GATE 2016 Tender Document

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TENDER DOCUMENT

FOR

THE CONDUCT OF COMPUTER BASED ONLINE

GATE/JAM EXAMINATIONS FOR THREE YEARS

(2016-2018)

YEAR ORGANIZING INSTITUTES

2016 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE

BENGALURU 560012

and

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MADRAS

CHENNAI 600036

2017 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ROORKEE

ROORKEE 247667

and

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY DELHI

DELHI 110016

2018 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GUWAHATI

GUWAHATI 781039

and

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY BOMBAY

MUMBAI 400076

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Disclaimer

This Tender is not an offer by either the Indian Institute of Science,

Bengaluru or any of the Indian Institutes of Technology, but an invitation

to receive offer from vendors. The Tender is for conducting On-line

GATE / JAM examinations for a period of three years, i.e., for the years

2016, 2017 and 2018 by the concerned Institutes. While the pattern,

modalities and operations remain the same during these three years,

there could be minor changes in specific number of candidates, number

of sessions, dates of examinations, number of examination papers,

number of examination centres, etc.

No contractual obligation whatsoever shall arise from the tender process

unless and until a formal contract is signed and executed by duly

authorized office bearers of the GATE/JAM Organizing Committee or an

appointee thereof with the vendor.

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Table of Contents

Sr. no Description Pages

1. About GATE/JAM 4

2. Brief scope of the work of the Company Partner (CP) 4

3. General Instructions 5

4. Submission of Bids 6

5. Evaluation of the Proposals 9

6. Detailed Scope of Work of CP 10

7. Time Frame 18

Annexures 1 to 7 19

Proposals should reach the undersigned by 4.30 P.M. on 06th July, 2015:

The Organizing Chairman,

GATE/JAM 2016, GATE/JAM Office, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE

BENGALURU - 560012

Date, Time and Venue of Opening of Technical bids:

06th July, 2015, 4.30 P.M. GATE/JAM OFFICE, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE,

BENGALURU - 560012

Date, Time and Venue of Opening of commercial bids:

13th July, 2015, 10.30 A.M. GATE/JAM Office, IIT Madras, Chennai 600036

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1. About GATE / JAM:

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) at

Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras and Roorkee jointly administer the

conduct of GATE/JAM (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering / Joint Admission test for

M.Sc.) every year that serves as a means for admissions to graduate programmes in various

engineering and science disciplines of IISc and the IITs in the country. The results of GATE

are also used by several Public Sector Undertakings to short-list the candidates for their

recruitment. The operations related to GATE/JAM in each of the 8 zones are managed by a

zonal GATE/JAM Office at an IIT or IISc. The Organizing Institutes (OI) of each year are

responsible for the end-to-end process and coordination amongst the administering institutes

in that year.

GATE/JAM examinations are computer based Online Examinations in which the candidates

will be required to answer the questions that appear on a computer connected to a Local

Area Network (LAN). Answers would be recorded at a server that also keeps track of the

time for the examination. We hereby seek a Company Partner (CP) to provide the

technology and the operational solution for the conduct of online examination of GATE/JAM

for three years, i.e., for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018.

The Organizing Institutes for GATE/JAM 2016 are IISc. Bengaluru and IIT Madras. The

GATE/JAM 2016 examinations for all the papers will be conducted on computer based

Online Examination mode in multiple sessions spread over the period from 30th January

2016 to 20th February 2016.

The GATE/JAM organizing institutes for 2017 are IIT Roorkee and IIT Delhi unless otherwise

informed.

The GATE/JAM Organizing Institutes for 2018 are IIT Guwahati and IIT Bombay unless

otherwise informed.

2. Brief scope of work of the Company Partner:

The Company Partner (CP) and GATE / JAM Committee will be required to work together to

conduct the Online GATE/JAM Examination. The Company Partner (CP) shall provide the

technology and the operational solutions for the conduct of online examination for GATE /

JAM. The GATE/JAM committee will provide the question papers which is set for the GATE

/JAM examination to be held for the year 2016 and question papers for the years 2017 and

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2018 will be provided at the relevant point of time. The total number of candidates taking the

Online Examination in GATE / JAM is expected to be around one million for each year.

3. Required General Criteria to bid for the Tender

In this tender document, Vendor, Bidder, Bidding agency and Company Partner (CP) mean

one and the same.

a) The bidding agency shall ensure a single point of contact with the GATE/JAM 2016

Committee for the three years, i.e., 2016, 2017 and 2018 and shall be solely responsible for

the execution and delivery of the work.

b) The bidding agency should be based in India and operating in India for the last 5 years

offering similar services. They should have a minimum turn-over of Rs. 50,00,00,000/-

(Rupees Fifty crores only) in each of the last 2 financial years.

c) The bidding agency should own the copyright of the source code being used for

conducting the computer based online examinations. The agency should be able to make

changes as and when required in any of the components of the software/source code being

utilized for the purpose of conducting the said computer based online examinations

throughout the term of three years as required and indicated by the conducting Institutes in

accordance to the requirements and/or changes made by the GATE/JAM Committee of each

of the Organizing Institute for the GATE/JAM examination question paper or format of the

examinations or in any other manner.

d) The agency should be certified for compliance with established Information Security

Standards such as ISO 27001. Duly signed copy of ISO 27001 certificate should be

submitted along with the technical bid. The bidding agency shall ensure that such certificate

is valid through the subsistence of the term of three years as stated herein. Any renewal of

such certificate shall be the sole responsibility of the bidding agency without any recourse to

either of the Organizing Institutes in any manner whatsoever.

e) The agency should have an in-house quality assurance and product testing team with

proven and robust quality management processes required for conducting the computer

based online examinations.

f) The agency must employ multiple backup systems including offline backups to securely

maintain the software and its corresponding source code.

g) The agency should design a high-performance system and conduct performance tests to

verify successful achievement of high concurrency, fast response time, and long-stress

duration requirements of the system used to conduct the examinations. Results of such

performance tests should be made available to the GATE/JAM committee and each of the

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Organizing Institutes as and when required. Sometimes these tests may have to be

conducted within short notice and with strict deadlines. These tests shall be conducted by

the bidding agency prior to the each of the GATE/JAM online examinations each year, as

may be requested by the respective Organizing Institute.

h) The agency should design a highly secure system and conduct security tests to verify that

there are no vulnerabilities that can make the system susceptible to attacks. Comprehensive

testing of source code and the infrastructure must be carried out. Results of such security

tests should be made available to the GATE/JAM committee of the Organizing Institutes as

may be requested from time to time.

i) There should be suitable emergency management plans towards any crisis

situations/redundancy of servers, nodes, additional centre locations, students data. The

vendor has to clearly indicate these plans in the technical proposal.

j) The agency should be able to support the entire solution (across India) on a 24 x 7 basis

with a maximum response time of 3 hours.

k) At any time before the submission of bids, GATE/JAM Organizing Institutes may amend

the tender by issuing an addendum in writing or by standard electronic means. The

addenda, if any, as put on GATE website http://gate.iisc.ernet.in will be binding on them. If

the amendments are substantial, Bidder(s) shall be given reasonable time to make

amendments or to submit revised bid and the deadline for submission of bids will be

extended by the GATE /JAM committee of the Organizing Institutes.

l) All disputes arising out of this process shall be subject to the jurisdiction of International

Centre of Alternative Dispute Resolution, New Delhi.

m) The bidding agency should have authorized and globally accepted software certification,

CMMi Level 5.

n) The GATE/JAM Committee of the Organizing Institutes shall award the tender to an

agency that fulfils each of the criteria mentioned above and further set out more particularly

in the Technical Proposal (Clause 4.1) and the Commercial Proposal.

4. Submission of bids

The Tender Document has to be downloaded from the website http://gate.iisc.ernet.in and

submitted in proper form along with all relevant documents and a Tender Fee of Rs. 25,000/-

(Rupees Twenty Five Thousand Only) in the form of a Demand Draft drawn in favour of The

Registrar, IISc., Bengaluru. Offers without Tender Fee shall be rejected summarily.

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The Vendor (bidder) shall submit their offer in two parts: (1) Technical Proposal, and (2)

Commercial proposal

a) The tender is a 2-Bid document. The technical proposal should contain all the relevant

information along with all the relevant enclosures and the Earnest Money Deposit (EMD).

The commercial proposal should contain only the price bid. If any bidder encloses the

financial bid within technical bid, the same shall be rejected summarily.

b) All relevant information as specified in the Technical and Commercial Proposals including

the contingency plans, and Annexures-1 to 6 should be furnished by the bidders. The bidder

is advised to attach any information that is necessary in regard to the capabilities to establish

that the bidder is capable in all respects to successfully complete the envisaged work. The

bidders are cautioned that not giving complete information called for or deliberately

suppressing the information may result in the bidder being summarily disqualified.

c) The Tenders should be printed. The name and signature of bidders authorized person

should be recorded on each page of the application. All pages of the tender document shall

be numbered and submitted as a package along with forwarding letter on agencys letter

head. A soft copy of the bid in a cd or pen drive may be supplied.

d) The offer will remain open for a minimum period of 90 days from the date of opening of

the tender, within which the bidders cannot withdraw their offer.

e) Reference, information and certificates from the respective clients of each of the Vendor

certifying technical, delivery and execution capability of the bidder should be signed and the

contact numbers of all such clients should be mentioned. The GATE/JAM Organizing

Committee of the respective Organizing Institutes may also independently seek information

regarding the performance from the clients.

f) Even though bidder may satisfy the qualifying criteria, the bidder is liable to disqualification

due to record of poor performance or not able to understand the scope of work, does not

have experience in conducting online examination for more than one lakh candidates and for

such other reasons which the GATE/JAM Organising Committee may consider relevant.

g) The bidder should enclose an EMD for Rs. 50,00,000/- (Rupees Fifty Lakhs) in the form of

a Demand Draft drawn in favour of The Registrar, IISc., Bengaluru. This total amount of

EMD shall be for the grant of tender for the term of three years as stated herein. The tenders

without EMD shall be summarily rejected. The EMD of the unsuccessful bidders shall be

returned without any interest after the award of the contract to the successful bidder. The

EMD of the successful bidder shall be returned only after signing of contract along with

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performance security deposit. The EMD stands forfeited in case the bidder withdraws or

amends his bid after submission of tender document. Upon selection, the successful bidder

shall submit a bank guarantee of 10 % of the total contract value in a bank account and in

the form as may be mutually agreed upon by and between the GATE/JAM Committee of the

Organizing Institutes for the term of three years as stated herein in this Tender Document

and communicated to the successful bidder.

h) The sealed envelopes should be marked Offer for GATE/JAM 2016 - 2018 ONLINE

EXAMINATIONS from Vendor Name, Technical or Commercial. The larger enclosing

envelope should be marked Offer for GATE/JAM 2016 - 2018 ONLINE EXAMINATIONS

from Vendor Name. The contents of Technical and Commercial proposals should be as

follows:

4.1. Technical Proposal (including operational proposal)

A technical proposal that details the capabilities of the Question Paper Authoring

Software, the Examination Software (Client and Server) and the software that

handles post examination operations (verification of the uploaded data). Please

provide the feature list as an enumerated list or a table.

An operational proposal that gives the following details:

The number of nodes per city that the vendor has qualified as per their

process for the list of cities indicated in Annexure-7. Please also indicate the

number of nodes per city on which you have conducted an exam. Note that

for the qualified nodes you MUST have in place an agreement with the

institute/college providing the infrastructure.

The projected capability in terms of the number of audited seats in each city

that the vendor will be able to identify by the end of September 2015. The CP

has to submit a complete finalized list of the centres latest by the 7th day of

October 2015.

The availability of adequate number of technical personnel for conducting the

examination in the required number of test centres. The CP has to submit a

complete list of such personnel latest by the 7th day of December 2015.

The process followed by the vendor for qualifying a test centre.

The procedures followed for the pre-exam, exam and post-exam operations

including the capability of the vendor to set up a secure Master Control facility

for uploading post-exam data.

A Standard Scientific Virtual Calculator must be made available as a built-in

element of the examination conducting software.

A statement that gives the following details of the examinations conducted by the

vendor within the past 12 months prior to submitting the bids as per the terms set out

herein: (a) Total number of candidates appeared for the examination, (b) Total

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number of candidates across all the cities in a single session, (c) Number of sessions

on a day of examination and (d) Number of days of examination.

4.2. Commercial proposal

The commercial proposal should give the details of the charges per registered candidate

AND the minimum number of candidates at this rate. If the vendor has slabs at which the

rates change, the vendor should indicate such slabs. The charges per registered candidate

should include the cost towards (a) charges paid to the technical personnel by the CP during

vetting of test centres, (b) charges paid by the CP to the college for hiring the infrastructure

at the college, (c) providing partitions between computers at the Test Centres, (d)

development of question paper authoring software as per specification for GATE/JAM

Online Examination, (e) development of Test Software for Online Examination, (f)

deployment of the Company Personnel, i.e., the Test Administrators and Company

Representatives at the Test Centres and the technical personnel at the Master Control

Rooms, (g) administration of Test, and (h) other incidental expenses. A clear break-up as

indicated in (a) to (h) should be provided. The applicable taxes should be indicated in the

proposal. For the sake of uniformity across all the test centres, the CP is advised to maintain

uniform rates for infrastructure for all the test centres and adhere to the same without any

deviation.

In the event of any unforeseen circumstances, examinations may have to be held in the

buffer sessions (tentatively 20th February 2016 for GATE/JAM 2016). Hence price should be

quoted separately (a) for conducting the examinations in 8 sessions as mentioned in the

examination schedule, and (b) for conducting examinations in 1 buffer session.

It may be noted that if any examination has to be conducted either on the buffer date or on

any of the unused weekends due to any technical or non-technical problems from vendors

side, the vendor has to bear the cost of the examination.

4.3. Demonstration and Presentation

The vendor will be required to give a demonstration of their client and server software for

online examination using the AE, GG and XE papers of GATE 2015 and BL paper of JAM

2015. The vendors may be required to make a presentation on their capabilities to conduct

the online examination as per the conditions specified above. The date and venue for

demonstration and presentation will be announced by the GATE/JAM Committee of the

Organizing Institutes after mutual decision at a suitable date.

4.4. Deviations

Any deviations from the scope of work as outlined above should be mentioned clearly with

suitable justification by the vendor in a separate sheet under the heading Deviations. This

sheet should be included in the technical proposal. If no deviations are mentioned, then

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it will be assumed that the vendor has accepted the scope of work in its entirety as

mentioned in the tender document and is bound to deliver the same.

4.5. Mode of Payment and penalty clauses

The payment to the CP shall be made in Indian rupees and shall be paid only after the

successful completion of the work set out for each year of the term of three years by the

Organizing Institutes of that respective year without any delays or errors. No advance

payment shall be made. The successful bidder has to sign an agreement for the term of

three years as set out herein with each of the Organizing Institutes of GATE/JAM

being party to such agreement. The agreements should be on non-judicial stamp paper

which shall contain penalty clauses related to liquidated damages on account of delays,

errors, cost and time overruns etc. If the bidder fails to execute the contract, the

GATE/JAM committee of the Organizing Institutes shall have the liberty to get the work done

through any other agency with full cost recoverable from the bidder in addition to damages

and penalty.

If a majority of the Chairpersons of all 8 Institutes do not give a satisfactory performance

certificate for 2016, extension for the years 2017 and 2018 shall be re-evaluated.

It is hereby clarified that the terms set out in this Tender Document shall not be a binding

contract either on the Organizing Institutes for the term of three years as stated herein or on

the CP. Further, after accepting the offer made by the successful bidder, the Organizing

Institutes for the term of three years as stated herein shall execute an agreement stating the

scope of work for the CP in detail, the consideration payable by each of the Organizing

Institutes as stated herein, the events of termination of the agreement/arrangement between

the Organizing Institutes and the CP, the consequences of such termination and such other

terms and conditions as may be required to execute the scope of work set out for the CP as

per this Tender Document. It is hereby clarified that the terms set out in the agreement to be

executed by and between the Organizing Institutes for the term of three years as stated

herein shall be binding on all the parties executing the said agreement.

5. Evaluation of the Proposals

Selection of the vendor shall be based on Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS).

The proposals submitted by the vendors will be evaluated by taking the following factors into

consideration:

5.1. Technical evaluation

Technical evaluation will be based on the criteria given below (Total 100 points):

Prior experience of the vendor in conducting online examinations.

Capability of the vendor to develop the required software

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Date, Time and Venue of Opening of Technical bids:

06th July, 2015, 4.30 P.M, GATE/JAM Office, IISc. Bengaluru -560012

Date, Time and Venue of Opening of commercial bids:

13thJuly, 2015, 10.30 A.M, GATE/JAM Office, IIT Madras, Chennai 600036

6. Detailed scope of work

6.1. Tentative Schedule of Examinations

Examination for GATE/JAM 2016 will be conducted for 23 GATE papers and 7 JAM papers

in 8 sessions with 1 buffer session as shown in the table given below. The number of

papers may vary for 2017 & 2018. The complete schedule with details regarding the papers

and the respective sessions will be notified to the successful Company Partner at a suitable

date.

Session Time Day and date

1 9.00 AM to 12.00 noon Saturday, 30th January 2016

2 2.00 PM to 5.00 PM Saturday, 30th January 2016

3 9.00 AM to 12.00 noon Sunday, 31st January 2016

4 2.00 PM to 5.00 PM Sunday, 31st January 2016

5 9.00 AM to 12.00 noon Saturday, 6th February 2016

6 2.00 PM to 5.00 PM Saturday, 6th February 2016

7 9.00 AM to 12.00 noon Sunday, 7th February 2016

8 2.00 PM to 5.00 PM Sunday, 7th February 2016

Buffer for

GATE/ JAM

9.00 AM to 12.00 noon Saturday, 20th February 2016

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In the event of any unforeseen circumstances, examinations may have to be held in the

buffer session (20th February 2016 for GATE/JAM 2016). Dates for 2017 & 2018 will be

notified in due course.

6.2. Detailed description of the features and scope of work:

The following sections list the features in the Online Examination that the CP is expected to

provide through their technology and operations, and the capabilities of the CP needed for

delivery of the Online Examination:

6.2.1. Content Creation

The CP would provide the Question Paper Authoring software and train the GATE/

JAM personnel authorized by the Organizing Chairpersons, GATE/JAM 2016 - 2018,

on Question Paper Authoring and Question Pack Generation.

The CP should be willing to modify the Question Paper Authoring Software as per the

requirements of the GATE/JAM 2016, GATE/JAM 2017 and GATE/JAM 2018

committees. These requirements of the GATE/JAM committees will be

communicated to the CP as and when required, but well before the beginning of the

actual authoring processes.

Question Paper authoring will be carried out by a bonafide representative of one of

the administering institutes as designated by the GATE/JAM Committee of the

Organizing Institutes for each of the three years of the term at the premises of GATE

/JAM offices of the respective Organizing Institute. The necessary infrastructure

required for Question Paper Authoring will be provided by GATE/JAM. However, the

CP has to provide the infrastructure requirement and set up a model test facility that

will be tested with dummy question papers.

The authoring software must support the following features in the question papers:

A. Two compulsory sections and two or more optional sections in GG, XE

and XL papers.

B. Numerical answer type questions for which the answer is a signed real

number with a maximum of 10 digits. C. A Standard Scientific Virtual On-line Calculator should be made available

built into the software.

D. Multiple choice type questions with single correct answer or multiple

correct answers.

The Question Paper Authoring software must allow for creating multiple versions of a

question paper by jumbling the questions and the choices for a question.

Authoring software must allow for encryption and password protection of the question

paper following appropriate standards. The CP should provide the certificate of

confidentiality with regards to contents of all the question papers.

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6.2. 2. Test Centres, Personnel, Infrastructure, Administration, Test Delivery and Post-

examination Operations

Examination Cities - The tentative list of cities in which the GATE/JAM 2016

Online Examination for the term of three years may be conducted is given in

Annexure-7. The final list of cities will be identified by the GATE/JAM Committee

at a suitable date for each of the three years of the term.

Test Centres The CP would arrange to identify Test Centres that have been

certified and audited by the CP. A College may have one or more Test Centres.

Offices of the CP must not be considered for Test Centres. However, the Internal

Training Facilities (ITF) of the CP may be used as test centres. All the Test

Centres identified by the CP must be approved by GATE/JAM Committee as per

the norms of GATE/JAM. No service charges shall be paid to the test centres by

IISc/IITs. The minimum requirements for the candidate system and centre server

are given below:

Minimum requirements for the candidate system

Screen resolution 1024 X 768

Operating System

(only licensed versions)

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 or higher

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition

Service Pack 2, Windows Vista Enterprise Edition

Browser Internet Explorer 6.0 or above

Browser Settings Internet Explorer (IE) Java Script enabled

Pop-up blocker disabled

Paste operations via script enabled

Proxy disabled

USB disabled

Minimum requirements for the Examination Centre Server

Processor CPU Speed: 1.5 GHz or more

RAM 2048 MB or more

Screen Resolution 1024 X 768

Operating System

(licensed version)

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 or higher

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition

Service Pack 2, Windows Vista Enterprise Edition

Browser Internet Explorer (IE) 6.0 or above

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Browser Settings IE Java Script enabled

Pop-up blocker disabled

Paste operations via script enabled

Proxy disabled

USB disabled

Other software Net 2.0 Framework

Microsoft Office Excel 2003 or above

Personnel

Personnel of Company Partner: The CP would provide adequately

trained Test Administrators (TAs) in every Test Centre. The TAs should

be the staff of the CP, temporary staffs are not acceptable. There will be

one TA for every 100 candidates and part thereof at a Test Centre. There

will be a minimum of two TAs in a Test Centre. The TAs will administer

the conduct of test and provide the technical support for maintaining the

servers used in the conduct of examination at a Test Center. The CP will

also ensure availability of at least one adequately trained Network

Maintenance Engineer at each Center. The CP would identify a senior

staff member of the Company as the Centre Head (CH) at each College

or ITF. The CH will be responsible for supervising the Technical

Personnel of the CP at all the Test Centers in the College or ITF. The CH

will be the contact person of the CP for the College Personnel and the

GATE/JAM Personnel to interact regarding the conduct of Online

Examination at the College or ITF.

College or ITF Personnel: A senior faculty member from the College or a

senior staff member of the ITF will be identified as the Presiding Officer

(PO). A faculty member from the College or a staff member from the ITF

will be identified as the Deputy Presiding Officer (DPO) for each Test

Center. The PO and DPO for a Test Centre will be responsible for the

availability of facilities to assist the CP in conduct of the Online exam.

Invigilators (Proctors) of the exam will be from the faculty members of the

College or from the permanent staff members of the ITF. There will be

one invigilator for every 20 candidates and part thereof at a Test Center.

At a Test Centre with less than 20 registered candidates, there will be a

minimum of 2 Invigilators. The CP should train the Invigilators for

invigilating the Online Examination. There will be two Technical Staff from

the College or the ITF at each Test Center to assist the TAs from the CP.

The PO will be responsible for identifying the DPOs, Invigilators and

Technical Staff for all the Test Centers at the College or the ITF. The

honorarium for PO, DPOs, Invigilators and Technical Staff of the

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College or the ITF will be paid by GATE/JAM Committee of the

Organizing Institutes for their respective years. The PO will also be

responsible for ensuring the availability of infrastructure for the

conduct of examination at all the Test Centers in the College or the

ITF.

GATE/JAM Personnel: GATE/JAM would provide at least 2 Institute

Representatives (IRs) at each Test Center. The conduct of examination

at a Test Center will be monitored and overseen by the IRs. The IRs shall

carry the examination material to the respective centres, ensure that all

the arrangements as mentioned in the specifications are made for smooth

conduct of examinations, conduct a mock test with the help of CP/ITF

personnel on the day before the examination and verify the adequacy of

the arrangements, load the question paper into the server before the

examination, as and when required take decisions in consultation with the

PO regarding the timing of the examination, ensure that the responses

are properly uploaded and copied onto the pen drives and bring the

material safely back to the GATE/JAM zonal offices.

The IRs, PO and DPOs at the Test Centers in a College or an ITF will interact with

the CH for resolving any issues regarding the Technical Personnel of the CP and any

technical problems that may arise during the dry run and during the conduct of

examination at any of the Test Centers in the College or ITF.

Infrastructure

The CP would arrange for the servers necessary to conduct the

examination at each Test Center. One main server and one backup

server will be available for every 200 candidates and part thereof at a Test

Center.

The College or the ITF would arrange for the client systems necessary to

conduct the examination at each Test Center. One client system will be

available for every candidate registered at each Test Centre. There will be

a reserve pool of client systems. The number of systems in the reserve

pool will be at least 10% of total number of registered candidates in a

session at a Test Center. However, there will be a minimum of 10 client

systems in the reserve pool at a Test Center with less than 100

candidates in a session. The client system should have at least 1GB of

main memory. The LCD monitors are preferred over the CRT monitors.

There must be adequate spacing (of at least 2 ft.) between two adjacent

seats, in addition the CP must arrange for providing partitions of

appropriate size between the adjacent seats.

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The CP shall ensure that during the course of conducting the GATE/JAM

Online Examination, the systems engaged by the CP do not become non-

functional due to any reason whatsoever. The College or the ITF would

also ensure the availability of a functional local area network and a power

backup generator so as to ensure the continuous access to the systems

made available to each candidate during the course of the Online

Examination. The main server, backup server and client systems at each

test centre would be provided with functional UPS. Uninterrupted power

should be made available for the period of each session and for 30

minutes prior to and after each session on the day of examination.

Test Delivery Test will be delivered over the intranet at a Test Centre. A

maximum of 250 client systems will be connected to a main server and a backup

server. The proposal submitted by the vendor should indicate the limits to which

the server has been tested in terms of number of client systems connected

simultaneously without loss of performance in the examination environment.

Distribution of Question Packs to the Test Centers The Online Examination

Software developed and used by the CP must support the following two modes of

loading the Question Packs (QPs): (i) Locally at the server via a CD or a pen

drive collected from IRs and (ii) Over the network from Master Control Room. In

the former mode, the authoring software must ensure that encrypted and

password protected content is generated which can be loaded onto a CD or a

pen drive. In the latter mode, the CP must ensure confidentiality and protection of

the QP content both at the Master Control Room as well as during transfer over a

network. The loading of a QP into the Online Examination Software on the

servers at a Test Centre must be password protected.

Invigilation Announcement of instructions to the candidates, admit card check,

candidate identity verification, attendance recording and collection of undertaking

given by candidates will be carried out by Invigilators. Attendance sheets,

Instruction sheets and other relevant documents would be provided by IRs.

Invigilators should also ensure proper conduct of examination and ensure that

candidates use no unfair means.

Zero Loss of Data The CP will ensure that there is no loss of response related

data for any candidate or any other data related to the examination either from

the client systems or from the main and backup servers.

Generation of Event based Log(Audit Trail) The CP will ensure that the

event (click) based log (audit trail) for every candidate will be generated and

saved on the servers.The audit trail for every candidate would be provided at the

end of session in the format agreed upon. The CP would not keep/have any audit

trail data with them post handover.

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Saving of Response- The CP will ensure that the click-based activity of every

candidate will be saved on servers. This means that the answer responses for

each question at that click time will be only saved/updated. The question clicks by

candidates without a response is also recorded in the database. The final

response data in a format specified by GATE/JAM should be uploaded to the

server in the Master Control Room and should also be copied in a pen drive

within 30 minutes of the completion of each session of examination. The pen

drive will be handed over to the IRs. The CP will not keep/have any response

data with them post handover.

Security - The computers administering the examinations shall be disconnected

from the Internet and any other network other than the one on which the

examinations is being conducted. No computers other than the client systems

used for the examination shall be on this network during the examination. The

computers shall be sanitized (during pre-examination preparations) by booting a

trusted image of the Operating System (OS) that the examination is to be

conducted on.

Monitoring - The server shall have the capability to start the examination for all

candidates, monitor the status of each candidate (whether logged in, examination

started, idle/active, disconnected, submitted, etc.), award additional time for

candidates based on the instruction of the IRs, and close the examination. The

server MUST maintain an audit trail of every operation on the server. All server-

side audit trails are also the property of GATE/JAM and shall be handed over to

the IR at the end of the examination.

Master Control Facility There will be a Master Control Facility consisting of

Master Control Rooms in the premises of GATE/JAM offices in multiple zones.

The activities at each Test Center will be monitored in the Master Control Facility.

At each Master Control Room, the CP should provide at least 2 technical

personnel who are well versed with the Online Examination Software. These

personnel will interact with the TAs in each of the Test Centers. A secure and

highly available server should be set up in each Master Control Room. At the end

of examination in a session, the candidate response data and audit trail data from

each of the Test Centers will be uploaded to the servers at the Master Control

Facility.

Post-Examination Operations- Individual candidate-wise, item-wise responses

and audit trail will be captured and loaded into a physical storage medium such

as CDs or pen drives in the presence of IRs. The CDs or pen drives will be

handed over to the IRs. The data will also be uploaded to a server at the Master

Control Facility. After the confirmation of proper transfer of data to the server at

the Master Control Facility, the TAs in the presence of IRs will delete the

responses and audit trails in the hard disks of the main and backup servers, and

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post which the CP will not be responsible for any data in the context of non-

availability of data.

Process Manual - The detailed Standard Process Manual (SPM) will be

prepared by the CP and submitted to GATE/JAM Committee for approval latest

by the 15th day of October 2015.

Mock Tests

The CP must make arrangements so that static mock tests can be conducted by

the interested applicants using old question papers loaded on the respective

zonal websites of GATE/JAM 2016 for each of the three years of the term as set

out herein. The question papers should be available to all the applicants well

before the actual examination so that the applicants can have practice sessions.

The CP must conduct mock tests a day before each exam day in addition to any

unscheduled mocks conducted prior to this. The CP also has to make

arrangements to upload the results of one of the mock tests conducted onto the

server so that the Organizing Institute can make observations of the results from

the Master Control Facility.

Conduct of Examination and Security of Examination Centers

White labeling of the service: The entire operations of the GATE/JAM

online examination will be under the Brand name of GATE/JAM, and its

designated logo. At no point of time and location will the identity of CP be

displayed in public domain.

The CP and the College or the ITF shall ensure that the Test Centres are

kept in examination-friendly environments with no disturbances from

external sources. The CP will also ensure the secrecy of the examination

material and will support GATE/JAM in maintaining the secrecy of the

examination material. Any decision by the GATE/JAM appointed Institute

Representatives (IRs) in this regard shall be final. The CP will also ensure

that the examination is held in a candidate-friendly environment and

enough security arrangements have been made to ensure the safety of

examination material and the people involved in the conduct of

examination.

Features to be Provided in Online Examination Test Software

The Online Examination Test taking Software developed by the CP should be

demonstrated for the AE, GG and XE papers of GATE 2015 and BL paper of JAM 2015

which are available on the GATE/JAM websites of the zones (e.g. http://gate.iisc.ernet.in).

The Online Examination Test Software should include the following features:

A Standard Scientific Virtual Calculator should be available.

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Keyboard should be disabled

Login using a virtual keypad

Display of details of candidate (including a photograph) upon login for verification by

the candidate.

Display of instructions to candidates upon login and before start of examination. The

candidate must be able to retrieve instructions at any time during the examination as

well. The software must obtain concurrence of the candidate having read the

instructions before start of examination.

Start and closure of the examination at scheduled time (candidates must not be able

to start their examination even if they login before the scheduled time).

Display of remaining time available.

Display of candidate details on the screen (including a photograph if available) during

the examination.

Viewing the complete question paper or a section in the case of sectional papers.

Display of a selected question with choices of answers for multiple choice type

questions.

Display of a selected question and a virtual numeric keypad for numerical answer

type questions.

Marking/unmarking a question (answered or unanswered) for review.

Display of status of questions using different colours and symbols for all questions of

the paper.

Switching between sections in the question paper for the GG, XE and XL papers.

Disabling of exit from test software for the period of examination, i.e., the candidate

cannot exit at any point of time during the entire duration of the test.

7. Time Frame:

A tentative schedule of the activities for GATE/JAM 2016 is given below. However,

there may be minor variations in the schedule.

Sl.no Activity Date Responsibility

1. Initiation of the project and 1st meeting 01-08-2015 GATE/ JAM 2016 Committee & CP

2. Tentative list of centers with no. of nodes to GATE / JAM 2016

15-08-2015 CP

3. Auditing and Vetting of test centers 15-08-2015 to

01-10-2015

GATE/ JAM 2016 Committee & CP

4. Final list of test centers for GATE / JAM 2016

02-10-2015 CP

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5. Submission of Standard Operating Manual to GATE/JAM committee

15-10-2015 CP

6. Vetting and finalization of Standard Operating Manual

22-10-2015 GATE/ JAM 2016 Committee & CP

7. Testing of vetted test centers as per SOM (e.g. testing of examination software, server capability, network security)

01-11-2015 to

15-11-2015

CP

8. Tentative list of TAs, CHs, POs, DPOs 28-11-2015 CP

9. Final list of TAs, CHs, POs, DPOs 5-12-2015 CP

10. Setting-up of Servers for Master Control Facility at GATE/JAM Zonal offices

15-12-2015 to

26-12-2015

CP

11. Custody of exam centres and security arrangements

25-01-2016 CP

12. Mock tests at all centres selected for GATE/JAM 2016

23-01-2016 to

27-01-2016

CP

13. Review Meeting 23-01-2016 GATE/ JAM 2016 Committee & CP

14. GATE/JAM 2016 Online Examinations 30-01-2016 to

13-02-2016

GATE/ JAM 2016 Committee & CP

15. Handing over of raw data to GATE/JAM Committee

13-02-2016 CP

16. Handing over of final data and other examination related documents

14-02-2016 CP

The tentative schedule for the activities of the GATE/JAM 2017 and GATE/JAM 2018 shall

be provided by the respective Organizing Institutes at appropriate times in 2016 and 2017

respectively.

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Annexure - 1: Financial Information

Details furnished below are to be supported duly by figures in Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss

Account for the last 5 years as certified by the Chartered Accountant and submitted by the

bidder to the Income Tax Department

Details 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014 2014-2015 1) Gross annual turnover for works of similar nature

2) Profit/Loss 3) Financial position

Cash

Current assets

Current liabilities

Working capital

Current Assets to Liabilities Ratio

Documents to be attached along with the above statement:

Up-to-date Income Tax Clearance Certificate

Certificate of Financial soundness from the bankers of the Bidders

Financial Arrangements for carrying out the proposed work

Any other relevant documents

(Signature of Bidder)

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Annexure-2: Details regarding works of similar nature executed in the past 2 years

Sr. no Name of the work Clients organization

Cost of work

(in Crores) Starting

date Ending

date Details of officer to

whom reference can

be made

Remarks

(Signature of bidder)

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Annexure-3: Projects of similar nature currently under execution

Sr. no Name of the work Clients organization

Cost of work

(in Crores) Starting

date Expected

date of

completion

Details of officer to

whom reference can

be made

Remarks

(Signature of bidder)

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Annexure-4: Performance Report for works referred in Annexure-2 and 3

(Please furnish the following details for each individual project from the Client)

1. Name and location of project:

2. Agreement No.:

3. Estimated Cost

4. Tendered Cost:

5. Date of Start:

6. Date of Completion

a) Stipulated date:

b) Actual date:

7. Performance report by client:

a) Quality of Work: (Excellent/Very Good/Good/Fair/Poor)

b) Approach to problem solving: (Excellent/Very Good/Good/Fair/Poor)

c) Resourcefulness: (Excellent/Very Good/Good/Fair/Poor)

Date: (Signature of the client with seal)

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Annexure-5: Structure of the Organization

1. Name and address of bidder: 2. Telephone No./Fax No./Email address : 3. Legal status (Attach copies of original document defining the legal status). a) An Individual/ Consortium: b) A Proprietary/ Partnership agency: c) A Trust: d) A Limited Company or Corporation: 4. Particulars of Registration with various Government bodies & Statutory Tax Authorities (attach attested photocopy)

a. Registration Number: b. Organization/Place of registration: c. Date of validity:

5. Names and titles of Directors & Officers with designation to be concerned with this work with designation of individuals authorized to act for the organization. 6. Were you or your company ever required to suspend the work for a period of more than six months continuously after you commenced the works? If so, give the name of the project and reasons for not completing the work. 7. Have you or your constituent partner(s) ever left the work awarded to you incomplete? If so, give name of the project and reasons for not completing the work. 8. Have you or your constituent partner(s) been debarred/black listed for tendering in any organization at any time? If so, give details. 9. Area of specialization and Interest 10 Any other information considered necessary but not included above.

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Annexure-6: Details of Technical and Administrative Personnel to be employed for

this work

Sr. no

Designation Total No. of employees in this category

Number available for this project

Name Qualification Professional experience

Capacity in which the employee

was involved in this work

(Signature of the bidder)

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Annexure7:

Tentative List of Cities for GATE/JAM 2016

IISc Bengaluru Zone

Alappuzha, Aluva, Ananthapur, Attingal, Bagalkot, Bangalore, Belgaum, Bellary, Bidar, Chengannur, Davengere, Gulbarga, Hassan, Hubli, Idukki, Kannur, Kanjirapally, Kasaragod, Kolar, Kollam, Kothamangalam, Kottayam, Kozhikode, Kurnool, Malappuram, Mangalore, Manipal, Muvattupuzha, Mysore, Nedumangad, Pala, Palakkad, Payyannur, Punalur, Shimoga, Thrissur , Tumkur and Vadakara.

IIT Bombay Zone

Ahmedabad, Ahmednagar, Amravati, Anand, Aurangabad, Bhavnagar, Bhuj, Gandhinagar, Goa, Hyderabad, Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Lonavala, Mahabubnagar, Mehsana, Mumbai, Nagpur, Nanded, Nashik, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Rajkot, Ratnagiri, Sangli, Satara, Secunderabad, Solapur, Surat, Thane and Vadodara.

IIT Delhi Zone

Alwar, Bahadurgarh (Haryana), Bikaner, Delhi, Faridabad, Gurgaon, Hisar, Indore, Jammu, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Karnal, Kota, Mathura, Palwal (Haryana), Shimla, Sikar, Udaipur-Chittorgarh and Ujjain.

IIT Kanpur Zone

Agra, Aligarh, Allahabad, Bareilly, Bhopal, Gorakhpur, Gwalior, Jabalpur, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Saugar (Sagar, MP), Sultanpur and Varanasi.

IIT Kharagpur Zone

Balasore, Berhampur (Orissa), Bhilai, Bhimavaram, Bhubaneswar, Bilaspur (CG), Cuttack, Eluru, Jamshedpur, Kakinada (AP), Kharagpur, Kolkata, Raipur, Rajahmundry, Ranchi, Rourkela, Sambalpur, Srikakulam-Vizianagaram, Tadepalligudem, Vijayawada and Visakhapatnam.

IIT Guwahati Zone

Agartala, Asansol, Dhanbad, Durgapur, Gangtok, Guwahati, Imphal, Jorhat, Kalyani, Patna, Shillong, Silchar, Siliguri and Tezpur.

IIT Madras Zone

Angamaly, Bapatla, Chennai North, Chennai South, Chittoor, Coimbatore, Cuddalore, Dindigul, Ernakulam, Erode, Gudur, Guntur, Kadapa, Kanyakumari, Karimnagar, Karur, Khammam, Madurai, Nagercoil, Nalgonda, Namakkal, Nellore, Ongole, Puducherry (Pondicherry), Salem, Thanjavur, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirapalli, Tirunelveli, Tirupati, Tuticorin, Vellore, Virudhunagar and Warangal.

IIT Roorkee Zone

Ambala, Amritsar, Bathinda, Dehradun, Ghaziabad, Haldwani-Bhimtal, Hamirpur (HP)-Una, Jalandhar-Phagwara, Kurukshetra, Ludhiana-Moga, Meerut, Mohali-Rupnagar-Fatehgarh Sahib, Moradabad, Noida, Panipat, Pathankot, Patiala-Sangrur, Roorkee-Muzaffarnagar, Sirmaur, Solan, Sonepat and Yamunanagar.

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