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Insights

Insights

Explainers, updates, data notes and guides on how India buys. Every piece is dated and every number is sourced.

All insights

16 pieces

Explainers

  1. Joint ventures in works tenders: how a JV qualifies and what each member shows

    The Works Manual's template for joint ventures: a lead member holding at least half, experience met by the JV or its lead, an entity registered before signing.

  2. Selling on GeM: what registration needs and how a buyer is allowed to buy

    Registration is free: Aadhaar or PAN, business PAN, bank account, three years of returns. Buyers follow three slabs set by Rule 149: direct, L1 of three, bid.

  3. What the MSE policy gives a small bidder, and what it does not

    Free tender sets, no earnest money, a chance to match L1, reserved items. No performance-security exemption, nothing for works or traders. Udyam is the proof.

  4. Class-I, Class-II or non-local: what "local content" decides in a bid

    Since 2020 every central tender sorts bidders by local content. Which class you are, what it lets you bid for, the margin, and the auditor's certificate.

  5. Similar work and annual turnover: what the clauses mean and how they are counted

    Two clauses every works tender defines afresh: what similar work is measured against, which years count, who certifies the figure, how the manual counts them.

  6. Submitting on CPPP or a state NIC portal: freeze the bid, watch the server clock

    The last hour. An unfrozen bid is invalid, the deadline runs on server time in IST, an idle session logs out, and you can resubmit as often as you like.

  7. After you win: performance security, retention and the instruments accepted

    Winning starts a second set of deadlines: the performance security and its date, retention on every running bill, validity beyond completion, the instruments.

  8. EMD exemptions: who does not pay, and what a declaration commits you to

    MSEs and start-ups are exempt from bid security under GFR, but the MSE order excludes works and traders, and a declaration in place of EMD carries a debarment.

  9. L1 is not always the winner: preference bands, negotiation and consultancy

    Goods and works go to the lowest responsive bidder, unless a preference band hands part of the order to someone else. Consultancy weighs quality against price.

  10. How a tender changes after it is published: pre-bid queries and corrigenda

    Queries go in writing, minutes are not a change, a real change needs a corrigendum and time to respond, and checking for one is the bidder's job.

  11. How to read a Notice Inviting Tender

    The NIT is the summary sheet: buyer, subject, estimated value, number of covers, dates and fee, which is enough to decide in minutes whether to open the rest.

  12. Why bids are rejected at technical evaluation, and the checks that prevent it

    Many rejections never reach the price. A missing certificate, an unfrozen bid, an EMD in the wrong form, a price in the wrong cover: each has a rule and check.

Updates

  1. Three DoE manuals in 2025: Works, Consultancy and Non-Consultancy Services

    Second editions of the Works and Consultancy manuals and, for the first time, a separate manual for outsourced services. What each covers and supersedes.

  2. What changed on GeM for sellers: caution money and the purchase slabs

    Two changes a seller meets early: the caution-money deposit is gone, and the value slabs that decide how a buyer may buy were reset in July 2024.

Data notes

  1. Indian public procurement in the government's own numbers, as of September 2026

    Every figure from a named government release, with its base and its date: GeM cumulative and annual value, the MSE shares of it, MSE procurement, the targets.

Everything here is about the tenders. What BidSaarthi says about your company against them is a conversation: talk to us. Talk to us