RTI Call Centre & Portal Project

RTI Call Centre
&
Portal Project
Department of Personnel & Training

Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances
and Pensions
Volume I
National Institute for Smart Government
RTI Call Centre and Portal Project
Request For Proposal - Volume I
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
1.3
Critical challenges in Implementation ............................................................................ 7
1.2.1.1
Citizen side challenges ................................................................................................ 7
1.2.1.2
Government side challenges ....................................................................................... 7
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
SolutionOverview .......................................................................................................................... 12
2.1
RTI applications and First Appeal Trends .............................................................................. 13
2.2
Proposed Alternate Communication Channels..................................................................... 13
2.2.1
2.2.1.1
2.2.2
Call Centre Communication Channel ............................................................................ 14

Call Centre Access Numbers ..................................................................................... 16
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
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 CentreDisaster 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
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
4.3
Suggested Deployment Architecture ............................................................................ 52
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
Functional Requirements .............................................................................................................. 63

5.1
Generic Functional Requirements ........................................................................................ 63
5.2
Call Centre Functional Requirements ................................................................................... 67
5.2.1
5.3
SMS ............................................................................................................................... 71
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
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
Deliverables and Implementation Schedule ................................................................................. 92

7.1
Project Deliverables .............................................................................................................. 92
7.2
Implementation Schedule ..................................................................................................... 94
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.
5
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
6
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, bankers 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.
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 Governments 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 peoples 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.
8
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
1
Stakeholder
Citizen
Roles
Files RTI application

Tracks RTI application and appeals
Interface
Central
Public
Information
Officer
Appellate
Authority
Call
Centre
Executive
Central
Public
Authority
Mediated
interface at Call
Centre via
telephone
Direct interface
at RTI portal
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
Receives first appeal
Responds to appeal
Direct Interface
at Portal
Direct Interface
at Portal
Responds to calls for RTI
information, application and appeals
Indirect
Interface at
Portal
Submit RTI application on behalf of

citizen in system
Submit RTI first appeal on behalf of
Citizen in system
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
Sl.
No
7
Stakeholder
Implementation
Agency
Roles
Officer,
Nodal
DOPT
Project Sponsor /
Department
of
Personnel
&
Training
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
Primarily responsible for supporting
Department of Personnel & Training in
supervising, monitoring and evaluating
the development and implementation of
the project
Responsible for RTI and its
implementation
Interface
Developer of the
system
Direct Interface
at Portal and
Call Centre
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
Citizens 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
10
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
11
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
12
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
Call
Centre
Users
RTI
Facilitation
Centre
CPA
RTI Portal
Post
CPA
Proposed Alternate
Channels
Existing Channels
Figure 2 :Communication channels available to citizens

13
CPA
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

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
to the Central
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
callers 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.
14
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
Authoritys 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 Agents responsibility for
15
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
providers 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 SBIs
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 SBIs Payment Gateway through
secured SSL encrypted connection:
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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 SBIs 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 applicants 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 & Trainings
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
18
(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 callers 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.
19
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 Ministrys 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.
20
Figure 4 :Process flow
Citizen
RTI Application & First Appeal Process Flow
Is the
call for filing
Yes
RTI application
No
Call Center
Citizen of India
Post & Courier
Citizen can via the

available channels:
- File RTI/ First appeal
Application
- Request information
about RTI Act
- Enquire about status
of hi/her application
Call center
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
Web Portal
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
Is the
call for filing
Citizen on being
requested by
CCA, sends SMS
to RTI Fee line
number
Citizen on being
requested by
CCA, calls RTI
Fee line number
RTI Counter
IVRS requests caller

to punch in the URN
Agent selects
appropriate CPA
against the request in
CRM
CRM updated about the

receipt of RTI application
fees against the URN and
flags the request as logged.
Call Ends
Agent provides required
information about RTI
Act/ Status of logged
application
Yes
First appeal
CRM periodically transmits only

the logged applications to the
Portal application
Portal
No
If additional payment from the applicant

is received via Portal, Portal workflow
engine updates CPIO/AA about the
receipt of additional fees.
Portal sends the URN

as confirmation of
logged application via
Email/SMS to applicant
Portal sends email/SMS to applicant

to inform about the availability of the
response on the Portal,
Citizen uses Portals

ePayment gateway to
pay RTI Fee/ Additional
Fee
RTI Facilitation
Center
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
Facilitation center sends request via

Post for additional payment to
applicant
Is additional fee
required
No
Yes
CPIO/ AA updates status on

Portal & requests RTI
facilitation center to inform
application for additional
payment
CPIO / AA writes his response,

scans any supporting
documents & uploads the same
on the Portal.
If additional payment from the

applicant is received via Post /
Courier, facilitation center updates
the Portal about its receipt
CPIO requests RTI facilitation

center to dispatch the
response via Post
Facilitation center dispatches hard

copy response & any Supporting
documents to the applicant via Post
21
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
Additional fees paid via Post / Courier
Public Authority
Additional fees paid via Portal
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
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.
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.
22
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 callers 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 banks 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

23
are:
Form A
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
Application Id
Name of CPA
Name of Applicant
Address of Applicant
Information required
E-Mail / Phone number
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

24
Sl.
No
Sub Function
Description
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.
Processing
Call Centre Channel:

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Citizen calls the RTI Application Line.

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.
For filing the appeal, Agent captures the relevant details.
Agent also resolves to which Central Public Authority this
request should be forwarded.
Once filled, he reads out the appeal content to the applicant
and upon confirmation saves the form.
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.
25
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.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Applicant Name and Address, E-Mail / Phone number

Date of submission of RTI application
Brief facts leading to appeal, including reasons
Relief sought
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
26
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
Setup of a Call Centre
Scope of Work
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
27
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:
28
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
Portal
with
RTI
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.
29
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
30
c)
d)
e)
f)
application software components is for a period of 5

years from Go-Live.
Compliance to Service Levels specified in Master
Services Agreement in Volume III of Request For
Proposal
Includes Application Software Maintenance, Problem
identification & Resolution, Change Request
management and configuration management.
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.
Operational requirements are given in Section 6.2
3.1.2 Develop, Implement and Maintain RTI Portal

Category
Development
and
Implementation of RTI
Portal:
Requirements
Study,
Design
and
Development
Scope of Work
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
31
f)
g)
h)
i)
j)
consultation with Department of Personnel & Training.

Portal shall be available 24x7x365.
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
Portal should have Hindi version also apart from the
English version
Implementation Agency shall develop and implement
the Portal as per the implementation timelines given in
the Section 7 of this Volume 1.
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
Testing
a) Implementation Agency has to ensure that the web portal

is integrated with a designated Banks 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.
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.
32
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
Portals 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
33
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 CentreDisaster 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
34
made as per the provisions of Request for Proposal Volume II. Implementation Agency shall
ensure Data Centre/Disaster Recovery Centre meets the following:
Category
High availability
Scope
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.
II.
III.
Handle 2000 concurrent users

Four sessions per user
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
35
14. Common Data Centre facility Maintenance and Support

Implementation Agency shall be responsible for their
Provisioning, Support, Monitor, Upkeep, Management and
Administration.
Common
Recovery
Services
Security
Disaster As per Section 4-Technical Requirements in this Request For

Centre Proposal
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
Audit
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.
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.
36
Implementation Agency shall prepare and maintain the

required documents including Operations Manual,
Maintenance Manual, Administrator Manual, Security
Policy etc. as per acceptable standards.
Documentation
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
Documentation
3.2
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.
Training Manual
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
37
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
38
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
Scope
Work
Phase
Conducted by
Closure of
Deficiencies
Testing
1
Unit Testing, System

Testing, Performance
Testing, Integration
Testing, etc.
During
Application
Development
IA
IA
User Acceptance
Testing
Before Go-live
Department of Personnel &

Training
IA
Third Party Application

Testing
Before Go-live

Training / Third party
agency
IA
Before and
After Go-live

Training / Third party
agency
IA
Audits
4
Scheduled and Unscheduled Quality

Audits
Security Audit for

Hosting at Data Centre Disaster Recovery
Centre
Before Go-live
IA
IA
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

39
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 Portals 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.
40
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
SBIs 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 &
41
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
Department of Information Technology (DIT)
Standards
guidelines available athttp://egovstandards.gov.in
Information access/transfer
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Hypertext Transfer
protocols
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

42
(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

Organization for Standard (ISO) / Capability Maturity
International
Model Integration (CMMi) specifications for documentation

Table 5: Industry Standards
43
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 calls 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
44
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
45
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 agents
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.
46
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.
47
Department Users
Citizens
Intern
et
PSTN
CTI / IVR
Presentation
Layer
HTML / Browser Based

Web Portal / User Interface
E-Payment
User management
Application
Layer
Application Logic Components

Notification
Data
Layer
E-Forms
Business Logic
Transaction
Data Management
Data
Scanned
Documents
Integration
Components
Data
Management
Security
Layer
Service
s&
Service
Comm
unicati
on
Audit Logs
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 users 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.
48
Role
Based
Access
Contro
l
Secure
Messag
e
Betwee
n Apps.
Securit
y
Policy
Mgmt
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 welldesigned 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.
49
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.

50

8. The
solution
should
http://egovstandards.gov.in
follow
e-Governance
standards
available
at
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.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
Web Server / Portal Server

Directory Server
Application / Content Management System Server
Communication server (SMS/Email)
Database Server
Server Load Balancer
Back-up System (including tape library)
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.

51
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.
52
RTI Call Center

EPABX
`
CTI
Server
ACD
Agent 1
PSTN
`
Agent 2
IVRS
`
Agent n
Tele communications
Calls the RTI

Number
Data
Center
App Server
DB Server
Web Server
Internet
s
form
its eSubm portal
on
Citizen
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.
53
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
54
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
55
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.
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.
For all high priority incidents, should assign an owner.
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
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
Ownership, Tracking, Monitoring and Communications of incidents shall

track to closure.
Should provide Root cause analysis for all Critical and High incidents within
48 hours of closure to Department.
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
56
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.
Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) Deployment

i.
VLANs shall be created to completely isolate Infrastructure from

other infrastructure hosted in the Data-Centre.
Remote Access of RTI Call Centre and Portal Infrastructure from the DataCentre shall be regulated, monitored and controlled.
All network equipment default passwords (e.g., Routers) must be changed by

supervisors during installation.
All traffic from inside the Data Centre to external networks, and vice-versa,
must pass through a gateway security device (or firewall).
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.
57
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
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
4.4
Virtual Private Network (VPN) gateway should be redundant
All the network devices should have redundant power supply. Both power supplies
should not connect to the same power source
Network Device configuration - All the network devices should be redundant,

without any single point of failure
Network Availability should be 99.7%
The availability of all the Data Centre facilities hosting the solution will be available.
It shall be measured every month.
Strategic Control and Security
Shall ensure that the Infrastructure Components are not accessed (including removal
from rack), tampered, and modified without due approval.
58
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.
Access to RACK hosting the Infrastructure shall be strictly controlled. Access shall
only be given to authorized personnel.
Shall implement measures to prevent users from attaching any hardware to Servers
or enable remote access to un-authorized personnel.
Access to Tape Library and Back-up tapes shall only be granted to authorized
personnel.
4.4.1 Power Supply
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.
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
Circuit breakers of appropriate capacity should be installed to protect the

hardware against increase in power voltage
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.
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
The UPS and the generator shall be tested regularly to ensure the smooth
59
functioning of the power supply to the IT infrastructure
4.4.2 Environmental Conditions
The whole premises should have air-conditioning facilities to prevent

dust, heat and air pollution affecting Infrastructure.
The server room must have dedicated air-conditioning equipment with

the temperature maintained below 20 degrees Centigrade (+/- 2 degrees
Centigrade).
Air conditioning must be non-condensing type. In any case the humidity

level in the server room must not cross 50%.
The particulate dust content of the air in the server room must be
maintained at below 75g/
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
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.
60
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.
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.
Entry to premises hosting the infrastructure shall be regulated by using

electronic access cards.
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 semipermanent 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 nonemployee is in the restricted area
Gate pass shall be issued for taking out from any material from the
61
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.
Unauthorized media devices shall not be allowed inside the server room
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.
Movement of equipment shall be recorded for control on physical

inventory.
62
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.
PSTN
Call
Center
(CRM)
Periodic
Updates to
Status
Portal
retrieval
from
Portal
Web
Portal
Data
Bases
Interne
t
Governm
ent
Officials
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.
63
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
64
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
65
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
66
step resolution workflow based on commonly asked queries / RTI

applications/first appeals received from both channels i.e Call Centre and Portal.
5.2
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.
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 &
67
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 agents 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

68
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.
69
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-bycall 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
70
FR59
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
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.
71
5.3
Portal Functional Requirements
5.3.1 Functional view of Portal
User and Security Management

Content Management
Workflow Engine
MIS
Filing First Appeal
Epaym
ent
Accou
nting
UI
Filing RTI Application
Data Management
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.
72
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 unauthorised 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.
74
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 applicants 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.
75
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.
76
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 applicants 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 SBIs payment
gateway. Implementation Agency to get the required Security Audit Certification
from any of the empanelled Security Auditors (list available on http://www.certin.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.
78
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 Authoritys 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.
79
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.
80
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.
81
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 Metrics 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.
82
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

During the warranty period, Implementation Agency shall be completely
a.
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.
Implementation Agency shall provide the latest updates, patches/ fixes, version
b.
upgrades relevant for the solution components.

Implementation Agency shall be responsible for software version management,
c.
and software documentation management reflecting current features and

functionality of the solution.
ii.
a.
Infrastructure Management
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 systems

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.
83

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
84
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.
6.2
Bandwidth monitoring and trending for the network
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
85

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 offsite 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.
86

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.
87

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
88
Any version upgrade / changes in application software shall not be performed on
w.
the production server directly without appropriate methodologies of staging in

testing environment (even after go-live).
Implementation Agency is responsible for taking backup of all stored data in
x.
accordance with a duly approved backup policy

Implementation Agency shall comply with Department of Personnel & Trainings
y.
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
89

viii.
Average time taken to update database for RTI application and first appeals
Reports from the RTI Portal: This involves Portal usage statistics related to
b.
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
90
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 %
91
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
1
2
3
4
5
Deliverables
a. Signing of Agreement
b. Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) for a specified amount
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.
b. System Requirement Specifications Document
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
92
6
7
a.
a.
b.
a.
9
10
b.
a.
b.
a.
b.
Behavioral Specifications (i.e., Input, output and Process details, pre and post
conditions)
Developed or customized solution
Test cases and Plans
Reports on various Tests performed on the Solution along with the results & plan
for addressing the issues identified during Testing.
IT Infrastructure solution encompassing Servers, storage, System Software,
including the equipment to be setup at Data Centre& DRC.
Provisioning of IT & non-IT infrastructure at the Data Centre& DRC
Security policy
Standard Operating Procedures in the form of Operations manual(Portal)
Completion of Training for all the users
Updated Training & User Manuals (Including Audio visual material such as
Computer Based Training (CBT))
Defect Free Application Software components and other automation requirements
including Source Code, library files, DLLs, Setup programs, Documentation, etc.
Updated & Final System Requirements and Design Documents
Maintenance Manuals for Administration and Maintenance of Portal
End-user level operating procedure
Service Levels measurement system and Monitoring tool
Third Party audit of Payment Gateway under Portal
Management Information System Reports mentioned in Volume I and finalized in
the System Requirement Specifications
Documentation w.r.t. ISO27001 for the scope of work discussed in the Request
For Proposal
11
a.
12
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
13
a.
14
a. Post Implementation Support to Department of Personnel & Training

b. Daily/Weekly/fortnightly/monthly Performance Monitoring Reports for the System
FUNCTIONING CALL CENTRE
FUNCTIONING PORTAL
FUNCTIONING DATA CENTRE & DISASTER RECOVERY CENTRE
TRAINING TO THE GOVERNMENT PERSONNEL
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)
Operational Document on Strategic Control of the Department of Personnel & Training
over the Project as specified in Request For Proposal Volume III.
Exit Management Plan
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
Table 6: Deliverables under this Project
93
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:
Y1(16M)
M0
Activities
M1
M2
M3
M4
M5
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
Table 7: Implementation Schedule
94
M6
M7
Y1
712
M
Y2
Y3
Y4
Y5(16M)

RTI Call Centre & Portal Project

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National Institute for Smart Government

RTI Call Centre and Portal Project

Request For Proposal - Volume I

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

RTI Call Centre and Portal Project

Provisioning of Data CentreDisaster Recovery Centre services for hosting of Portal 34

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

Request For Proposal - Volume I

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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