. Once the form is filled up and confirmed by the applicant, he is

directed to a payment gateway. He will make the payment through

the Banks Internet Banking / Any bank’s debit or credit card. On

successful payment, the application is filed.

6. Unique Reference Number shall be sent to applicant via Email.

SMS shall be sent (by the Portal) to the Applicant in the following

cases:

i. Information regarding Unique Reference Number through

the RTI application line of the Call Centre

ii. RTI fee payment made either by calling RTI Fee line or via

Payment gateway

iii. Uploading of response in the Portal by Central Public

Information Officer.

Details of SMS shall be finalized in the System Requirement

Specifications.

3 Attributes The RTI application process captures various details. Typical attributes


24

are:

Form A

a. Application Id

b. Name of CPA

c. Name of Applicant

d. Address of Applicant

e. Information required

f. E-Mail / Phone number

g. Payment Detail

Acknowledgement

a. Name of applicant

b. Address of applicant

c. Date and Time

d. Payment confirmation

4. Management

Information

System

Typical Management Information System reports expected include the

following. This is an indicative list and reports shall be further

captured during system requirement study phase by the

Implementation Agency.

a. RTI Application filed – Period wise, Central Public Authority

wise, Region wise

b. Fees Collected – Period wise, Central Public Authority wise,

Region wise

c. RTI Application Dispatch – Channel wise: Post, Fax, E-mail

d. RTI Application closed within time – Period wise, Central Public

Authority wise, Region wise

e. RTI Application not closed within time – Period wise, Central

Public Authority wise, Region wise

f. RTI Application Rejected – Period wise, Central Public Authority

wise, Region wise

g. Delays in RTI Responses – Central Public Authority wise, Region

wise

2.2.7.2 First Appeal Processing


25

Sl.

No

Sub Function Description

1 Pre-condition The proposed system provides new alternate channels to citizens to

file RTI first appeal.

a. For filing first appeal the citizen will call the RTI Application line.

b. RTI Application Line: Citizen can dial this normal call rate

number and speak to the operator directly for general

clarifications, submit first RTI appeal and check status pertaining

to RTI first appeals.

c. Citizen can also visit the Web Portal to seek information for

general clarifications, file First appeal and check status pertaining

to RTI.

d. Information from all channels will converge to a central database.

Government officials can access this common database through

the Web Portal.

2 Processing Call Centre Channel:

a. Citizen calls the RTI Application Line.

b. Caller describes the purpose of call as filing of first appeal and

provides the RTI application Unique Reference Number

against which first appeal is being filed.

c. For filing the appeal, Agent captures the relevant details.

Agent also resolves to which Central Public Authority this

request should be forwarded.

d. Once filled, he reads out the appeal content to the applicant

and upon confirmation saves the form.

e. The detail so captured is in the Call Centre Customer

Relationship Management application. All filed RTI first

appeals needs to be periodically transferred to the Web Portal

application.

Web-Portal Channel

a. Citizen will log on to the portal which will have basic information

about RTI such as procedures, validation criteria, fees as well as

directory of Central Public Authorities.

b. Citizen will open the relevant form for filing RTI first appeal

providing the RTI Unique Reference Number for mapping the

appeal.

c. Citizen will select the Central Public Authority concerned from

the built in directory.

d. The citizen will enter relevant details and submit the RTI first

appeal.

e. Unique Reference Number shall be sent to applicant via Email.


26

f. SMS shall be sent (by the Portal) to the Applicant in the following

case:

Uploading of response in the Portal by Central Public

Information Officer.

Details of SMS shall be finalized in the System Requirement

Specifications.

3 Attributes The first appeal process captures various details. Typical attributes

are:

First Appeal Form

a. Applicant Name and Address, E-Mail / Phone number

b. Date of submission of RTI application

c. Brief facts leading to appeal, including reasons

d. Relief sought

e. Last date for filing of appeal

Attachments:

a. Copy of RTI application

b. Copy of order

c. Copy of document relied upon by applicant (if any)

4. Management

Information

System

Typical Management Information System reports expected include the

following. This is an indicative list and reports shall be further

captured during system study phase by the Implementation Agency.

a. RTI First Appeals filed – Period wise, Central Public Authority

wise, Region wise

b. RTI First Appeal Disposal – Period wise, Central Public Authority

wise, Region wise

c. RTI First Appeal disposed within time – Period wise, Central


d. RTI First Appeal not disposed within time – Period wise, Central


e. RTI First Appeal Rejected – Period wise, Central Public Authority

wise, Region wise

f. Delays in RTI First Appeal Disposal – Central Public Authority

wise, Region wise


27

3 Scope of Work

3.1 Scope of Work

The selected Implementation Agency shall develop a solution to ensure that the Citizen can

use the proposed new channels to access information as well as submit RTI applications and

first appeals. System shall comprise of the Call Centre and the Web Portal. Department of

Personnel & Training would like to maintain a common application to submit RTI

applications/first appeals received through the proposed new channels i.e RTI Call Centre

and RTI Portal. This common application shall be the Web Portal. Customers can be Citizens

as well as Government officials.

Broadly, the scope of work will comprise the following:

1. Setup, Operate and Maintain RTI Call Centre

2. Develop, Implement and Maintain RTI Portal

3. Provisioning of Data Centre– Disaster Recovery services for hosting of RTI Portal

4. Training to Government Personnel

Note: Communication and Awareness – Government of India has been running awareness

programmes both through print and audio-visual medium, which will continue to raise

awareness about RTI Act. Once Call Centre is set up, the availability of the Call Centre and

Portal will be added on such communication necessities. However, Implementation Agency

will be free to launch its awareness programmes for the popularization of Call Centre and

Portal.

3.1.1 Setup, Operate and Maintain RTI Call Centre

Category Scope of Work

Setup of a Call Centre a) Implementation Agency shall setup, operate and

maintain the Computer Telephony Integration enabled

call Centre with Interactive Voice Response System

during the agreement period (please refer Volume III),

including appropriate number of agents, at its

owned/rented premises with well trained staff to handle

queries, RTI Applications/First Appeals of the callers

and service the call to their utmost capability and also to

the satisfaction of the caller.

b) The number of Agents, technical and managerial staff,

related equipment and infrastructure required for

managing the call traffic arriving at the Call Centre shall


28

be scalable to meet the growth in the call traffic during

the agreement period.

c) The Call Centre Agent shall respond to all inbound calls

by:

i. Giving accurate information about the RTI Act and

responding in a timely manner

ii. Transcribing RTI application and appeals as the case

may be.

iii. Forwarding RTI application and appeals to concerned

Central Public Authority.

iv. Responding on status updates

d) There is no provision of outbound calls to take care of

activities stated in point (c) above.

e) The Implementation Agency can use its existing Call

Centre facility or choose to set up the Call Centre to

provide services and service levels specified in this

Request for Proposal. However, in both the above cases,

cost of call Centre set-up/operations/maintenance shall

be factored in the quoted “per connect minute” rate in

the commercial bid.

f) Call Centre services shall be available 12x7x365.

g) Call Centre Operation hours : 8 AM to 8 PM

h) Implementation Agency to offer multiple languages (To

start with Hindi and English, scalable to include other

scheduled languages over a period of time.

Implementation agency shall offer the services in

multiple languages under the same terms and conditions

as in Hindi & English.

i) Implementation Agency shall set up the Call Centre as

per the implementation timelines given in the Section 7

of this Volume.

j) The statutory RTI fee will be deducted from the caller

dialing the Call Centre. However, the Call Centre will

not have the provision of payment of an additional fee, if

required, for supply of copies etc as per the RTI Act.

Requirements Study,

Design and Development

Implementation Agency shall conduct a detailed assessment

of the Call Centre requirements provided in the Request For

Proposal and shall develop the System Requirement

Specifications in consultation with the Department of

Personnel & Training. Broadly following need to be

assessed:


29

a) Implementation Agency shall customize existing or

develop a Customer Relationship Management

application that is suitably integrated with the Computer

Telephony Integration functionality in the Call Centre.

This Customer Relationship Management application

shall act as a temporary storage location for RTI

Application/First appeals.

b) Implementation Agency shall build a FAQ database for

Call Centre agents by conducting a study of the

functioning of select 10 Central Public Authorities to

prepare the same.

c) Implementation Agency shall build a knowledge bank of

information for all Central Public Authorities. The

knowledge repository will have a user interface and shall

be used by the Call Centre agents when handling calls.

d) Implementation Agency shall design and develop the

required Interactive Voice Response System flow in

consultation with the Department of Personnel &

Training.

Details are covered in section 3.1.2.1

A formal sign-off on the System Requirement Study and System

Design Documentation need to be obtained from the

Department of Personnel & Training before proceeding with the

Development/ Customization of the call Centre components.

Integration with RTI

Portal

a) Implementation Agency shall develop suitable

integration interface to enable information exchange

between Call Centre and RTI Portal.

b) RTI application / First appeal submitted in the Customer

Relationship Management application shall periodically

be updated to the RTI Web Portal either in real time or

in batch mode but not later than 1 hour of being

submitted in the Call Centre.

c) Customer Relationship Management application shall

get status of submitted RTI applications / First appeals

from Web Portal to provide status of the same to

Citizen.

d) Implementation Agency shall provide a dedicated link

with appropriate bandwidth between the Call Centre

and the Data Centre / Disaster recovery Centre for

enabling this periodic data transfer.


30

Testing a) Implementation Agency shall design the software

testing strategy and Plan including traceability

matrix, Test Cases and conduct testing of various

components of the software developed/customized

for Call Centre operations. The software testing shall

include Unit Testing, System Testing, Performance

Testing, Integration Testing etc.

b) The basic responsibility of testing the system rests

with the Implementation Agency.

c) Department of Personnel & Training shall also

conduct User Acceptance Testing.

d) In case of involvement of Third Party testing agency

by Department of Personnel & Training,

Implementation Agency to provide complete support

to the third party testing agency.

Audit a) Department of Personnel & Training shall appoint / use

services of a third party audit agency to conduct

scheduled and unscheduled quality audits on a regular

basis. Implementation Agency to provide complete

support to the third party audit agency. Deficiencies

figured out in these audits shall be rectified by

Implementation Agency at no additional cost.

Documentation a) Implementation Agency shall prepare and maintain the

required documents including Project Plan, System

Requirement Specifications, System Design Document,

Test Plan and Cases & Results, Security Policy etc. as

per acceptable standards.

Training a) Training of the Call Centre agents is critical to the

success of the project. The Implementation Agency shall

plan an exhaustive training program for Call Centre

agents on the functioning of the Central Public Authorities.

Due to the nature of the RTI domain, it is highly

recommended that the Implementation Agency appoint a

few Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) having hands on

experience on RTI, to guide the Call Centre Agents on

answering the calls knowledgeably.

Operation & Maintenance a) Operation of the Call Centre is for a period of 5 years

from Go-Live

b) Maintenance phase of the Call Centre specific


31

application software components is for a period of 5

years from Go-Live.

c) Compliance to Service Levels specified in Master

Services Agreement in Volume III of Request For

Proposal

d) Includes Application Software Maintenance, Problem

identification & Resolution, Change Request

management and configuration management.

e) Develop / Customize and implement a suitable Service

Levels monitoring tool in consultation with proposed

Project Management Unit for Service Levels Monitoring

during O&M Phase.

f) Operational requirements are given in Section 6.2

3.1.2 Develop, Implement and Maintain RTI Portal

Category Scope of Work

Development and

Implementation of RTI

Portal: Requirements

Study, Design and

Development

Implementation Agency shall conduct a detailed

assessment of the Portal requirements provided in the

Request For Proposal and shall develop the System

Requirement Specifications in consultation with the

Department of Personnel & Training. Broadly following

need to be assessed:

a) Implementation Agency shall develop and maintain the

Web portal to provide online information on RTI Act,

file RTI application / First appeal and track application

status.

b) Portal application should adhere to Open and Industry

standards. Details are covered in 3.1.2.4

c) Implementation Agency shall build a FAQ database for

relevant stakeholders by conducting a study of the

functioning of select 10 Central Public Authorities to

prepare the same.

d) Implementation Agency shall build a knowledge bank of

information for all Central Public Authorities.

e) Implementation Agency should also study the existing

functionality related to the RTI application / First appeal

process in the RTI Management Information System

applications in use in Government of India and develop

required features in the proposed Portal application in


32

consultation with Department of Personnel & Training.

f) Portal shall be available 24x7x365.

g) Implementation Agency will provide detailed guidelines

(on the Portal itself in the form of User Manual) to the

RTI applicants as well as Central Government Public

Authorities for the convenient usage of the Portal

h) Portal should have Hindi version also apart from the

English version

i) Implementation Agency shall develop and implement

the Portal as per the implementation timelines given in

the Section 7 of this Volume 1.

j) The software licenses required for the deployment of

Portal must be perpetual licenses purchased in the name

of Department of Personnel & Training.

Software development process details covered in section

3.2.1.

A formal sign-off on the System Requirement Specifications

and System Design Document needs to be obtained from

Department of Personnel & Training before proceeding with

the Development/ Customization of the Portal components.

Integration with Payment

Gateway

a) Implementation Agency has to ensure that the web portal

is integrated with a designated Bank’s payment gateway

for debiting the statutory RTI fees. Apart from statutory

RTI fee, Portal will also have the provision of payment

of additional fee, if required, for supply of copies etc as

per the RTI Act. Payment of such above stated

additional fee would not be made through the Call

Centre.

Implementation Agency to ensure that the Portal

application is tested / accredited by a third party security

audit agency before integrating with the banks payment

gateway.

Testing a) Implementation Agency shall design the software

testing strategy including traceability matrix,

Test Cases and conduct testing of various

components of the software

developed/customized for Portal. The software

testing shall include Unit Testing, System

Testing, Performance Testing, Integration

Testing etc.


33

b) The basic responsibility of testing the system

rests with the Implementation Agency.

c) Department of Personnel & Training shall also

conduct User Acceptance Testing

d) In case of involvement of Third Party testing

agency by Department of Personnel & Training,

Implementation Agency to provide complete

support to the third party testing agency.

e) Any defects / gaps identified during third party

testing shall be addressed by the Implementation

Agency to the complete satisfaction of

Department of Personnel & Training at no

additional cost.

Audit a) Department of Personnel & Training shall appoint /

use services of a third party agency to conduct

scheduled and unscheduled quality audits on a

regular basis. .Implementation Agency to provide

complete support to the third party audit agency.

Deficiencies figured out in the audit shall be rectified

by Implementation Agency at no additional cost.

b) Implementation Agency is responsible to get the

Portal’s Security Audit Certification from a third party

Security Auditor.

Details are covered in the section 3.2.2.

Documentation a) Implementation Agency shall prepare and maintain the

required documents including System Requirement

Specifications, System Detailed Design, Test Plan and

Cases & Results, User Manuals, Operations Manual,

Maintenance Manual, Administrator Manual, Security

Policy etc. as per acceptable standards.

Infrastructure

requirements

a) Implementation Agency shall provide the configuration,

specifications and rates for the complete Bill of

Materials of the hardware (Servers, Storage, firewalls,

routers, switches etc.) and system software infrastructure

components (which shall also include Original Equipment

Manufacturer support for the period of the agreement) to

fulfill Portal requirements.

b) Implementation Agency is responsible for the Procurement,

Installation, Commissioning & System Level Integration of

Software and Hardware at Data Centre - Disaster Recovery

Centre


34

c) Implementation Agency should also ensure that all

hardware and network hardening is performed (as per

guidelines provided by CERT-In1) in collaboration with

Data Centre service provider so as to ensure full security of

the new infrastructure. This activity should be completed

before the application software and database is deployed.

d) The configuration and installation of the hardware at the

Data Centre - Disaster Recovery Centre should be

completed before the User Acceptance Testing.

Operation & Maintenance a) Operation & Maintenance phase of the Portal &

infrastructure is for a period of 5 years from Go-Live.

b) Implementation Agency shall comply with the

Service Levels specified in Master Services

Agreement in Volume III of Request For Proposal

c) Application Software Maintenance, Problem

identification & Resolution

d) Software Change & Version Control as per industry

standards

e) IT Infrastructure Operations and Maintenance as per

ITIL Standards during O&M Phase.

f) Ensure commitment of support for spares and

services (from Original Equipment Manufacturer) for

the equipment supplied during the agreement period.

g) System administration and database administration of

application software during O&M Phase.

h) Develop / Customize and implement a suitable

Service Levels monitoring tool in consultation with

proposed Project Management Unit for Service

Levels Monitoring during O&M Phase.

i) Operational requirements are given in Section 6.1

3.1.3 Provisioning of Data Centre–Disaster Recovery Centre services for hosting of

Portal

Implementation Agency shall provide Data Centre and Disaster Recovery (DR) hosting

services as per Section 4, Technical requirements in this Request for Proposal. Portal related

components, which will be accessed by users (Call Centre operators, direct Portal users, and

Government officials) from the internet, shall be hosted at the Data Centre. Payment will be


35

made as per the provisions of Request for Proposal Volume II. Implementation Agency shall

ensure Data Centre/Disaster Recovery Centre meets the following:

Category Scope

High availability a) All components of the data Centre must provide adequate

redundancy to ensure 24/7 availability of the applications hosted

in Data Centre.

b) A dedicated link with adequate bandwidth between the Call

Centre - Data Centre and Call Centre - Disaster recovery

Centre for data transfer to cater to the following parameters:

I. Handle 2000 concurrent users

II. Four sessions per user

III. Data for each RTI application / First appeal is limited to

maximum 1 MB.

c) Recovery Point Objective not to exceed 15 minutes

d) Recovery Time Objective not to exceed 4 hours

e) Communication link with Data Centre and Disaster Recovery

Centre should have redundancy

Common data Centre

services

1. RACK

2. Power and Cooling

3. UPS, DG set power backup

4. Bandwidth and Connectivity

5. LAN

6. VPN

7. Routers & Switches required for connectivity

8. Firewall

9. Intrusion Protection System / Intrusion Detection System

10. Fire prevention

11. Physical security surveillance

12. Network Operation Centre

13. Level 0 support which involves reporting visible hardware

and Operating System failure


36

14. Common Data Centre facility Maintenance and Support

Implementation Agency shall be responsible for their

Provisioning, Support, Monitor, Upkeep, Management and

Administration.

Common Disaster

Recovery Centre

Services

As per Section 4-Technical Requirements in this Request For

Proposal

Security a) Users on internet should access the portal servers located in

a DMZ zone.

b) The Data Centre must provide an end-to-end security

blanket to protect applications, services, data and the

infrastructure from intentional, unintentional or malicious

attacks or theft from external and internal (physical)

hackers/malicious intent.

c) Network Intrusion Prevention System and IDS/IPS should

be provisioned and functional at all times. It should be

capable of scanning the emerging and known threats and

raise alarm if any attack is detected.

d) Implementation Agency shall provide third party security

audit for hosting at Data Centre & Disaster Recovery

Centre before Go-Live.

Testing f) The basic responsibility of testing the Data Centre &

Disaster Recovery Centre system rests with the

Implementation Agency.

g) In case of involvement of Third Party testing agency by

Department of Personnel & Training, Implementation

Agency to provide complete support to the third party

testing agency.

h) Any defects / gaps identified during third party testing shall

be addressed by the Implementation Agency to the

complete satisfaction of Department of Personnel

&Training at no additional cost.

Audit Department of Personnel & Training shall appoint / use

services of a third party agency to conduct scheduled and

unscheduled quality audits on a regular basis.

Implementation Agency to provide complete support to the

third party audit agency. Deficiencies figured out in the

audit shall be rectified by Implementation Agency at no

additional cost.


37

Documentation Implementation Agency shall prepare and maintain the

required documents including Operations Manual,

Maintenance Manual, Administrator Manual, Security

Policy etc. as per acceptable standards.

Operation &

Maintenance

a) Operation & Maintenance phase of the Data Centre &

Disaster Recovery Centre is for a period of 5 years from

Go-Live.

b) Compliance to Service Levels specified in Master

Services Agreement in Volume III of Request for

Proposal

c) Problem identification & Resolution

d) Develop / Customize and implement a suitable Service

Levels monitoring tool in consultation with proposed

Project Management Unit for Service Levels

Monitoring during O&M Phase.

e) Operational requirements are given in Section 6.1

3.1.4 Training to Government Personnel on Portal

Training Implementation Agency shall provide expert Portal application

trainers to train Central Public Information Officers, Appellate

Authorities, and Central Public Authority officials on the use of

Portal. Department of Personnel & Training will evaluate the

trainings conducted by Implementation Agency from time to

time.

Details are covered in the section 3.2.7.

Documentation Training Manual

3.2 Detailed Scope of Work

Implementation Agency to submit a complete proposal detailing the architecture and

methodology of the solution as per requirements stated in this Request for Proposal, covering

all the hardware and related infrastructure and any required software licenses in an itemized

format with all relevant details in Bill of Materials (BOM).

3.2.1 Software Development Process

Bidders must describe their software development life cycle for the Portal. This includes,

but is not limited to:

1. Major project phases

2. Project management processes


38

3. Descriptions of the project deliverables to be produced.

As part of Development of application software, Implementation Agency is responsible

for

i. Systems Requirement Study & System Design documentation

ii. Software Design, Development, Implementation, Enhancement, Training,

Documentation & Maintenance

iii. Coordinate with the Third party audit agency for Quality Performance Audit of all

system Components

Bidders must identify all checkpoints within their methodology where Department of

Personnel & Training acceptance/sign-off is required. In addition, they must explain

how each of the following processes will be performed and what role Department of

Personnel & Training would have in the process:

System testing (including load and performance testing)

Acceptance testing verification and validation

Risk Management

The development and testing of the System will be performed at the premises of the

Implementation Agency. The protocol for communication including data formats and

exact mechanism of data transfer with participating entities, reports and dashboard

formats have not been defined in this Request For Proposal and would be defined later

and it would be the responsibility of the Implementation Agency to ensure that all of

these are documented as part of the System Requirement Specifications document. Post

go-live if there are change requests (functionality not covered in Request for Proposal

and the System Requirement Specifications), the department will pay the

Implementation Agency for additional effort invested in implementing the changes

based upon the blended man-month rates quoted for various resources in the commercial

proposal submitted against this Request For Proposal. The effort required to implement

the changes would be mutually agreed by both the Department and the Implementation

Agency.

Though the Department of Personnel & Training is required to provide formal approval

for the test plan, it is the ultimate responsibility of Implementation Agency to ensure

that the delivered end product meets all the requirements specified in this Request for

Proposal and subsequently in the System Requirement Specifications. The basic

responsibility of testing the system lies with the Implementation Agency and shall

ensure that all the system/ application software upgrades/releases are appropriately

tested in the staging area and are applied on production servers only after such

comprehensive testing and approval. Any downtime/system outage of the system caused

by applying such patches shall be attributed to the Implementation Agency as system

downtime and may attract penalties as per Service Levels.

Implementation Agency shall maintain log of the internal review of all the deliverables

submitted to the Department of Personnel & Training or the agency designated by the


39

Department of Personnel & Training on request. The Implementation Agency shall

obtain the sign-off from the Department of Personnel & Training for all the documents

submitted for this Project and shall make necessary changes as recommended by Project

Director/Head before submitting the final version of the documents.

3.2.2 Audits and Testing

Sl.

No Work Phase

Scope

Conducted by Closure of

Deficiencies

Testing

1 Unit Testing, System

Testing, Performance

Testing, Integration

Testing, etc.

During

Application

Development

IA IA

2 User Acceptance

Testing

Before Go-live Department of Personnel &

Training

IA

3 Third Party Application

Testing

Before Go-live Department of Personnel &

Training / Third party

agency

IA

Audits

4 Scheduled and Un-

scheduled Quality

Audits

Before and

After Go-live

Department of Personnel &

Training / Third party

agency

IA

5 Security Audit for

Hosting at Data Centre -

Disaster Recovery

Centre

Before Go-live IA IA

6 Security Audit for

Integration with

Payment Gateway

Before Go-live IA IA

Table 3: Audits and Testing in this Project

3.2.3 Third Party Application Testing

A Third Party Testing agency shall be engaged by Department of Personnel & Training for

testing and quality assurance. This shall be conducted before go-live. This agency is expected to

include but not limited to the following items:

the functionality of the application


40

Performance testing

Usability testing

Security testing

Conformance to e-Governance standards

Deficiencies figured out in this testing shall be rectified by Implementation Agency at

no additional cost. Only on closure of these deficiencies by the Implementation Agency

will the system be ready for go-live.

3.2.4 Quality Audits

Implementation Agency shall maintain a comprehensive audit trail tracking the life

cycle of every RTI application / First appeal. Department of Personnel & Training

shall conduct scheduled / unscheduled quality audits to evaluate the performance of

the Call Centre and Portal application and related components on a wide range of

parameters, including parameters that may not be part of Service Levels. Scheduled

quality audits shall be at regular intervals. Department of Personnel & Training

reserves the right to conduct unscheduled quality audits as and when required over

and above the scheduled quality audits.

Audit shall also be performed to ensure that the Service Levels monitoring processes

have been firmly put in place. The audit would certify the

a. Accurateness & reliability of the Service Levels monitoring tool and details

being projected by the Service Levels monitoring system.

b. Completeness of the Service Levels monitoring system, in terms of

information being captured and projected.

Deficiencies figured out in these audits shall be rectified by Implementation Agency

at no additional cost.

3.2.5 Security Audit for Hosting at Data Centre - Disaster Recovery Centre

Before hosting the Portal in the Data Centre, Implementation Agency is responsible to get

the Portal’s Security Audit Certification from a third party Security Auditor. The audit

shall be performed to identify application level vulnerabilities and various web attacks

like (but not limited to) SQL Injection, CRLF Injection, Directory Traversal,

Authentication hacking/attacks, Password strength on authentication pages (Hypertext

Transfer Protocol (HTTP) & Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) form), Scan

JavaScript for security vulnerabilities, File inclusion attacks, Exploitable hacking

vulnerable. After launch of the Portal, Implementation Agency will be required to provide

security audit certification on a yearly basis during the agreement period. The audit report

has to be submitted to Department of Personnel & Training. The cost of all these audits

will be borne by the Implementation Agency.


41

3.2.6 Security Audit for Integration with Payment Gateway

It shall be the responsibility of the Implementation Agency to ensure that the Portal

application is tested / accredited by a third party security audit agency(empanelled

Security Auditors list available on http://www.cert-in.org.in/) before integrating with

SBI’s payment gateway.

3.2.7 Training

The successful implementation of this project also entails effectively managing issues related to

capacity building. Government officials who are responsible for responding to RTI

applications/first appeals, i.e. Appellate Authorities and Central Public Information Officers

(Central Public Information Officers) from all the Central Public Authorities are required to

undergo training on using the Portal.

The Implementation Agency shall conduct Training Needs Analysis and prepare the detailed

curriculum in consultation with Department of Personnel & Training during System Requirement

Study phase. Few officials from each Central Public Authority need to be trained as trainers who

can then in turn train/hand hold Appellate Authorities and Central Public Information Officers.

Implementation Agency should draw up a systematic training plan in line with the overall project

plan.

The officials need to be trained with hands on training on all modules related to the day to day

operations and procedures in the system.

Details on the number of trainees (tentative) and allowed batch size are provided below.

Central Ministries/ Departments 102

Total number of officials to be trained as Master Trainers 2000

Batch size (maximum) 25

Table 4: Training requirements

Separate training curriculum shall be developed for the following groups:

1. RTI applications: Nodal Central Public Information Officers, Central Public Information

Officers and Assistant Public Information Officers

2. First Appeals: Nodal Central Public Information Officers, Appellate Authority

3. Call Centre Agents

The Implementation Agency should impart training to the Central Public Information Officers,

Appellate Authority, Nodal Central Public Information Officers of Central Public Authorities

who would be using the new System i.e Portal, as well as to its own Call Centre agents to make

them well conversant with the functionalities, features and processes of the system. Training

plans should be designed to impart hands-on training with adequate usage of case scenarios.

Implementation Agency is responsible to provide expert trainer(s) for conducting trainings in the

premises of the Central Public Authorities at New Delhi, facilitated by Department of Personnel &

http://www.cert-in.org.in/


42

Training. As part of all the training programs, Implementation Agency has to ensure distribution

of necessary course material and reference manuals (user/ maintenance/ administration) to the

trainees. Implementation Agency should quote the cost for the above as part of the commercial

bid. Department of Personnel & Training shall ensure adequate availability of training facility

and required transportation for the trainees. Implementation Agency shall also develop robust,

effective and easy to use “audio visual Computer Based Training” courses that shall be uploaded

on the Portal.

Training programs shall be designed in consultation with concerned Ministry/Organisation so that

the on-going/ regular operations are not unduly affected and all users are trained before the

system is made operational.

3.2.8 Adherence to Standards

3.2.8.1 Preference for Open standards

The system must be designed following open standards, to the extent feasible and in line with

overall system requirements set out in this Request For Proposal, in order to provide for good

inter-operability with multiple platforms and avoid any technology or technology provider lock-in.

3.2.8.2 Compliance with Industry Standards

In addition to above, the proposed solution has to be based on and compliant with industry

standards wherever applicable. This will apply to all the aspects of solution including but not

limited to design, development, security, installation, and testing. There are many requirements

for which standards have been indicated throughout this volume, however the following list may

be considered for quick reference:

Workflow design Workflow Management Coalition (WFMC) standards

e-Governance Application

Standards

Department of Information Technology (DIT)

guidelines available athttp://egovstandards.gov.in

Information access/transfer

protocols

Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Hypertext Transfer

Protocol (HTTP)/ Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS)

Interoperability Open standards, Web services

Scanned documents Inputs formats acceptable: Portable Network Graphics (PNG),

Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), Joint Photographic Experts

Group (JPEG), Portable Document Format (PDF) (Resolution of

150/300dpi)

Document encryption Public Key Cryptography Standards (PKCS) specifications

Information Security Call Centre to be International Organization for Standard


43

(ISO) 27001 certified

IT Infrastructure management Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) /

Enterprise Information Technology Management (EITM)

specifications

Service Management International Organization for Standard (ISO)

20000 specifications

Project Documentation IEEE/ International Organization for Standard International

Organization for Standard (ISO) / Capability Maturity

Model Integration (CMMi) specifications for documentation

Table 5: Industry Standards


44

4 Technical Requirements

The broad technical architecture & requirements of the proposed Call Centre and Portal

system is provided in this section. It is to be noted that the technical architecture and

technical / infrastructure requirements discussed here is only suggestive. The Implementation

Agency should independently evaluate the technical requirements; assess the current

available technology and suggest the best possible solution in a manner to cater to all the

requirements specified. Therefore the architecture / solution discussed here is not a limitation

for the Implementation Agency. The Implementation Agency should also indicate

appropriately the cost impact of each solution component as best as possible.

4.1 Call Centre

The RTI Call Centre shall use E1 line for receiving/sending calls. The E1 line shall be

terminated at the Call Centre premises (onto an Electronic Private Automatic Branch

Exchange (EPABX) system connected to a Computer Telephony Integration Server). The E1

line shall be provided by a Telecom service provider. The E1 line allows 30 simultaneous

calls which can be either incoming or outgoing from the Call Centre.

Incoming calls (to the Call Centre) will be routed to Call Centre agents by the Automatic Call

Distribution as per defined business logic (to be finalised and documented in the System

Requirement Specifications). A headset with microphone shall be provided to each agent

allowing a hands free conversation with the caller. Using Caller Line Identification, details of

the caller shall be shown to the agent (just) when the call is routed to an agent. This helps the

agent in identifying the caller and thereby aiding the agent to provide personalised service.

Other details about the caller shall also be provided based on the required functionality.

When a caller lands at the Call Centre, the caller will be greeted with a pre-recorded welcome

note and instructions on how to further use the system. This shall be using Interactive Voice

response (IVR) system providing various options to the caller including the option to speak to

an agent. IVR system shall support multiple languages (to start with English and Hindi and

later on scalable to other Indian regional languages). Based on the defined business logic, the

caller shall be routed to an appropriate multilingual speaking agent. The conversation of all

the agents and RTI applicants shall be recorded in a Voice logger.

A record of all calls shall be stored in the Call Centre. Each call’s Call Data Record (CDR)

shall be stored for necessary Management Information System analysis / reporting by using

an appropriate reporting tool. The Call Centre shall also be able to dynamically develop and

deploy customizable IVR messages/options as well as generate corresponding Management

Information System reports. It should also support Caller Line Identification and Dialled

Digits Identification (DDI). DDI will be used to write different campaigns or IVR services

based on Dialled Digits Identification (DDI).The system shall have backup/restore utility

along with File Transfer Protocol so that backups and summary reports can be transported to

any other system.Anti-virus and personal firewalls shall be installed on all agent workstations

and laptops


45

4.1.1 Automatic Call Detection

Automatic Call Distribution shall seamlessly integrate with PBX and Interactive Voice

Response System and support following functionality:

a. Call distribution (call routing to agent on longest idle basis)

b. Intelligent and Skill based call routing (parameters to be defined in System

Requirement Specifications)

c. Queuing facility

d. Recorded announcement features

e. Unique identification of each agent

f. Shall provide capability of combining data with Interactive Voice Response System

menu system that can intelligently route calls requesting further assistance

g. Monitoring and reporting tools for supervision

4.1.2 Use of Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS)

IVR system is also envisaged to work as an adjunct to the Call Centre and a self-service

medium with the following features:

a. Providing a list of languages supported

b. Interactive Voice Response System shall provide an easy to use and highly

configurable system that enables changing the Interactive Voice Response System

tree with no hard coding.

c. Identifying different types of call and directing them to different groups of specialist

agents

d. Identifying the caller ahead of the call being answered

e. Offering the caller simple information that may remove the need to speak to an agent

f. Call Centre Agency shall suggest changes and customisation of Interactive Voice

Response System content/tree structure based on the type of calls received. The same

will be implemented after approval of DOPT.

g. Interactive Voice Response System shall interact with the callers in duplex mode

through synthesized recorded voice to start with Hindi and English, scalable to include

other scheduled languages over a period of time mutually agreed between the Implementation

Agency and Department of Personnel & Training.

The menu structure shall provide callers with touch tone shortcuts that can be used in

sequence, which will allow the knowledgeable users to access information more quickly,

without having to “drill down” through the menu structure with every call. The information

about status of their application shall be provided to the callers after their identification based


46

on the required query. The system must have an authentication mechanism through

Application unique reference number.

4.1.3 Computer Telephony Integration

a. Computer Telephony Integration functionality shall support relevant screens pop-ups

on the agents screen on the basis of Caller Line Identification.

b. Computer Telephony Integration shall be suitably integrated with the Customer

Relationship Management and other applications used by Call Centre Agency to

send/receive data which needs to be populated on agent screen and also update the

Interactive Voice Response System usage details into the Customer Relationship

Management as the customer traverses through the Interactive Voice Response

System and reach an agent.

c. The Computer Telephony Integration shall enable computer application to take

control of the call flow inside the switch/EPABX & also allow the computer

application to decide the most suitable action/agent for an incoming call.

d. The Computer Telephony Integration link shall pass events & information of agent’s

states & changes in agent states as well as incoming calls to the computer.

4.1.4 Logger

a. The voice logger system shall provide 100% recording of calls.

b. The recordings shall contain detailed call information such as date, time call duration,

agent ID, caller number, Unique Reference Number etc. Solution shall provide

advance searching capabilities.

c. The calls shall be stored for 180 days.

4.1.5 Customer Relationship Management

Implementation Agency to ensure that an appropriate Customer Relationship Management

solution is provided to agents (locally) to record required information. This Customer

Relationship Management application should provide at the minimum the following:

a. Computer Telephony Integration / Customer Relationship Management functionality

shall provide relevant screen popup(s) on the agent desktop based on the Caller Line

Identification, DNIS etc., before the call is answered by the agent. This screen pop up

should display details including caller details and history of previous calls made by

the caller. Previous call history should include details of logged RTI applications and

appeals and their status.


47

b. The GUI based Customer Relationship Management application shall aide the agent

in capturing RTI application / First appeal details, thus acting as a temporary but

stable storage area before updation into the Portal.

c. Customer Relationship Management must generate a Unique Reference Number that

shall be provided to the caller. This Unique Reference Number should be so designed

to ensure its uniqueness across the complete solution

4.2 Portal

The application architecture presented here is only a suggestive one. The architecture

proposed is a multi-tier one with preferably distinct layers of:

a. Presentation layer (User Interfaces (UIs) for different user groups / access channels)

b. Application layer (application logic / Business rules, Web services/ EAI components

to enable a Service Oriented Architecture approach)

c. Data layer

Following diagram depicts the high level layered view of the system. The layered architecture

view provides clear demarcation of various layers. The key idea is to provide basis for

realizing the system based on “services”. Service based architecture is essentially a collection

of services which are well defined, self-contained, and loosely-coupled with other services.


48

Figure 5:Layered Architecture View

4.2.1 Presentation Layer

The Presentation Layer will be a single point of entry for the Citizens and departmental users

to the underlying business applications. This would provide a user interface with a single log

on and authentication process with all the required in-built security measures.

The user interface should be able to provide easy framework for navigation, present

information, enable input of data, display output, upload attachments, invoke other solution

components like application logic / business rules / web-services, enable language preference

of English & Hindi as per the user’s choice and provide rich interface controls. The interface

should have a consistent look and feel, guidelines for easy navigation, preferably collapsible

tree structures to indicate the stage / step in a process or workflow and should ensure that the

presentation can be achieved with minimum response times and latency. The interface could

also include web 2.0 elements for providing a rich interface.

Web Portal / User Interface HTML / Browser Based E-Forms

CTI / IVR

Presentation Layer

User management

Application

Layer

Services &

Service Communicati

on

E-Payment

Notification Business Logic

Application Logic Components

Data Management Data

Layer Transaction

Data Scanned

Documents Audit Logs

Role Based Access Contro

l

Secure Messag

e Between Apps.

Security

Policy Mgmt

Security Layer

PSTN

Internet

Citizens Department Users

Integration Components

Data Management


49

4.2.2 Application Layer

This Application Layer will cover the core and supporting components of the proposed

solution including business rules, workflows required to deliver the application and security

management. This could be one or more application components which need to be built or

configured to embed all the required business logic / process logic / business rules for all the

processes envisaged under the scope of this project. This would include the logic not only for

the service delivery oriented processes but also internal processes for functions like

accounting, Management Information System etc. All business rules for internal and external

processes should be configurable and should not require coding effort.

The centralized application should be able to execute concurrent requests for services that can

be delivered through any of the identified channels. The application should be the only means

to allow read / write of data and should ensure data security at all levels. It would also include

any other supporting application components that would be required to cater to specific

functional requirements. This could be application components for compression of data,

encryption of data, content management system, seamless transfer of data between Call

Centre Customer Relationship Management and the Central Portal application and any

existing Management Information System (if required and shall be finalised during System

Requirement Specifications phase).

This could possibly also include a set (layer) of web-services which are built to incorporate

modularity, flexibility and scalability in the application design. However this is only a

suggested layer and the Implementation Agency may choose to solution the requirements in

any other approach but complying with the technical architecture.

4.2.3 Data Layer

Access to this very important layer would be through well-defined application layer processes

applying appropriate business access rules. Data could reside in following forms: Active

database (RDBMS), Document repository and archived storage.

Active Database would contain all index data and all other transactional data that would be

required for online retrieval by processes. Implementation Agency may propose a well-

designed schema for achieving high performance and to take care of high levels of

concurrency.

Scanned Documents Repository would contain all scanned documents, responses, uploaded

documents etc. It is suggested that the solution designed must enable storage of the

documents in encrypted PDF format / any other format and also use suitable compression

techniques to further optimize size.

Archived database: Implementation Agency should suggest the mechanism for database

archival / storing in different partitions for data pertaining to different periods.


50

4.2.4 Content Management (CM)

The portal solution is the official information & service delivery interface to all the

stakeholders and the extreme care shall be taken while designing the portal layout, colouring

scheme, taxonomy etc. One of the key requirements for the portal is the content management,

which shall be performed using the CM tools and processes to ensure that the content, form

and services delivered through portal are adhering to the uniform standards across the portal.

Following are the key functional requirements of Content Management Solution to be

implemented.

The content management framework implemented for the portal should manage the

process of content creation, revision and approval through a combination of work

flow, business rules and version control technologies.

Contributor, managerial rights and privileges must be managed according to the

predefined roles for security and to ensure that participants are undertaking suitable

and appropriate tasks.

Content must be tagged with the Metadata to enable it to be retrieved more easily.

Access management and privileges for content management should be secured and

advanced authentication technologies shall be used for controlling access to the

content management.

4.2.5 General Architecture Specifications

1. The solution should be based on shared and reusable architectures, that is,

applications, systems and infrastructure are characterized as service-oriented,

component-based and reusable.

2. The solution should provide application architecture that is highly granular and

loosely coupled.

3. The solution architecture should be platform and vendor independent

4. The solution should be interoperable in nature and design and development should be

based on Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).

5. The solution is required to provide modularity (business function and process) that

should support addition / removal of one more modules as and when required.

6. The solution should ensure data safety and integrity in the event of

communication channels operation failures, software and hardware

operability failures.

7. The solution should support Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Hypertext Transfer

Protocol Secure (HTTPS) as per requirements for traffic between the user screens and

the central Portal application.


51

8. The solution should follow e-Governance standards available at

http://egovstandards.gov.in

9. The solution should have the ability to scale up as and when the new business

applications and services are added without compromising the performance of the

overall solution. The architecture should be proven to be highly scalable and capable

of delivering high performance as and when the transaction volumes increase.

10. The solution should be designed in manner that operational data is not lost in case of

any failure of equipment or communication network.

4.2.6 Hardware Requirement for Portal Deployment

The following is an indicative list of various servers/ systems/ components (in terms of

functionality required of them) that may have to be provided by the Implementation Agency

to be deployed at Data Centre/DR. Out of these few may be housed within a single box

depending upon the design and load requirements. The assessment about the no. for each of

them will have to be done by the bidder keeping in view all the requirements detailed in this

Request for Proposal. Also, during System Requirement Specifications and requirements

analysis stage Implementation Agency will have to make a realistic assessment on the field

for finalizing this.

a. Web Server / Portal Server

b. Directory Server

c. Application / Content Management System Server

d. Communication server (SMS/Email)

e. Database Server

f. Server Load Balancer

g. Back-up System (including tape library)

h. SAN Storage System (including switches)

4.2.6.1 Specifications for Servers

a. Should provide support for clustering, high availability and load balancing using

network load balancers in active-active mode.

b. The servers should be sized by Implementation Agency considering the business

requirements and workload details provided.

c. The servers should be sized such that it would not utilize more than 70% of its

resources in non-peak hours.

d. The proposed servers should be rack optimized with scalability for additional CPU,

Memory and Input / Output.

http://egovstandards.gov.in/


52

e. The proposed servers should have adequate number of CPUs with latest clock speed

and cache.

f. Each server should be populated with adequate number of Gigabit full-duplex

Ethernet controllers.

g. The servers that need connectivity to SAN should be populated with adequate number

of Fiber Channel Host Bus Adaptors (HBA) in redundant mode.

h. The servers should be proposed with redundant and hot swappable power supplies.

i. All the servers, except the Server for Backup, should be populated with read-only

drive, capable of reading all types of CD / DVD.

4.2.6.2 SAN Storage Disk System Specifications

a. Implementation Agency should design the storage infrastructure and accessories as

required for the proposed solutions that would be deployed at the Data Centre and the

Disaster Recovery Centre sites.

b. The Proposed Storage Area Network (SAN) Array shall support Redundant Array of

Independent Disks (RAID) Levels: 0, 1, 5/6.

c. The storage system should offer exhaustive support for all industry leading cluster

systems.

d. The storage system should be compatible with the proposed replication software.

4.2.6.3 SMS Gateway Specifications

a. Implementation Agency should build capabilities to link to the SMS Gateway hosted by

third party

b. Implementation Agency should develop an Interface that allows sending SMS from the

Portal application.

c. The Interface should be able to provide automatic notification and message delivery

status.

d. The API should be tested and secured against vulnerabilities and Security flaws. The API

should be compliant with OWASP guidelines.

4.2.7 Suggested Deployment Architecture

Applications and data shall be hosted in reliable Data Centre. The schematic diagram depicts

the suggested deployment architecture.


53

`

Agent 1

IVRS

`

Agent 2

`

Agent n

Ca

lls th

e R

TI

Nu

mb

er

PSTN

Citizen

Submits e-forms

on portal

DB Server

Web Server

App Server

Internet

Data

Center

RTI Call Center

EPABX

Tele communications

CTI

ServerACD

Figure 6: Deployment Architecture

a. Boxes shown are indicative. Actual number of boxes will depend on application

developed and virtualization possible

b. A De-militarized Zone (DMZ) is suggested for greater security of application and data

from internet users. The required number of web servers would be kept between the

primary and secondary firewalls.

c. There would be required number of application servers / web servers which would

interact with the database servers continuously to service requests from different users

d. Required data storage would be used to store the data (textual and scanned

documents)

e. Data Centre would provide physical space, civic infrastructure, main and backup

power along with cooling facilities. Implementation Agency shall provide the sizing,

configuration and rates of other required infrastructure components required at Data

Centre and Disaster Recovery Centre sites.

f. Implementation Agency is required to provide detailed hardware sizing which would

be adequate for running the system with considerations for scalability requirements

for the next 5 years from go-live. The Implementation Agency should also consider

and be open to opportunities for virtualization at the Data Centre.


54

4.3 Data Centre

The following section describes the broad recommendations / requirements of Data Centre&

DR, however the bidders will have to propose a comprehensive Data Centre & Disaster

Recovery Centre solution together with details of its components and design considerations

keeping in view the prime requirement of providing good quality services at desired service

levels and achieving the objectives of performance, scalability, availability, security and

manageability. The Data Centre Architecture needs to be an n-tier, Multi-layer architecture

and designed to adhere to the industry standards like XML and is optimized for hosting the

proposed system.

1. The Data Centre design is logically divided as per functionality needed at each layer.

2. The Data Centre is the nerve Centre of the system. This is used to house the main servers.

These servers are protected from the other zones by firewalls.

3. Data Centre connects to the Portal for transactions on one side and on the other side to the

Internet for online information and transaction services. The expectations from the

solution at the Data Centre are:

a. All the information related to access should be logged

b. For any access to the central database, time of access, source, what was accessed,

modified needs to be logged and should be able to get the same as a report which

should be based on between range of dates, user Departments etc.

c. Reports module that can be accessed via browser over the Intranet and Internet

d. Mechanism to alert the right people about inappropriate activity in Portal

environment, such as:

a. Database backup not taken as per prescribed policy

b. Unauthorized access attempts

e. Ensure high availability and redundancy for all the services supported by the Data

Centre.

f. Supports horizontal scalability in such a manner that a server can be added (or

removed) dynamically, as and when required in future, without disturbing the normal

functioning of production system.

4. Considering that the location of the Disaster Recovery site is remotely located, an

asynchronous mode of data replication is suggested between Data Centre and Disaster

Recovery Centre site.

5. Implementation Agency shall ensure that the servers and storage are sized adequately and

redundancy is built into the architecture that is required to meet the service levels

mentioned in the Request for Proposal. There should be no compromise with respect to

functionality expected of each of the above components and appropriate care has to be

exercised, while finalizing the device specifications and drawing up the final Bill of


55

Materials, about scalability, security, performance, availability, and manageability. One

more factor to be considered here would be the compatibility of all these components

with each other and with respect to the overall solution deployment.

4.3.1 Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

As the architecture of the system will be central, high availability and redundancy need to be

ensured at all layers of IT infrastructure including Relational Database Management System

(RDBMS), servers and services, so that services to citizens can be delivered without major

disruption by Implementation Agency. Therefore, responsibility of ensuring business

continuity will lie with Implementation Agency. Policy and solution which ensure disaster

recovery, resumption of services and data archival will lie with Implementation Agency. The

response time is given in the Clause 3.1.3.

In terms of capability, the Disaster Recovery Centre is expected to have IT infrastructure to

the tune of 80% of Data Centre, providing support in case of any failure at Data Centre.

1. Implementation Agency should propose a cost effective solution for the Disaster

Recovery Centre site by considering deployment of only adequate number of software

licenses, which are essential for functioning of the site.

2. The Disaster Recovery Centre site should have SAN storage and should allow for

database level replication.

3. The mode of replication between the Data Centre and Disaster Recovery Centre site

would be asynchronous database replication to aid performance.

4. It is emphasized that the complete responsibility of the replication and data loss

prevention issues would be with the Implementation Agency.

4.3.1.1 Replication Specifications

1. Implementation Agency must adhere to the best practices of Tier-3 and above norms of

TIA 942 guidelines for setting up Data Centre and DR. Implementation Agency should

configure the replication between the Data Centre and Disaster Recovery Centre site.

2. Implementation Agency should design a suitable replication strategy and an effective

model for replication of the databases on the SAN storage. Implementation Agency

should accordingly provision the infrastructure.

4.3.2 Problem and Incident Management


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In the case of an incident, the actions that need to be performed by Data Centre -

Disaster Recovery Centre service provider are listed below.

1 The Incident should be recorded with all details. All basic details including

the summary of the problem should be recorded.

Should clearly define as to what an ‘Incident’ is and what a ‘Problem is’.

2 Criticality/Priority of the incident shall have to be decided in sync with the

Department of Personnel & Training based on the nature of impact.

The Priority levels and target resolution times for the various types of

incidents must have been defined and agreed upon with Department of

Personnel & Training.

3 For all high priority incidents, should assign an owner.

4 The Incident Owner should keep the Department of Personnel & Training

informed at regular intervals. The interval(s) should be agreed upon with

Department considering the priority, severity of the incident

5 An emergency Contact number should be provided by the service provider to

be able to contact and take status updates. This contact must be reachable till

the closure of the incident.

Key Contacts shall have to be decided upfront and they should be responsive,

communicable and reachable

6 Ownership, Tracking, Monitoring and Communications of incidents shall

track to closure.

7 Should provide Root cause analysis for all Critical and High incidents within

48 hours of closure to Department.

8 Incidents which have failed to meet the Service Levels and which are

unresolved should be alerted to the Department of Personnel & Training.

An action Plan shall have to be prepared. The same would be reviewed by on

a continuous basis till closure. A root cause analysis should be prepared for

such incidents.

9 The Escalation Procedure shall have to be defined and agreed upon amongst

all the stake-holders. In case of any dissatisfaction with respect to Quality of

service, escalation path shall have to be taken.

10 All the service incidents reported, response times, resolution times and status

updates shall be measured on a weekly basis and reported monthly


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4.3.3 Network Related

1 With regard to Cabling, should ensure that

- The Information Outlets (IOs) are numbered properly.

- The IOs are not left dangling under any circumstances.

- Each numbered IO shall terminate on the similar numbered port of

the hub/switch.

- Distance between electrical cabling and data cabling is at-least

three feet from sources of electrical interference.

- If it is necessary to run cable across the floor, cables are covered

with cable protectors.

- Label both ends of the cable.

- Cable ties (not tape) are used to keep cables in the same location

together.

- Data cables shall not cross-electrical cables in order to avoid

interference and disturbance.

- Proper arrangements are made to ensure that rats and other rodents

do not tamper with the cables.

- There should be a proper route map of the cables laid so that

detection of faults or troubleshooting & maintenance is easy.

2 Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) Deployment –

i. VLANs shall be created to completely isolate Infrastructure from

other infrastructure hosted in the Data-Centre.

3 Remote Access of RTI Call Centre and Portal Infrastructure from the Data-

Centre shall be regulated, monitored and controlled.

4 All network equipment default passwords (e.g., Routers) must be changed by

supervisors during installation.

5 All traffic from inside the Data Centre to external networks, and vice-versa,

must pass through a gateway security device (or firewall).

6 Firewall and Router Configuration Standards shall be established and these

shall include the following

- A formal process for approving and testing all network

configurations and changes to firewall and router configurations.

- Documentation and business justification for use of all services,

protocols, and ports allowed, including documentation of security

features implemented for those protocols considered to be

insecure.


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- We assume that firewall is implemented in such a manner to

ensure the following: Hide the architecture of the protected

network.

- Provide audit trails of all communications to or through the

firewall system and should generate alarms when suspicious

activities are detected.

Routers shall also be hardened.

7 IPS should be provisioned and functional at all times - It should be capable of

scanning the known threats and raise alarm if any attack is detected. Service

provider to share the IPS report in case of any such event and also provide

response on how the threat is addressed on network perspective

8 Service provider to periodically schedule firewall configuration assessment

with Department to identify any redundant firewall rules which can be

removed. Recommended period is once every quarter

10 Network Devices shall be protected, using circuit breakers, from any unusual

spike in the voltage fluctuations

11 Logs of Firewall shall be stored, analyzed and kept securely. Any suspicious

behavior which may have a bearing on Operations shall have to be brought to

the notice of Department in accordance with the incident management

procedure.

4.3.4 Availability

1 Virtual Private Network (VPN) gateway should be redundant

2 All the network devices should have redundant power supply. Both power supplies

should not connect to the same power source

3 Network Device configuration - All the network devices should be redundant,

without any single point of failure

4 Network Availability should be 99.7%

5 The availability of all the Data Centre facilities hosting the solution will be available.

It shall be measured every month.

4.4 Strategic Control and Security

1 Shall ensure that the Infrastructure Components are not accessed (including removal

from rack), tampered, and modified without due approval.


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No network configuration changes shall be done that affects the Availability without

the approval of Department.

2 Data related to Infrastructure shall not be shared with anyone without the approval of

Department.

3 Access to RACK hosting the Infrastructure shall be strictly controlled. Access shall

only be given to authorized personnel.

4 Shall implement measures to prevent users from attaching any hardware to Servers

or enable remote access to un-authorized personnel.

5 Access to Tape Library and Back-up tapes shall only be granted to authorized

personnel.

4.4.1 Power Supply

1 The Electrical power supply should terminate at a local transformer to

regulate the power that is available to the Data Centre which should not

exceed 220-240V.

2 Further, within the data-Centre room the voltages maintained should all be

regulated to suit the servers and other equipment as per the vendor

recommendations

3 Circuit breakers of appropriate capacity should be installed to protect the

hardware against increase in power voltage

4 There has to two levels of Electrical Power supply redundancy, in case the

regular power supply fails, then the power to the IT infrastructure must shift

to the UPS power supply, and then power supply to IT infrastructure must

shift to Generator.

5 A dedicated UPS (Uninterruptible Power System) with maintenance-free

batteries (which should be replaced regularly depending on vendor

specifications) should be maintained for DataCentre room and servers. The

UPS must ideally reside in a dust free environment similar to that of the

DataCentre room. There should be adequate space around the UPS for

maintenance purposes. The UPS must be adequate to provide voltages at the

same level as the regular supply and there must be no glitches in the process

of the UPS taking over the electricity supply as these glitches can severely

harm the machines

6 The UPS and the generator shall be tested regularly to ensure the smooth


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functioning of the power supply to the IT infrastructure

4.4.2 Environmental Conditions

1 The whole premises should have air-conditioning facilities to prevent

dust, heat and air pollution affecting Infrastructure.

2 The server room must have dedicated air-conditioning equipment with

the temperature maintained below 20 degrees Centigrade (+/- 2 degrees

Centigrade).

3 Air conditioning must be non-condensing type. In any case the humidity

level in the server room must not cross 50%.

4 The particulate dust content of the air in the server room must be

maintained at below 75g/

5 Risk of Fire:

Automatic fire extinguishers such as FM200/FE227 gas based Fire

prevention system installation shall be deployed. Additionally, the Data

Centre room shall be fitted with inert gas (e.g. CO2) based fire

extinguisher.

The furniture within the Data Centre room must be of fire proof or fire

resistant material. Fire-prone material such as paper, saw-dust must be

at a minimum.

The whole premises should be fitted with automatic fire alarms.

Fire-fighting equipment must be located through-out the Data Centre

and employees/contractors/vendors should be trained in its usage on a

periodic basis.

Emergency exits

Emergency exits or Evacuation Routes are clearly marked through-out

the premises. They should always be kept obstacle free. Fire drills

should be practiced on semi-annual basis

6 Water Damage:

Data Centre shall have adequate flood and rainwater drains. The

premises should be continuously maintained to ensure that water

logging, if any, is detected and corrective action is initiated.


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Infrastructure shall not be situated on the ground floor in order to reduce

risk of damage by water logging.

Further, no food or eatables should be allowed in the server room.

7. Switches and sockets should all be grounded (provided with earthing)

and provided with circuit breakers to avoid any untoward occurrences

due to faulty wiring or short circuits.

Self-activating emergency lamps should be placed in the IT Operations

area and any other location as deemed necessary, as they may be

required to handle abrupt power failures

4.4.3 Physical Security

1 Unauthorized access to premises hosting servers and other critical

infrastructure resources used in shall be prevented. Security guards shall

be deployed to protect against unauthorized access to the critical

premises. The guards shall be on duty during all hours and shall conduct

physical inspection to ensure proper security. Access control devices

such as access control swipe cards shall be used to restrict access to

server room.

2 Inspection of incoming and outgoing packages (e.g. bags, briefcases,

boxes, laptop computers, etc.) shall be conducted to ensure the

unauthorized materials are not brought in or taken out of the premises

hosting critical Infrastructure. Incoming hardware/material shall be

declared at the security office and a gate-pass document given for

clearance of the same. Any material being taken out of these premises

shall be supported by a gate pass duly approved by the respective

authorities.

3 Entry to premises hosting the infrastructure shall be regulated by using

electronic access cards.

4 The regular vendors/suppliers, suppliers shall be listed in registers and

security personnel shall validate their name and identity before allowing

them entry into premises. These parties shall be assigned semi-

permanent passes or identification badges by the security department

Visitors shall sign-in, in the visitors’ log book, which shall be kept with

the security guard. This shall be retained and reviewed every day

Visitors shall wear a visitor badge to inform personnel that a non-

employee is in the restricted area

Gate pass shall be issued for taking out from any material from the


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secured premises. Logs shall be maintained & reviewed for material

coming into these secured premises

5 Where applicable and possible, usage of security cameras in server

rooms is recommended.

6 Unauthorized media devices shall not be allowed inside the server room

7 Loading and delivery area should be isolated from the main IT facilities.

The holding area shall be designed to accommodate unloading/loading

of supplies while not permitting access to other areas. All deliveries

shall be checked for potential hazardous materials before moving them

beyond the holding area.

8 Movement of equipment shall be recorded for control on physical

inventory.


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5 Functional Requirements

Following are the functional requirements of the Call Centre and Portal.

The interaction diagram provides details on information flow in the proposed system. RTI

requests filed through any of the alternate channels shall be logged centrally in the Portal

application.

Figure 7 : Information flow in the proposed system

All RTI applications / First appeals received through either the Call Centre or Portal shall be

centrally filed in the Web Portal application. Web Portal shall reside in the Data Centre.

Government officials shall also use the Web Portal application to carry out their transactions

on the logged RTI applications / First appeals.

5.1 Generic Functional Requirements

Sl.

No

Description

FR1 The system should capture all information required to complete RTI

Application/First Appeals.

FR2 The system should have built in directory of all public authorities.

Call Center

(CRM)

Web Portal

Data Bases

Internet

Periodic Updates to

Portal Status retrieval

from Portal

Government

Officials

PSTN


64

FR3 The system should have option to allow Call Centre agent / Portal user to select a

Central Public Authority to whom the RTI Application/First Appeal is to be

routed. The system should automatically pick up address and from the directory.

FR4 The system should automatically record the communication channel through

which RTI Application/First Appeal has been received by a Central Public

Authority.

FR5 The system shall generate a Unique Reference number (Unique Reference

Number) for each RTI Application/First Appeal.

FR6 The system should classify type of information requested under RTI with

appropriate indexing and ease of retrieval

FR7 The system should allow quick retrieval of RTI applications/first appeals on

entering Unique Reference Number in the system.

FR8 The system should support input, storage, retrieval, transfer and output of data

and information in both English and Hindi language with the scalability to

include schedule languages.

FR9 The system should be user friendly and convenient

FR10 All actions on a particular RTI application /first appeal should be linked and

traceable through the Unique Reference Number. The actions may include

recording of application, routing, responses, payment of fees, rejections,

modifications, status updation and response upload on the Portal and finally

closure after dispatch of response.

FR11 The system should maintain the file number, order number and any other

communications pertaining to a particular RTI application/first appeal with name

of issuing office, date and time thus acting as a Document Management System

allowing tracking of file movement and its status. The system should provide

interface for the Central Public Information Officer/Appellate Authority to enter

such details as and when such official communications are issued by their office.

FR12 Status of RTI applications/first appeals should be built in the system based on

corresponding process milestones. Clear status must be available including:

Application Created

Acknowledged

Rejected

Under Process

Closed

This is only an indicative list and Implementation Agency to verify during the


65

System Requirement Specifications phase.

FR13 Implementation Agency to ensure that proposed hardware/software/network

should be scalable to meet the requirements during the agreement period.

FR14 The system should allow archiving of filed RTI application/first appeal records

which shall include both text and voice recording. Audit trail of archival with

time and date stamp, will be automatically maintained by the system.

FR15 The system should not allow editing/deletion of logged RTI application/first

appeal records which shall include both text and voice by any user of the system.

FR16 The system should have a GUI based interface to create and maintain

calculation/validation rules.

FR17 Government officers would interact with the same system using rich, interactive,

role based, easy to understand configurable dashboard providing access to live

reports, prompts, charts, tickers, pivot tables and graphics. This feature should be

user driven and should eliminate the need for coding/scripting.

FR18 Implementation Agency should study the existing computerised RTI

Management Information System applications in use in Department of Personnel

& Training and develop corresponding features in their solution in consultation

with Department of Personnel & Training. This is required to understand the

existing channel (post or in person) through which RTI applications/first appeals

are received in Central Public Authorities.

FR19 RTI application /first appeal received via all the available channels shall be

logged in the proposed Portal application. Implementation Agency to build

appropriate features to enable the same. Uniformity of application view to be

maintained across the channels so that all channels capture relevant information

in a uniform way.

FR20 The business rules for various processes should be configurable. It should

automatically send alerts and reminders before and after the prescribed time limit

for a particular action. The lead time before and after the timeline as well as

frequency of reminders should be configurable. The reminders and alerts should

display on the interface provided to the Nodal Central Public Information

Officers, Appellate Authorities and Central Public Information Officers.

FR21 System shall have audit logs for changes made in the business rules

FR22 The system should take only server time as default system time across all

channels and interfaces. The uniform timing convention shall be used for

recording time pertaining to various events and interaction happening in the


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system. The system should not allow users to alter system time.

FR23 The system should be able to record all transactions made with regard to RTI

applications and appeals. It should also store unique transaction id for all

payments and map with corresponding application id and Payee details. It should

also be able to identify the channel through which payment is made.

FR24 The system should maintain audit trail of all payments and its updation in the

system.

FR25 The system should not allow entry of duplicate payment. In other words, same

DD, banker cheque or PO must not figure in more than one transaction

FR26 Implementation Agency to develop necessary functionality in the system to

interface with SBI and TSP so as to reconcile the collections with the

remittances. The system should also record all the remittances made to respective

Central Public Authority through various modes.

FR27 The system should generate alerts on exceptions, errors and mismatches.

FR28 If the call to the Call Centre gets disconnected, the agent should be able to save

the incomplete applications with details including phone number, date and time

of call. Portal shall auto save applications periodically (periodicity to be finalised

during System Requirement Specifications phase). In both scenarios, the solution

shall be designed to retain the incomplete RTI applications / Appeals for a period

of 12 hours.All saved RTI applications, whose RTI Fee has not been received

within 12 hours, should be deleted from the system. This is applicable for

applications received through both Call Centre and Portal.

FR29 The solution should have the ability to provide secure enterprise level search

(across active database, archived database, repository of scanned documents etc.)

FR30 The system should support uploading of documents created with commonly used

office automation products

FR31 Bidder to suggest mechanism for database storing / archival as part of their

solution. Each RTI application / First appeal / response shall be allowed to

occupy no more than 1 MB of storage space (totaling to 3 MB space per

application/appeal). This shall include the actual request / response document

and corresponding scanned documents. Appropriate mechanisms should be built

to enforce this storage limitation.

FR32 Implementation Agency shall develop and maintain a FAQ database &

Knowledge bank accessible to all users of the system. This shall include a step by


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step resolution workflow based on commonly asked queries / RTI

applications/first appeals received from both channels i.e Call Centre and Portal.

FR33 Implementation Agency to regularly maintain this FAQ database / Knowledge

bank. Implementation Agency also to develop library facilities for all the

responses on RTI applications/first appeals with search option.

FR34 Implementation Agency shall work closely with Department of Personnel &

Training in developing work flow, escalation procedures and reporting

mechanism for resolution of queries / grievances through different resolver

groups and providing relevant updates to the FAQ database / Knowledge bank.

FR35 Implementation Agency shall propose process improvement initiatives on a

quarterly basis to improve productivity, efficiency and quality of service in both

channels. These initiatives shall be jointly discussed with Department of

Personnel & Training and implemented by Implementation Agency.

5.2 Call Centre Functional Requirements

Sl.

No

Description

Interactive Voice Response System

FR36 When a call lands on the system, the caller will be greeted with a pre-recorded

welcome note.

FR37 Interactive Voice Response System solution should support DTMF signaling

based menu service that provides callers with touch tone shortcuts that can be

used in sequence, which will allow the knowledgeable users to access

information more quickly or opt to talk to agent, without having to “drill down”

through the menu structure with every call.

FR38 Interactive Voice Response System should also have an appropriate flow to

handle calls made to the RTI Fee line and send the confirmation of RTI fee

payment to Customer Relationship Management in the Call Centre.

FR39 Interactive Voice Response System shall interact with the callers in duplex mode

through synthesized recorded voice to start with Hindi and English, scalable to

include other scheduled languages over a period of time mutually agreed between

the Implementation Agency and Department of Personnel & Training..

FR40 Playing messages to callers waiting in queue or on hold should be configurable

and the message text should be modifiable by Department of Personnel &


68

Training from time to time without the need for hard coding.

FR41 Interactive Voice Response System shall answer queries by prompting caller to

input data onto the touch-tone keypad look up records in a database and play

back appropriate pre-recorded messages in English/Hindi/regional language.

FR42 Interactive Voice Response System shall be capable to capture and store

information asked from caller and usage details of each caller traversing through

the call and pass on relevant information to the screen pop up at agent’s desktop

by seamless integrating with the Automatic Call Distribution.

FR43 Interactive Voice Response System should ensure routing accuracy as per design.

Interactive Voice Response System shall allow transfer to agent anytime during

the Interactive Voice Response System announcement.

FR44 Interactive Voice Response System shall retrieve agent availability from

Automatic Call Distribution and announce to the caller the expected wait time to

talk to an available agent.

FR45 Implementation Agency to provide suitable number of IVR ports to ensure that

all calls made to the call Centre are answered by the Interactive Voice Response

System. There shall be a provision of scalability of IVRS so that over a period of

time it will take care of maximum functionalities of the Call Centre (feasible

through IVRS) under this Project. Features of scalability will be finalized during

SRS Phase of the Project

Automatic Call Distribution

FR46 The Call Centre should support Automatic Call Distribution based Skill-based

Call Routing facilities. Interactive Voice Response System Skill-based call

routing to appropriate agent should also be provisioned. Following features to be

supported by Automatic Call Distribution:

a. Determining region from which call is originating and greeting the caller

in Hindi / English; and corresponding regional language (future need)

b. Call holding if no agent is available

c. Keeping callers informed as to the status of the call and providing

information to the callers while they wait in queue

d. Skill based call routing

e. Handle high call volumes efficiently

f. Support relaying of important messages to callers on hold

Customer Relationship Management


69

FR47 Implementation Agency to ensure that an appropriate Customer Relationship

Management solution is provided to agents (locally) to record required

information. This Customer Relationship Management applications should

provide at the minimum the following:

a. Computer Telephony Integration / Customer Relationship Management

functionality shall provide relevant screen popup(s) on the agent desktop

based on the Caller Line Identification, DNIS etc., before the call is

answered by the agent. This screen pop up should display details

including caller details and history of previous calls made by the caller.

Previous call history should include details of logged RTI applications

and appeals and their status.

b. The GUI based Customer Relationship Management application shall

aide the agent in capturing RTI application / First appeal details, thus

acting as a temporary but stable storage area before updation into the

Portal.

c. Customer Relationship Management must generate a Unique Reference

Number that shall be provided to the caller. This Unique Reference

Number should be so designed to ensure its uniqueness across the

complete solution.

d. Captured RTI application / First appeal shall not be treated as (officially)

logged until RTI fee payment confirmation is received from Interactive

Voice Response System.

e. Necessary interfaces need to be built by the Implementation Agency to

ensure that the logged RTI application / First appeal details are

periodically updated into the Web Portal application.

f. Support agent in servicing the caller by providing access to FAQ &

Knowledge bank developed as part of the solution

Other call Centre requirements

FR48 Implementation Agency to man the Call Centre with suitable number of

appropriately trained agents. The agent positions must have Caller Line

Identification based popups providing information to agent about the caller

before the agent and caller begin their conversation. It will have facility of

Transfer of Call from one Call Centre agent to the other Call Centre agent

FR49 The Call Centre agents must clear backlog as RTI applications/first appeals are

required be submitted on a priority basis to the nodal Central Public Information

Officer through Portal within a stipulated timeframe.


70

FR50 Implementation Agency to maintain Call Centre Agent occupancy rate as per

Call Centre industry standard. All the Call Centre agents should be monitored as

per the quality standards defined by Implementation Agency and DOPT in the

form of Call Quality Score.

FR51 The system should save voice conversation between call Centre agent and caller

at the time of documenting the RTI request and map it to Unique Reference

Number. The Call Centre should have facility to record, replay and monitor all

calls for a period of 180 days. Implementation Agency shall maintain a record of

the call details and be able to retrieve the same with ease. Should support call-by-

call reporting.

FR52 Implementation Agency to ensure that the Call Centre Agents should not impart

wrong information to citizens, write erroneous RTI applications/first appeals on

behalf of the Citizens; and mistreat citizens.

FR53 The system designed must generate Management Information System report for

monitoring call Centre agent productivity and Complete Call details.

FR54 There should be a facility to monitor a Call, by the Call Centre

Manager/Department of Personnel & Training official in real time. IA shall

devise some mechanism to ensure Customer satisfaction in terms of convenience,

sensitivities towards citizens, imparting guidance and help to citizens (through

interaction with agents and IVRS) for quality services. IA shall also devise

mechanism for on-time complaint handling received through Call Centre.

FR55 There should be a provision of Capacity ramp up based on the volume of calls

under this Project. In this case, the Call Centre will take suomoto cognizance of

the requirements of Capacity ramp up and shall ensure that all the calls are taken

care of as per the Service Levels. Call Centre service availability should be able

to scale up from 12*7 up to 24*7 operations at a future date depending on the

volume and/or other parameters. Department of Personnel & Training shall

provide the Implementation Agency with a 2 month notice period to scale up its

operations to support the extended hours of operations.

FR56 Call Centre to have an authentication mechanism before RTI status details are

shared with the caller.

FR57 Call Centre should have necessary backup mechanism to safeguard all data in

case of failure of equipment or failure to update Portal.

FR58 Implementation Agency shall develop training methodology including training

material in English and Hindi for Call Centre agents for various types of training

such as induction training, train the trainer. The content of training shall include:

a)Professional behavior


71

b)Acquisition of RTI domain related knowledge and processes in DOPT

c)Acquisition of soft skill (courteousness, sensitivities towards

citizen),communication skills, domain specific skills and technical skills

d)Acquisition of competence, relevant knowledge for the performance of the job

as per the requirements

FR59 Implementation Agency shall provide analytical services to improve functioning

of the call Centre processes and also reduce queries and grievances and improve

quality of service. Implementation Agency shall also submit and implement

actionable plans to address issues.

5.2.1 SMS

Sl. No Description

FR60 Implementation Agency should develop the solution to support and process

inbound SMS from customers and send out SMS. Processing logic shall be

finalized during System Requirement Specifications preparation.

FR61 This component will allow communication with mobile phones by leveraging the

wireless and telephony protocols and data formats supported by mobile devices

FR62 It should build a database of mobile numbers and have a configurable business

rule engine to send a single / bulk SMS in a secure way

FR63 It should have required business rules to build required database of mobile

numbers to send a single / bulk SMS in a secure way

FR64 It shall support / provide delivery and read acknowledgement facilities

FR65 Allow system administrator to define templates for pre-defined messages and

auto response messages.

FR66 As citizens can also pay the RTI fee by sending SMS to the RTI Fee line, the

SMS component should send the confirmation of RTI fee payment to Customer

Relationship Management in the Call Centre.


72

5.3 Portal Functional Requirements

5.3.1 Functional view of Portal

Figure 8: Functional view of portal

Portal will be a very important component of the proposed system. It will display basic

information about RTI rules, guidelines and procedures, directory of Central Public Authorities

etc. It will also provide dashboard views of important statistics. The portal will provide

interface to citizens and Government users. It will have e-Forms for filing of RTI applications

and first appeals. Citizen can also track the status of RTI application / first appeal through

this interface. DOPT may devise some mechanism to measure Citizen and CPAs (Employee)

satisfaction with Portal Services. Portal shall support the below mentioned functionalities.

1. Filing RTI application and first appeal

This module will enable recording of RTI Application / First Appeal through various

channels into the system. l. It will have built in validation to do the preliminary checks.

The module will have access to Central Public Authority Directory and will route the

application to concerned Nodal Central Public Information Officer.

User and Security Management

Content Management

Workflow Engine

Filing First Appeal

Filing RTI Application

Data Management

MIS

E-payment

UI

Accounting


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2. Content Management

System should have the ability to enable capturing of RTI responses from Central Public

Information Officer in the system through appropriate interface. This module will

facilitate recording of RTI responses, generation of PDF files, upload of scanned orders

and documents, storage, indexing, management and retrieval of uploaded documents

anytime and anywhere under adequate authorization and security environment.

3. Accounting

The system will have an accounting module that will record all transactions through

multiple channels. It will capture the transaction details, date, time and payment details.

Payment realization, remittances and reconciliation will be tracked through this module.

4. Data Management

The system will have an administration module that will manage all forms of data, define

business rules in the system, manage user roles and facilitate system monitoring and

administration.

5. User and Security Management

User access in the system shall require each user to assume a unique identity across

applications and networked infrastructures, which enables access controls to be assigned

and monitored. This module will ease the monitoring and verification of potential un-

authorised access and allows to keep tabs of excessive privileges granted to any

individual within the system. From the user lifecycle perspective, user access will be

tracked from new hire, suspension to termination of employee.

6. Workflow Engine

This module will allow definition and maintenance of business rules and workflows.

Administrator should be able to define / configure / enable / disable workflows for

processes / process segments as desired during the agreement period. The solution should

be able to define process hierarchies and there should be no limitation on the number of

levels in the hierarchy. This module will enable rule based workflow to process RTI

applications and first appeals by the Central Public Information Officers and Appellate

Authorities.

7. Management Information System

The system will have Management Information System module which can generate both

statutory / standard reports as well as customized reports. The reports shall cover business

reports, operational reports for Service Levels and system monitoring as well as others

which may be modelled for future use. The proposed software will provide feature to

model custom reports with flexible layout and design. It will also provide for setting of

privileges and rights pertaining to usage of reports. System should cater to additional

query that can be made in the system for specific information as long as data is available

in the database.

8. Payment Gateway


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For online users, an interface with selected payment gateway will be provided in the

developed solution for submission of statutory RTI fee. The payment gateway will

facilitate secure electronic transactions through Internet banking, debit and credit cards.

There would be a provision of depositing RTI fee into designated Government Account.

9. Alerts and Reminders

The system will have an email / SMS alert and reminder engine that will keep tabs on

specified time period prescribed for activities and tasks in the built in business and

operational processes. It will periodically remind the Central Public Information Officers

about following deadlines and generate alerts on non-compliance and defaults and as well

as send defined alerts to Citizens.

5.3.2 Functional requirements of Web Portal

Sl. No Description

FR67 The Implementation Agency shall design and develop the Portal solution for

meeting the requirements specified in the Scope of Work of this Request For

Proposal.

FR68 Portal should adhere to the standards specified for portal by Department of

Information and Technology, Government of India

FR69 A citizen should be able to enter relevant details and log RTI Application /First

Appeal via the portal and be able to upload supporting documents (common

word processing file types) including scanned documents. The size limit per

request shall be restricted to 1 MB.

FR70 Portal should allow RTI application/first appeal to be entered in Hindi and

English, scalable to include other scheduled languages over a period of time

Services shall be offered in multiple languages under the same terms and

conditions as in Hindi & English.

FR71 Functionality should be built to assist the users to identify the right Nodal

Central Public Information Officer for the RTI Application/First Appeal.

FR72 Citizen should be able to retrieve his application using the Unique Reference

Number and be able to print out the same.

FR73 Portal should provide downloadable forms.

FR74 Portal should have functionality to ‘login’ Central Public Authority officials and

display details of RTI applications / First appeals assigned to him/her. Details

and the screen format shall be finalized and signed off during System

Requirement Specifications phase.


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FR75 Portal should have the functionality to allow Nodal Central Public Information

Officer to forward parts of a single application assigned to him, to multiple

Central Public Information Officers within a Central Public Authority. Multiple

Central Public Information Officers should be able to process the same

application simultaneously.

FR76 Portal should have the functionality to allow Nodal Central Public Information

Officer of one Central Public Authority, to forward full or part of the application

assigned to him, to Nodal Central Public Information Officer of another Central

Public Authority.

FR77 Portal should allow for transfer of RTI request from one Central Public

Information Officer back to the concerned Nodal Central Public Information

Officer. The transfer process must allow the Central Public Information Officer

to enter his remarks or response which may become annotation to the read only

PDF application. System to maintain audit trail.

FR78 Portal should allow only authorized users to respond to a particular application

or appeal and should maintain audit trail of all such responses with date, time

and user stamp.

FR79 Portal should mail the response to applicant’s e-mail id if it has been so

preferred.

FR80 Authentication mechanism must be built in to ensure authorized and secure

usage of the portal

FR81 A citizen should be able to track the status or access his/her RTI application /

appeal, view uploaded responses by Central Public Information Officers, at any

point in time on the Portal. Such request / appeals may be logged through any

available channel.

FR82 Portal should allow administrator to publish and maintain static data, FAQ and

relevant information pertaining to RTI Act and compliances of various public

authorities. Implementation Agency shall also design the mechanism of updation

of the historical data and also the MIS for opening bases in cases where DOPT

would need to upload the previous data.

FR83 Portal should be able to initiate appropriate workflows based on applicable

business rules

FR84 Administrator should be able to configure / enable / disable workflows for

processes / process segments as desired and the rights to do so should be with

administrator only.


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FR85 The solution should be able to define process hierarchies and there should be no

limitation on the number of levels in the hierarchy

FR86 Portal should incorporate rule based workflow to process RTI applications and

first appeals.

FR87 Portal should maintain log of the date / time of delivery, view and download of

each RTI Application/Appeal.

FR88 Portal should send daily reminder to Central Public Information Officers if the

RTI Application/ First Appeal is not downloaded within a specified period by

the assigned Central Public Information Officer/Appellate Authority

FR89 Portal should send periodic reminders (configurable in the system) to designated

officials(s) to complete their responses before the due date of RTI

Application/Appeal.

FR90 Portal should provide interface to Central Public Information Officer(s) to

update the status and response details of Application/Appeal.

FR91 Portal shall be designed to be role based. It should have the feature to categorize

users and define their role. System should allow for assigning privileges based

on business rules to different sets of users. A user should be able to access only

those feature and view for which the privilege has been assigned to him by the

administrator.

FR92 Portal should also allow for delegation of role from a higher authority to

specified subordinates subject to necessary approval in the Central Public

Authority. It will have built in workflow to allow such delegation. System

should maintain audit trail of all such delegations and approvals.

FR93 Portal should have the following features supporting the creation of response to

RTI application and appeal:

Attachment of files

Creation of document

Scanning and uploading of documents

Mapping of information/documents/files furnished as response with

appropriate office file number, letter number or document number.

Details to be worked out during System Requirement Specifications phase.

FR94 Portal should not allow editing of response once an application or first appeal is

formally closed in the system.


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FR95 Portal should support storage of scanned documents in encrypted form and use

of suitable compression techniques to optimize storage size.

FR96 Implementation Agency shall also develop an online library containing

information on previous RTI application/first appeal filed and responses to the

same. This would be available on the RTI Portal and accessible to the citizens.

This online library content would be built over a period of time and this shall

obviate the need to file repeat RTIs if the information is already given in the

library.

FR97 Should provide enterprise and web-based search facilities (across active

database, archived database, repository of scanned documents etc.)

FR98 Citizen centric alerts:

On uploading of RTI response (received via any channel) to the Portal,

Unique Reference Number via SMS / Email should be sent to the applicant

The Unique Reference Number should be sent to applicant via SMS and/or

Email as per applicant’s choice of communication

Details to be worked out during System Requirement Specifications phase

FR99 The solution should offer fail over capabilities, to support load distribution and

parallel execution of portal components across multiple servers

FR100 Portal should be able to expose its service delivery functionality on request to

other departments (on approval from Department of Personnel & Training

authorized official)

FR101 Portal to provide Management Information System Reports like pending calls,

trends, call utilization, classification wise problems etc. Management

Information System reports will be finalized in consultation with Department of

Personnel & Training

FR102 Average RTI Portal page loading should be within 7seconds. The System

must be able to perform a simple search within 10 seconds and an advanced

search (multiple search criteria) within 15 seconds regardless of the storage

capacity or amount of data in the system.

5.3.2.1 Email

Sl. No Description

FR103 Implementation Agency should implement an Email system which shall support

the email requirements specified in this RFP and subsequently to be finalized


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during System Requirement Specifications phase.

FR104 Should build a database of email ids and support sending of a single and or bulk

email to an email recipient in a secure way.

FR105 It shall support / provide delivery and read acknowledgement facilities.

FR106 Allow system administrator to define templates for pre-defined emails and auto

response emails.

5.3.2.2 Payment Gateway

Sl.

No

Description

FR107 Portal must be integrated with the banks “e Payment gateway” to ensure real time

secure transaction. Implementation Agency shall adhere to all due processes laid

out by SBI for this integration. Details shall be finalized during System

Requirement Specifications phase.

FR108 Implementation Agency to ensure that the Portal application is tested / accredited

by a third party security audit agency before integrating with SBI’s payment

gateway. Implementation Agency to get the required Security Audit Certification

from any of the empanelled Security Auditors (list available on http://www.cert-

in.org.in/).

FR109 Portal shall maintain audit trails of all payment gateway transactions.

Implementation Agency shall send this report of these transactions to Project

Management Unit.

FR110 Portal should adhere to the requirements mentioned in section 3- Payment

Gateway. Implementation Agency shall provide requisite support to Project

Management Unit in the conduct of reconciliation processes of RTI fee received

through the Portal.


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6 Operational,Security and Reporting Requirements

6.1 Operational and Maintenance Requirements under this Project:

This section describes the operational requirements of the project. Following is the summary

of operational requirements which are further elaborated in the following sections.

a. Implementation Agency shall implement and manage the RTI Call Centre and Portal in

accordance with the service level metrics defined for the project in Volume III of the

Request For Proposal.

b. Implementation Agency shall coordinate and provide complete support to the

Department of Personnel & Training and/or the nominated agency in conducting the

solution acceptance testing and audit.

c. Implementation Agency shall propose a governance model for managing the ongoing

relationship, and agreement with Department of Personnel & Training and associated

operational issues and risks clearly indicating the required participants from

Implementation Agency and Department of Personnel & Training. Governance model

shall also define a clear escalation matrix and procedures that may be approached by

Department of Personnel & Training to resolve issues

d. Implementation Agency shall provide operational support and maintenance services for

a period of 5 Years from the Go-Live. This includes software solution maintenance; IT

infrastructure management at Data Centre & Data Recovery Centre; system

administration; security administration; database administration; network administration

and end-user problem resolution. The operational support will have to ensure that the

RTI Call Centre and Portal is functioning as intended and meeting all the desired

outcomes and service levels.

e. Implementation Agency is required to train the Central Public Authority’s officials,

identified by the concerned departments to enable them to appreciate and operate the

RTI Portal effectively. Implementation Agency shall also be responsible for re-training

the staff whenever changes are made in the system and/or personnel.

f. Implementation Agency shall prepare a training plan to regularly train and update their

staff about RTI and its processes to ensure satisfactory service. Training shall include

soft skills, language and sensitivity skills.


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g. Preparation of documents including User Manuals, Operations Manual, Maintenance

Manuals, Administration Manual, Security Manual, and others (if any) as per

acceptable standards.

h. The Implementation Agency shall set up the RTI Call Centre as per the requirements

outlined in this Request for Proposal and shall provide the specified operation and

maintenance services. In case of sharing Call Centre premises with other Clients,

Implementation Agency to ensure isolation of RTI Call Centre agents and plan adequate

physical security systems to restrict access of unauthorized personnel.

i. Implementation Agency shall define and share with Department of Personnel &

Training, methods to control attrition of the employed manpower. Historical attrition

rates shall also be shared in IAs bid.

j. Department of Personnel & Training will have the right to check the quality of agents as

and when required. In case any agent is found lacking in required skills, Implementation

Agency will be required to take remedial action within the time as stipulated by

Department of Personnel & Training

k. The Implementation Agency shall supply the consumables and any other goods or

articles required from time to time for continued functional operations of the Project.

l. Implementation Agency shall provision the services of Data Centre and Disaster

Recovery Centre for hosting of a Portal as per the requirements outlined in this Request

For Proposal and shall provide the complete operation and maintenance services.

m. Implementation Agency shall design, develop and implement the RTI Portal as per the

requirements outlined in this Request For Proposal and shall provide the specified

operation and maintenance services.

n. The Implementation Agency shall provide warranty for the entire IT infrastructure

(software & hardware) of RTI Call Centre and Portal Project including all the items

supplied as part of the agreement, for a period of 5 years commencing from the date

when the system is declared “Go-live”. The terms of warranty should include that the

solution supplied under this agreement shall have no defect arising from design or

workmanship or from any act of omission or commission of the Implementation

Agency or that may develop under normal use of the supplied solution. Department of

Personnel & Training shall not pay any additional costs separately for Warranty and the

overall solution cost quoted by Implementation Agency shall include the same.


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o. Implementation Agency shall provide a staging environment for testing of changes/

updates/ patches before applying them on production environment

p. Call Centre shall have minimum 2 hours battery backup followed by Generator back up

to ensure continuous operations in case of power failures. Appropriate redundancy of

power back up systems to be planned.

q. Implementation Agency shall give suitable access to Project Management Unit,

designated by Department of Personnel & Training, to tools implemented/ utilized by

Implementation Agency for monitoring of the Call Centre; Portal and infrastructure

components (Server, Network, SAN etc.), and their operations, system related events,

and Service Levels measurement/ monitoring.

r. Department of Personnel & Training has the right to conduct random quality of service

audits with respect to processes, Service Levels compliance, reports or any other

parameters at any time without prior notice to ensure adherence, accuracy and reliability

of service.

s. Implementation Agency should provide a Business continuity plan for

a) System connectivity and applications

b) Operations continuity

t. Implementation Agency should define a Business continuity plan to address resumption

of services in the event of disruption of services (natural or man-made).

Go-live is the date on which

i. the RTI Call Centre and Portal is completely operational as per the requirements in

this Request For Proposal

ii. all the acceptance tests are successfully concluded as per the satisfaction of

Department of Personnel & Training.

Following sections further detail out the operational requirements summarized above:

1. Customer Satisfaction: As part of customer satisfaction(Citizens as well as Central

Public Authorities), Implementation Agency shall have documented policies and

procedures to monitor their quality of service in the call Centre, of a Portal and

hosting of a Portal in Data Centre and Disaster Recovery Centre. This should clearly

specify various quality measures, sampling techniques, minimum sampling sizes etc.

for monitoring the quality of service.


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2. Resources: Call Centre managers should have adequate relevant experience in

managing operations of such scale as required under this Project.The Call Centre

should be manned by the following qualified resources:

a. Agents: Should be a graduate with at least 2 years of Call Centre experience;

preferably having experience in Government related processes.

b. Team Leads: Should be a graduate with at least 4 years of Team lead

experience; preferably having experience in Government related processes.

c. Managers: Should be a graduate with at least 5 years of Call Centre

operations management experience; preferably having experience in

Government related processes.

d. Subject Matter Expert(s): Should have hands on experience on RTI of at

least 4 years, to guide the Call Centre Agents on answering the calls

knowledgeably.

3. Requirements to comply with Service Levels: To ensure that all the stakeholders

discharge their roles and responsibilities in an agreed manner to achieve the desired

objectives, a set of Service Level Metric’s are defined for the RTI Call Centre and

Portal Project in Request for Proposal Volume III. The technical, functional and

operational requirements are specified in the Request for Proposal to enable all the

interested bidders to understand the dimensions of the project and its requirements as

desired by Department of Personnel & Training and propose appropriate solutions and

delivery plans. In case of an ambiguity or conflict, the relevant component of the

Service Levels will be used as the touchstone and will prevail.

4. Acceptance Testing and Audit: Department of Personnel & Training will undertake

an exercise of Acceptance Testing and Audit of RTI Call Centre and Portal through a

third party, as soon as the Implementation Agency declares the system to be ready for

this purpose before go-live. Implementation Agency shall coordinate with Department

of Personnel & Training and/or the nominated agency for performing the acceptance

testing.


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5. RTI Call Centre and Portal Operations and Maintenance

The Implementation Agency shall be responsible for the overall management of the

RTI Call Centre and Portal. The following describe some prominent items of

responsibility but the list is not to be treated as final.

i. Application Software Management

a. During the warranty period, Implementation Agency shall be completely

responsible for defect free functioning of the application software and shall

resolve any issues including bug fixing, improvements in presentation and/or

functionality and others within a duration agreed between Department of

Personnel & Training and the Implementation Agency in relation to such a work.

b. Implementation Agency shall provide the latest updates, patches/ fixes, version

upgrades relevant for the solution components.

c. Implementation Agency shall be responsible for software version management,

and software documentation management reflecting current features and

functionality of the solution.

ii. Infrastructure Management

a. This includes the design of an appropriate System Administration policy with

precise definition of duties and adequate segregation of responsibilities and

obtaining the approval for the same from the Department of Personnel & Training.

System Administration includes the following activities:

i. Overall management and administration of infrastructure solution

including servers, networking & security components, storage solution and

others.

ii. Performance tuning of the system as may be needed to enhance system’s

performance and comply with Service Levels requirements on a

continuous basis.

iii. Security management including monitoring security and intrusions into the

system.

iv. Monitor and track server and network performance and take corrective

actions to optimize the performance on a daily basis.


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v. Escalation and co-ordination with other vendors for problem resolution

wherever required.

vi. System administration tasks such as managing the access control system,

creating and managing users and other related work.

vii. Data storage management activities including regular backup, restore and

archival activities.

viii. Support to system users with respect to attending to their requests for

assistance in usage and management of the application.

b. The Implementation Agency undertakes to ensure that regular back-ups of Project

data are taken and maintained safely as per the requirements detailed in this

Request For Proposal.

c. The Implementation Agency shall maintain the adequate stocks of spares to meet

the requirements. The Department of Personnel & Training reserves the right to

verify the stocks at any time.

d. Whenever a component has to be replaced because of technical, functional,

manufacturing or any other problem, it shall be replaced with a component of the

same make and configuration. In case the component of same make and

configuration is not available, the replacement shall conform to open standards

and shall be of a higher configuration specifically approved by Department of

Personnel & Training.

e. Other important activities shall include but not limited to:

i. Daily maintenance of system configuration

ii. Implementation of system security features

iii. Overall security of the network

iv. Day-to-day disk space management

v. Tracking the servers’ performance and taking remedial and preventive

actions in case of problems

vi. Proper upkeep of storage media for taking backups


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iii.Network Management Services

a. Design of Network Administration Policy and getting it approved from the

Department of Personnel & Training for effective and efficient management of

Network resources. Network Administration, consists broadly of the following

activities:

i. Network devices’ configuration, management and tuning for optimum

performance

ii. Tracking the network status, Availability and taking remedial and preventive

actions in case of problems.

iii. Network fault isolation and resolution

iv. Monitoring of network performance and escalation of performance

deterioration to concerned authorities and taking remedial actions to resolve

such issues.

v. Implementation/modification of network routing policies, IP addressing policy

as required

vi. Real time monitoring and deployment of network security measures 24*7*365

vii. Documentation related to network configuration, routing policies, IP

addressing schema etc.

viii. Bandwidth monitoring and trending for the network

6.2 Security Requirements under this Project

a. The Implementation Agency is responsible for implementing measures to ensure

complete security of the RTI Call Centre and Portal (including its entire

environment) and confidentiality of the Project related data, in conformance with

the security policy standards. The Implementation Agency shall constantly

monitor the Project and production systems for events or activities, which might

compromise (fraudulently or accidentally) the confidentiality, integrity,

availability and security of the Project and take necessary remedial and preventive

measures. This monitoring shall be through the security controls including:

i. Real-time intrusion detection tools

ii. Audit review tools

iii. Manual processes


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b. Implementation Agency needs to prepare and hand-over, as a deliverable, the

Information Security (IS) Policy Manual adhering to global standards such as ISO

27001 and BS 7799, which will govern and guide its information security

practices. This information security policy may be reviewed by the 3rd party

auditor for its conformance with ISO 27001 and BS 7799 standards.

Implementation Agency shall update Security Policy regularly to keep the security

recommendations current and the same shall be implemented for the RTI Call

Centre and Portal.

c. The Information Security policy should be defined so as to secure the entire IT

system physically and logically with well-defined access control procedures.

d. It is essential that security, consistency and integrity of data and transactions be

maintained at all levels

e. The IA, with appropriate co-operation of appointed representatives of Department

of Personnel & Training will manage the response process to security incidents.

The incident response process will seek to limit damage and may include the

investigation of the incident and notification to the appropriate authorities. A

summary of all security incidents shall be made available to Department of

Personnel & Training on a weekly basis. Significant security incidents will be

reported on a more immediate basis.

f. The Implementation Agency shall produce and maintain system audit logs on the

system for a period agreed by the Implementation Agency and the Department of

Personnel & Training, at which point they will be archived and stored at an off-

site location or as desired by the Department of Personnel & Training. The

Implementation Agency will regularly review the audit logs for relevant security

exceptions.

g. The Implementation Agency will have to maintain strict Privacy and

confidentiality of all the data it/its staff gets access to. Adequate provisions to be

made not to allow unrestricted access to the data – in particular the

Implementation Agency cannot give access to data to people in the organization

who have not signed the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Implementation

Agency cannot sell or part with any data in any form.


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h. A de-militarized zone (DMZ) shall be created to segregate the extent of access to

external users can have of the system for security reasons. The DMZ would

consist of an appropriate firewall mechanism.

i. Firewall and Intrusion Protection System(IPS)/ Intrusion Detection System (IDS)

should be able to but not be limited to: perform Prevention of Denial-of-Service

Attacks, filter packets based on protocol, source & destination address, source &

destination ports, interface of the firewall that the packet entered, support for

protection of common internet applications like mail, Domain Name System

(DNS) etc. and shall prevent IP Spoofing & Denial of Service Attacks, be able to

filter malicious viz. Java Applets, ActiveX and perform Network Address

Translation. Host Based Intrusion Prevention System (HIPS) enabled servers may

be deployed to scan/prevent any malicious or unwanted behaviors on the system.

j. System should facilitate user security administration activities in terms of creation

of user ids, user profiles, attaching the user profiles to the user ids, modification of

user privileges etc. Appropriate checks to be built in the system to restrict creation

of duplicate User ID.

k. System should have audit trails built in for all the activities performed by the

administrator in the system for user administration, database management,

business rule changes, changes based on RTI Act/rules/guidelines, system

upgrades and other governing rules. Such audit trails, at a minimum, shall capture

the details of name of the user, changes made, date of changes, name of approver

(if applicable) etc.

l. Password management should enforce password restrictions, which include the

criteria and limitations that can be placed on passwords to increase security. It

should provide features such as periodic forced changes, not reusable, hard to

guess, mixed characters, etc.

m. The system should monitor and log unauthorized attempts to access the system

n. All closed RTI application / First appeal data shall be expunged from the System,

after one year of their closure. There should not be any mechanism to delete data

before the above period.


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o. All access violation attempts should be logged, generate an alert - preferably as an

email and sent/reported to Department of Personnel & Training. Details to be

finalized during System Requirement Specifications phase.

p. Central Public Authority Users should not be able to login to the application

without providing login credentials. There should be a single sign on into the

system. The application should lock out user Id after performing a configurable

number of unsuccessful attempts. Application should restrict a user whose

password has expired until the user changes the expired password

q. Should support role based access to the application. The application should

display the last login status (successful/unsuccessful, time) to the user

r. The Portal application to allow data upload (e.g. uploads of extended markup

language (XML) file / Excel file / American Standard Code for Information

Interchange (ASCII) file etc.) or data transfer to/from Customer Relationship

Management (in Call Centre). Such data transfers should be encrypted using

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) 3.0 128 bit encryption and include measures to ensure

that the same is complete and accurate.

s. The application should log security related events. The application should log all

application transaction details including time stamp, operator, approver IDs,

update/modification trail etc.

t. Provision should be made to ensure that data in any form should not be copied on

to any external media or emailed without authorization.

u. Neither department employees nor the Implementation Agency operators & users

should have access to the database prompt for accessing the application data.

Access to the database should be restricted only through the application software

interface. The only time a database can be accessed should be for database

administration related purpose, even that access should be audit trailed or logged.

v. The application should not store authentication credentials on client computers

after a session terminates. The application should map the sessions with the client

machines and should store the appropriate information


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w. Any version upgrade / changes in application software shall not be performed on

the production server directly without appropriate methodologies of staging in

testing environment (even after go-live).

x. Implementation Agency is responsible for taking backup of all stored data in

accordance with a duly approved backup policy

y. Implementation Agency shall comply with Department of Personnel & Training’s

privacy and security guidelines which govern access to information

6.3 Reporting requirements under this Project

Following are the reporting requirements under this Project:

a. Implementation Agency should provide for extensive reporting capabilities. A

reporting tool with Graphic User Interface (GUI) based interface shall be provided

wherein a designer module allows designing new reports as well as for customizing

existing reports thus supporting dynamic and customizable report generation.

b. The reporting tool should be capable of exporting reports to various formats such as

MS Excel, MS Word etc.

c. Implementation Agency should also provide historical and analytical reporting and

dashboards which is end-user specific and periodic (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly,

and yearly).

d. In addition to the reports mentioned in other sections of the Request For Proposal, an

indicative list of additional reports (date and time wise) is provided below (but not

limited to).The list is not final and will be finalized at the time of System Requirement

Specifications :

a. Generic Reports for the Call Centre and Portal:

i. Number of RTI applications logged channel wise

ii. Number of RTI applications responded to within stipulated time period

iii. Number of RTI applications not responded to within stipulated time period

iv. Number of first appeals logged channel wise

v. Number of first appeals responded to within stipulated time period

vi. Number of first appeals not responded to within stipulated time period

vii. Number of RTI applications and first appeals pending official wise and time

period wise where time period >= stipulated time period, stipulated time period

plus x days; x is configurable


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viii. Average time taken to update database for RTI application and first appeals

b. Reports from the RTI Portal: This involves Portal usage statistics related to

registered users, online transactions etc. Trend analysis reports detailing the user

behavior patterns providing forward-looking predictions of RTI Portal applicant

interests and preferences about RTI portal. A few indicative reports (the list is not

final) which the Implementation Agency should take into account are:

i. Date Wise transactions

ii. Transactions since inception

iii. transactions for a day, week, month and year

iv. RTI application/First Appeal wise transactions

v. Central Public Authority wise transactions

vi. Central Public Authority wise pending transactions and report should outline the

number of days (from the day of application submission) the transaction is pending

and the current stage

vii. Central Public Authority wise Quality of Service Report outlining the performance

of the individual Central Public Authority in processing the user requests in

comparison with other Central Public Authority

viii. For online events: peak simultaneous users, total users logged in, average stay per

user

ix. Graphical reports for providing a trend analysis of applications and transactions

x. Total malicious hits on a Portal

xi. Number of payment gateway failures

xii. Number of payment gateway success

xiii. Number of portal payments – internet banking and credit card wise

xiv. Central Public Information Officer/Appellate Authority wise request handled RTI

application and first appeal wise

xv. Remittance Report

xvi. Reconciliation report

xvii. Number of hits on the Portal

xviii. Average time taken to open RTI application/ first appeals web page


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e. Reports from the Call Centre:

i. Calls per week, month or other period.

ii. Numeric and graphical representation of call volume

iii. Call per phone line or port

iv. Average length of calls

v. Calls for each interaction tracked by type ( calls for information on specific service,

calls for specific enquiries)

vi. Number of dropped calls after answering, including:

a. Calls that ended while on hold, indicating that the caller hung up;

b. Call that ended due to entry errors using the automated system indicating

difficulty in using the system

vii. No. of rings before a Call was picked up (max., min, avg. for a day)

viii. Central Public Information Officer/Appellate Authority wise request handled RTI

application and first appeal wise

ix. Remittance Report

x. Reconciliation report

xi. Average queue time of calls

xii. Average talk time of calls

xiii. Average holding time in agents’ position

xiv. Number of calls abandoned, answered

xv. Total calls received by Call Centre, calls serviced by Interactive Voice Response

System, calls transferred to agents

xvi. Average and total number of free agents

xvii. Agent activity reports

xviii. Total number of SMS generated (frequency will be decided at the time of System

Requirement Specifications)

xix. Average time spent by callers in IVR tree before being transferred to agent

xx. % of calls abandoned in the IVR

xxi. IVR Call tree level wise abandon %


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7 Deliverables and Implementation Schedule

7.1 Project Deliverables

The Implementation Agency has to submit the list of deliverables to Department of Personnel

& Training as part of an assurance to fulfil the obligations under the Service

Levels.Implementation Agency is responsible to provide all those deliverables specified

below and those agreed by Implementation Agency in response to any request from the

Department.

The timelines for producing each of these deliverables will be in line and closely linked with

the overall project timeline as indicated in the Project Plan that will be submitted by the

Implementation Agency. Any conflict with respect to project and/or deliverable timelines will

have to be resolved by Implementation Agency in consultation with Department of Personnel

& Training and/or its designated agencies and approved by the Department of Personnel &

Training. Thereafter the approved timelines will have to be adhered to by IA, unless specified

otherwise. The table below provides an indicative list of deliverables. The actual final list of

deliverables will be jointly decided between Department of Personnel & Training and

Implementation Agency and the same would be mentioned in Master Services Agreement.

S.

No

Deliverables

1 a. Signing of Agreement

2 b. Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) for a specified amount

3 a. Detailed Project Plan for Design, Development & Implementation of RTI Call

Centre and Portal Project (within 2 weeks from award of contract). The plan should

clearly identify all the milestones and deliverables together with the tasks and time

& resource allocation.

4 b. System Requirement Specifications Document

5 a. Technical / System Design Document including but not limited to

Logical and Physical Data base Design

Logical Data Dictionary and data / file formats

Component, and Deployment Views of the Application

Collaboration, Class diagrams in UML notations

Security and Features

Performance Features

Interface / Control Design Features

b. Traceability Matrix

c. Document on Testing Approach for the system, along with the test cases and test

results including but not limited to

Type of Inputs ( functional / performance / stress / Acceptance / structural) also

including Test Coverage / boundary conditions

Machine Configuration

Test Assumptions

Exact test stimuli as applicable

Response Time / Execution Time / Throughput


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Behavioral Specifications (i.e., Input, output and Process details, pre and post

conditions)

6 a. Developed or customized solution

7 a. Test cases and Plans

b. Reports on various Tests performed on the Solution along with the results & plan

for addressing the issues identified during Testing.

8 a. IT Infrastructure solution encompassing Servers, storage, System Software,

including the equipment to be setup at Data Centre& DRC.

b. Provisioning of IT & non-IT infrastructure at the Data Centre& DRC

9 a. Security policy

b. Standard Operating Procedures in the form of Operations manual(Portal)

10 a. Completion of Training for all the users

b. Updated Training & User Manuals (Including Audio visual material such as

Computer Based Training (CBT))

11 a. Defect Free Application Software components and other automation requirements

including Source Code, library files, DLL’s, Setup programs, Documentation, etc.

b. Updated & Final System Requirements and Design Documents

c. Maintenance Manuals for Administration and Maintenance of Portal

d. End-user level operating procedure

e. Service Levels measurement system and Monitoring tool

f. Third Party audit of Payment Gateway under Portal

12 g. Management Information System Reports mentioned in Volume I and finalized in

the System Requirement Specifications

13 a. Documentation w.r.t. ISO27001 for the scope of work discussed in the Request

For Proposal

14 a. Post Implementation Support to Department of Personnel & Training

b. Daily/Weekly/fortnightly/monthly Performance Monitoring Reports for the System

15 FUNCTIONING CALL CENTRE

16 FUNCTIONING PORTAL

17 FUNCTIONING DATA CENTRE & DISASTER RECOVERY CENTRE

18 TRAINING TO THE GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL

19 At the end of each quarter during O & M phase:

a. Various Weekly, monthly, Quarterly reports but not limited to Project Status, open

issues, Project risks, etc.

b. Updated system design documents, specifications (if any)

c. Latest source code, application deployment files, configuration files for entire

solution (if any)

d. Updated operation manuals, user manuals, administration manuals, training

manuals etc (if any)

e. Software change request logs etc.

f. Project Documents including successful surveillance audit (as applicable)

20 Operational Document on Strategic Control of the Department of Personnel & Training

over the Project as specified in Request For Proposal Volume III.

21 Exit Management Plan

Table 6: Deliverables under this Project


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7.2 Implementation Schedule

A high level schedule is suggested below. Implementation Agency to evaluate and come out with

a detailed schedule to meet the various milestones provided below:

Table 7: Implementation Schedule

Activities M0 M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6 M7

Y1(1-

6M)

Y1

7-

12

M Y2 Y3 Y4

Y5(1-

6M)

Award of contract to IA

Preparation of System

Requirement Specifications

for the Portal and Call

Centre

Design & development and

launch of the Portal

Set up of Call Centre

Infrastructure

Preparation of knowledge

base used by the Call Centre

Training of Call Centre

Agents

Customisation of Customer

Relationship Management

for the Call Centre

Integration of the Call

Centre with the Portal

User Acceptance Testing of

the Portal and Call Centre

Capacity Building (Training

)of Government personnel on

using the Portal

Start-up of Call Centre

Date of Go Live

Awareness Campaign

Stabilisation and Quality

Control

O & M of the Call Centre

and Portal