IT & Services

Who buys in this sector

Central ministries, departments and attached offices are the buyers here: each of them needs computers, a network, a support contract, security guards and a housekeeping arrangement. Where the item or the service is listed on the Government e Marketplace (opens in a new tab), the buyer has no discretion about the route: GeM's own pages say the purchases through it “have been authorised and made mandatory by Ministry of Finance by adding a new Rule No. 149 in the General Financial Rules, 2017”.

Everything not on that marketplace is advertised as a tender, and for a central buyer the notice and the bid live on the Central Public Procurement Portal. A second central instance of the same NIC software at etenders.gov.in (opens in a new tab) carries organisations that keep their own listing there, BSNL and the Airports Authority of India among them. State departments and their agencies tender on the state's own portal; The portals names them.

Two kinds of firm read this page and rarely meet: the software house that builds and integrates, and the contractor that supplies guards, housekeeping staff, drivers and maintenance crews. One ministry buys from both, under different rulebooks.

What they tender for

There are three paths, and confusing them is the first way a bid goes wrong.

Catalogue and bid purchases on GeM. GeM's home page names its routes plainly, “Multiple Procurement Modes - Direct Purchase / Bid / RA”, and the rupee slabs that decide which route a buyer must use are set out on selling on GeM.

Non-consultancy services. The Manual for Procurement of Non-Consultancy Services (2025) governs this category of outsourced work. Where it is silent, GFR Rule 206 sends the buyer back to the goods rules rather than to the consultancy ones: “the procuring entity may refer Rule 142 to Rule 176 pertaining to procurement of goods and not to the procurement of consulting services.”

Consultancy-style engagements. Software development, system integration, e-governance platforms and advisory work follow the Manual for Procurement of Consultancy Services, Second Edition, 2025, whose para 4.2(3) names the four selection methods a bidder will meet: “Price based System - Least Cost Selection (LCS); b) Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS); c) Fixed Budget based Selection (FBS) d) Direct Selection: Single Source Selection (SSS).”Department of Expenditure, Ministry of FinanceUnder that manual the bidding document is the request for proposal, and it “is sent only to the short-listed consultants”.

Where the tenders are published

Consultancy-style work usually starts earlier than the tender. Shortlisting runs through an expression of interest, which under the consultancy manual is advertised “on Central Public Procurement Portal (CPPP) at www.eprocure.gov.in (opens in a new tab) and on Government e-Marketplace (GeM)”. A firm that watches only for requests for proposal will see the shortlisted stage and never the stage that decides who is shortlisted. The order the stages run in is on The tender lifecycle.

The clauses that decide eligibility here

On GeM, the profile is the eligibility. GeM's own pre-requisites list what a seller registers with: an authorised person of the organisation and that person's identity, the business PAN, the constitution and date of incorporation, income-tax return details for the recent years the checklist names, a bank account and IFSC, and a billing address with a GSTIN, without which orders above a stated value cannot be accepted. Registration itself is free (“There are no charges or fee for getting registered”), and a firm selling both products and services registers for both.

In an advertised tender, the notice is the eligibility. What an IT or services tender asks to see is familiar and specific: annual turnover over recent years; similar assignments completed, described by value and by scope; the certifications the tender itself names, an ISO certification or a CMMi level among them; authorisations from the original equipment manufacturer for the hardware quoted; named key personnel with CVs; and, for a manpower or facility contract, the statutory registrations under the labour and social-security laws the contract runs under. None of these is a general legal requirement: each binds because a particular tender document listed it, and the tender document is the only place it can be read.

Local content applies to the hardware. The revision of 4 June 2020 sorts a supplier into a “Class-I local supplier”, a “Class-II local supplier” or a “Non - Local supplier” by the local content in what is offered, and it applies to goods, services and works alike. The thresholds and the purchase preference are on Class-I, Class-II or non-local. A related limit runs the other way and is worth quoting, because IT specifications collide with it more than others do: “Specifying foreign certifications/ unreasonable technical specifications/ brands/ models in the bid document is restrictive and discriminatory practice against local suppliers.”Press Information Bureau / Ministry of Commerce and Industry

Where the method is QCBS or LCS, the technical proposal is scored before the price is opened, against a qualifying benchmark and a weighting the consultancy manual sets out in its Table 1 as suggestive. Those marks and weightings are on how the winner is chosen.

Money in these bids

This is general information; confirm with the tender document and your adviser.

On an advertised tender the sums are the ordinary ones: bid security or the declaration in its place, then performance security on award. Rule 171(i) of GFR 2017, as amended by the Department of Expenditure's office memorandum of 1 January 2024, sets one band for goods, consultancy and non-consultancy services; Rule 171(ii) keeps that security valid beyond every contractual obligation including warranty, and Rule 171(iii) refunds the bid security to the winner on receipt of it. The bands and instruments are on EMD exemptions and the bid-securing declaration and what is held back after you win.

On GeM the terms are the marketplace's own. Its General Terms and Conditions make charges payable “as per extant Revenue Policy of GeM” rather than fixing them in the agreement itself, and set out a recommended level of performance security with a range the buyer may choose from and a value below which none is required. Those figures are stated once, on selling on GeM.

A government buyer also deducts tax at source under two Acts before a bill is paid, and the rates and thresholds are an accountant's question rather than a tender page's.

One change made on 8 May 2026 lands squarely on this sector. GFR Rule 151 now lets a procuring entity debar a bidder that has, for employees engaged under the contract, “failed to pay wages” or “failed to remit statutory contributions towards social security, as required under applicable laws”. For a firm running guards, housekeeping staff or a support desk on a government site, the payroll is part of the eligibility record. The periods, the lists and who decides are in the Rule 151 amendment.