TENDER DOCUMENT

FOR
THE CONDUCT OF COMPUTER BASED ONLINE
GATE/JAM EXAMINATIONS FOR THREE YEARS
(2016-2018)

YEAR
ORGANIZING INSTITUTES
2016 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE
BENGALURU 560012
and
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MADRAS
CHENNAI 600036
2017

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY ROORKEE

ROORKEE 247667
and
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY DELHI
DELHI 110016

2018

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY GUWAHATI

GUWAHATI 781039
and
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY BOMBAY
MUMBAI 400076

Disclaimer
This Tender is not an offer by either the Indian Institute of Science,
Bengaluru or any of the Indian Institutes of Technology, but an invitation
to receive offer from vendors. The Tender is for conducting On-line
GATE / JAM examinations for a period of three years, i.e., for the years
2016, 2017 and 2018 by the concerned Institutes. While the pattern,
modalities and operations remain the same during these three years,
there could be minor changes in specific number of candidates, number
of sessions, dates of examinations, number of examination papers,
number of examination centres, etc.

No contractual obligation whatsoever shall arise from the tender process

unless and until a formal contract is signed and executed by duly
authorized office bearers of the GATE/JAM Organizing Committee or an
appointee thereof with the vendor.

Table of Contents
Sr. no

Description

Pages

1.

About GATE/JAM

2.

Brief scope of the work of the Company Partner (CP)

3.

General Instructions

4.

Submission of Bids

5.

Evaluation of the Proposals

6.

Detailed Scope of Work of CP

10

7.

Time Frame

18

Annexures 1 to 7

19

Proposals should reach the undersigned by 4.30 P.M. on 06th July, 2015:
The Organizing Chairman,
GATE/JAM 2016, GATE/JAM Office, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE
BENGALURU - 560012
Date, Time and Venue of Opening of Technical bids:
06th July, 2015, 4.30 P.M. GATE/JAM OFFICE, INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE,
BENGALURU - 560012

Date, Time and Venue of Opening of commercial bids:

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

1. About GATE / JAM:

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) at
Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras and Roorkee jointly administer the
conduct of GATE/JAM (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering / Joint Admission test for
M.Sc.) every year that serves as a means for admissions to graduate programmes in various
engineering and science disciplines of IISc and the IITs in the country. The results of GATE
are also used by several Public Sector Undertakings to short-list the candidates for their
recruitment. The operations related to GATE/JAM in each of the 8 zones are managed by a
zonal GATE/JAM Office at an IIT or IISc. The Organizing Institutes (OI) of each year are
responsible for the end-to-end process and coordination amongst the administering institutes
in that year.
GATE/JAM examinations are computer based Online Examinations in which the candidates
will be required to answer the questions that appear on a computer connected to a Local
Area Network (LAN). Answers would be recorded at a server that also keeps track of the
time for the examination. We hereby seek a Company Partner (CP) to provide the
technology and the operational solution for the conduct of online examination of GATE/JAM
for three years, i.e., for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018.
The Organizing Institutes for GATE/JAM 2016 are IISc. Bengaluru and IIT Madras. The
GATE/JAM 2016 examinations for all the papers will be conducted on computer based
Online Examination mode in multiple sessions spread over the period from 30th January
2016 to 20th February 2016.
The GATE/JAM organizing institutes for 2017 are IIT Roorkee and IIT Delhi unless otherwise
informed.
The GATE/JAM Organizing Institutes for 2018 are IIT Guwahati and IIT Bombay unless
otherwise informed.

2. Brief scope of work of the Company Partner:

The Company Partner (CP) and GATE / JAM Committee will be required to work together to
conduct the Online GATE/JAM Examination. The Company Partner (CP) shall provide the
technology and the operational solutions for the conduct of online examination for GATE /
JAM. The GATE/JAM committee will provide the question papers which is set for the GATE
/JAM examination to be held for the year 2016 and question papers for the years 2017 and

2018 will be provided at the relevant point of time. The total number of candidates taking the
Online Examination in GATE / JAM is expected to be around one million for each year.

3. Required General Criteria to bid for the Tender

In this tender document, Vendor, Bidder, Bidding agency and Company Partner (CP) mean
one and the same.
a) The bidding agency shall ensure a single point of contact with the GATE/JAM 2016
Committee for the three years, i.e., 2016, 2017 and 2018 and shall be solely responsible for
the execution and delivery of the work.
b) The bidding agency should be based in India and operating in India for the last 5 years
offering similar services. They should have a minimum turn-over of Rs. 50,00,00,000/(Rupees Fifty crores only) in each of the last 2 financial years.
c) The bidding agency should own the copyright of the source code being used for
conducting the computer based online examinations. The agency should be able to make
changes as and when required in any of the components of the software/source code being
utilized for the purpose of conducting the said computer based online examinations
throughout the term of three years as required and indicated by the conducting Institutes in
accordance to the requirements and/or changes made by the GATE/JAM Committee of each
of the Organizing Institute for the GATE/JAM examination question paper or format of the
examinations or in any other manner.
d) The agency should be certified for compliance with established Information Security
Standards such as ISO 27001. Duly signed copy of ISO 27001 certificate should be
submitted along with the technical bid. The bidding agency shall ensure that such certificate
is valid through the subsistence of the term of three years as stated herein. Any renewal of
such certificate shall be the sole responsibility of the bidding agency without any recourse to
either of the Organizing Institutes in any manner whatsoever.
e) The agency should have an in-house quality assurance and product testing team with
proven and robust quality management processes required for conducting the computer
based online examinations.
f) The agency must employ multiple backup systems including offline backups to securely
maintain the software and its corresponding source code.
g) The agency should design a high-performance system and conduct performance tests to
verify successful achievement of high concurrency, fast response time, and long-stress
duration requirements of the system used to conduct the examinations. Results of such
performance tests should be made available to the GATE/JAM committee and each of the

Organizing Institutes as and when required. Sometimes these tests may have to be
conducted within short notice and with strict deadlines. These tests shall be conducted by
the bidding agency prior to the each of the GATE/JAM online examinations each year, as
may be requested by the respective Organizing Institute.
h) The agency should design a highly secure system and conduct security tests to verify that
there are no vulnerabilities that can make the system susceptible to attacks. Comprehensive
testing of source code and the infrastructure must be carried out. Results of such security
tests should be made available to the GATE/JAM committee of the Organizing Institutes as
may be requested from time to time.
i) There should be suitable emergency management plans towards any crisis
situations/redundancy of servers, nodes, additional centre locations, students data. The
vendor has to clearly indicate these plans in the technical proposal.
j) The agency should be able to support the entire solution (across India) on a 24 x 7 basis
with a maximum response time of 3 hours.
k) At any time before the submission of bids, GATE/JAM Organizing Institutes may amend
the tender by issuing an addendum in writing or by standard electronic means. The
addenda, if any, as put on GATE website http://gate.iisc.ernet.in will be binding on them. If
the amendments are substantial, Bidder(s) shall be given reasonable time to make
amendments or to submit revised bid and the deadline for submission of bids will be
extended by the GATE /JAM committee of the Organizing Institutes.
l) All disputes arising out of this process shall be subject to the jurisdiction of International
Centre of Alternative Dispute Resolution, New Delhi.
m) The bidding agency should have authorized and globally accepted software certification,
CMMi Level 5.
n) The GATE/JAM Committee of the Organizing Institutes shall award the tender to an
agency that fulfils each of the criteria mentioned above and further set out more particularly
in the Technical Proposal (Clause 4.1) and the Commercial Proposal.
4. Submission of bids
The Tender Document has to be downloaded from the website http://gate.iisc.ernet.in and
submitted in proper form along with all relevant documents and a Tender Fee of Rs. 25,000/(Rupees Twenty Five Thousand Only) in the form of a Demand Draft drawn in favour of The
Registrar, IISc., Bengaluru. Offers without Tender Fee shall be rejected summarily.
6

The Vendor (bidder) shall submit their offer in two parts: (1) Technical Proposal, and (2)
Commercial proposal
a) The tender is a 2-Bid document. The technical proposal should contain all the relevant
information along with all the relevant enclosures and the Earnest Money Deposit (EMD).
The commercial proposal should contain only the price bid. If any bidder encloses the
financial bid within technical bid, the same shall be rejected summarily.
b) All relevant information as specified in the Technical and Commercial Proposals including
the contingency plans, and Annexures-1 to 6 should be furnished by the bidders. The bidder
is advised to attach any information that is necessary in regard to the capabilities to establish
that the bidder is capable in all respects to successfully complete the envisaged work. The
bidders are cautioned that not giving complete information called for or deliberately
suppressing the information may result in the bidder being summarily disqualified.
c) The Tenders should be printed. The name and signature of bidders authorized person
should be recorded on each page of the application. All pages of the tender document shall
be numbered and submitted as a package along with forwarding letter on agencys letter
head. A soft copy of the bid in a cd or pen drive may be supplied.
d) The offer will remain open for a minimum period of 90 days from the date of opening of
the tender, within which the bidders cannot withdraw their offer.
e) Reference, information and certificates from the respective clients of each of the Vendor
certifying technical, delivery and execution capability of the bidder should be signed and the
contact numbers of all such clients should be mentioned. The GATE/JAM Organizing
Committee of the respective Organizing Institutes may also independently seek information
regarding the performance from the clients.
f) Even though bidder may satisfy the qualifying criteria, the bidder is liable to disqualification
due to record of poor performance or not able to understand the scope of work, does not
have experience in conducting online examination for more than one lakh candidates and for
such other reasons which the GATE/JAM Organising Committee may consider relevant.
g) The bidder should enclose an EMD for Rs. 50,00,000/- (Rupees Fifty Lakhs) in the form of
a Demand Draft drawn in favour of The Registrar, IISc., Bengaluru. This total amount of
EMD shall be for the grant of tender for the term of three years as stated herein. The tenders
without EMD shall be summarily rejected. The EMD of the unsuccessful bidders shall be
returned without any interest after the award of the contract to the successful bidder. The
EMD of the successful bidder shall be returned only after signing of contract along with
7

performance security deposit. The EMD stands forfeited in case the bidder withdraws or
amends his bid after submission of tender document. Upon selection, the successful bidder
shall submit a bank guarantee of 10 % of the total contract value in a bank account and in
the form as may be mutually agreed upon by and between the GATE/JAM Committee of the
Organizing Institutes for the term of three years as stated herein in this Tender Document
and communicated to the successful bidder.
h) The sealed envelopes should be marked Offer for GATE/JAM 2016 - 2018 ONLINE
EXAMINATIONS from Vendor Name, Technical or Commercial. The larger enclosing
envelope should be marked Offer for GATE/JAM 2016 - 2018 ONLINE EXAMINATIONS
from Vendor Name. The contents of Technical and Commercial proposals should be as
follows:
4.1. Technical Proposal (including operational proposal)

A technical proposal that details the capabilities of the Question Paper Authoring
Software, the Examination Software (Client and Server) and the software that
handles post examination operations (verification of the uploaded data). Please
provide the feature list as an enumerated list or a table.

An operational proposal that gives the following details:

The number of nodes per city that the vendor has qualified as per their
process for the list of cities indicated in Annexure-7. Please also indicate the
number of nodes per city on which you have conducted an exam. Note that
for the qualified nodes you MUST have in place an agreement with the
institute/college providing the infrastructure.

The projected capability in terms of the number of audited seats in each city
that the vendor will be able to identify by the end of September 2015. The CP
has to submit a complete finalized list of the centres latest by the 7th day of
October 2015.

The availability of adequate number of technical personnel for conducting the

examination in the required number of test centres. The CP has to submit a
complete list of such personnel latest by the 7th day of December 2015.

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

The procedures followed for the pre-exam, exam and post-exam operations
including the capability of the vendor to set up a secure Master Control facility
for uploading post-exam data.

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

element of the examination conducting software.

A statement that gives the following details of the examinations conducted by the
vendor within the past 12 months prior to submitting the bids as per the terms set out
herein: (a) Total number of candidates appeared for the examination, (b) Total

number of candidates across all the cities in a single session, (c) Number of sessions
on a day of examination and (d) Number of days of examination.

4.2. Commercial proposal

The commercial proposal should give the details of the charges per registered candidate
AND the minimum number of candidates at this rate. If the vendor has slabs at which the
rates change, the vendor should indicate such slabs. The charges per registered candidate
should include the cost towards (a) charges paid to the technical personnel by the CP during
vetting of test centres, (b) charges paid by the CP to the college for hiring the infrastructure
at the college, (c) providing partitions between computers at the Test Centres, (d)
development of question paper authoring software as per specification for GATE/JAM
Online Examination, (e) development of Test Software for Online Examination, (f)
deployment of the Company Personnel, i.e., the Test Administrators and Company
Representatives at the Test Centres and the technical personnel at the Master Control
Rooms, (g) administration of Test, and (h) other incidental expenses. A clear break-up as
indicated in (a) to (h) should be provided. The applicable taxes should be indicated in the
proposal. For the sake of uniformity across all the test centres, the CP is advised to maintain
uniform rates for infrastructure for all the test centres and adhere to the same without any
deviation.
In the event of any unforeseen circumstances, examinations may have to be held in the
buffer sessions (tentatively 20th February 2016 for GATE/JAM 2016). Hence price should be
quoted separately (a) for conducting the examinations in 8 sessions as mentioned in the
examination schedule, and (b) for conducting examinations in 1 buffer session.
It may be noted that if any examination has to be conducted either on the buffer date or on
any of the unused weekends due to any technical or non-technical problems from vendors
side, the vendor has to bear the cost of the examination.
4.3. Demonstration and Presentation
The vendor will be required to give a demonstration of their client and server software for
online examination using the AE, GG and XE papers of GATE 2015 and BL paper of JAM
2015. The vendors may be required to make a presentation on their capabilities to conduct
the online examination as per the conditions specified above. The date and venue for
demonstration and presentation will be announced by the GATE/JAM Committee of the
Organizing Institutes after mutual decision at a suitable date.
4.4. Deviations
Any deviations from the scope of work as outlined above should be mentioned clearly with
suitable justification by the vendor in a separate sheet under the heading Deviations. This
sheet should be included in the technical proposal. If no deviations are mentioned, then
9

it will be assumed that the vendor has accepted the scope of work in its entirety as
mentioned in the tender document and is bound to deliver the same.
4.5. Mode of Payment and penalty clauses
The payment to the CP shall be made in Indian rupees and shall be paid only after the
successful completion of the work set out for each year of the term of three years by the
Organizing Institutes of that respective year without any delays or errors. No advance
payment shall be made. The successful bidder has to sign an agreement for the term of
three years as set out herein with each of the Organizing Institutes of GATE/JAM
being party to such agreement. The agreements should be on non-judicial stamp paper
which shall contain penalty clauses related to liquidated damages on account of delays,
errors, cost and time overruns etc. If the bidder fails to execute the contract, the
GATE/JAM committee of the Organizing Institutes shall have the liberty to get the work done
through any other agency with full cost recoverable from the bidder in addition to damages
and penalty.
If a majority of the Chairpersons of all 8 Institutes do not give a satisfactory performance
certificate for 2016, extension for the years 2017 and 2018 shall be re-evaluated.
It is hereby clarified that the terms set out in this Tender Document shall not be a binding
contract either on the Organizing Institutes for the term of three years as stated herein or on
the CP. Further, after accepting the offer made by the successful bidder, the Organizing
Institutes for the term of three years as stated herein shall execute an agreement stating the
scope of work for the CP in detail, the consideration payable by each of the Organizing
Institutes as stated herein, the events of termination of the agreement/arrangement between
the Organizing Institutes and the CP, the consequences of such termination and such other
terms and conditions as may be required to execute the scope of work set out for the CP as
per this Tender Document. It is hereby clarified that the terms set out in the agreement to be
executed by and between the Organizing Institutes for the term of three years as stated
herein shall be binding on all the parties executing the said agreement.
5. Evaluation of the Proposals
Selection of the vendor shall be based on Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS).
The proposals submitted by the vendors will be evaluated by taking the following factors into
consideration:
5.1. Technical evaluation
Technical evaluation will be based on the criteria given below (Total 100 points):

Prior experience of the vendor in conducting online examinations.

Capability of the vendor to develop the required software

10

Date, Time and Venue of Opening of Technical bids:

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

Date, Time and Venue of Opening of commercial bids:

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

6. Detailed scope of work

6.1. Tentative Schedule of Examinations
Examination for GATE/JAM 2016 will be conducted for 23 GATE papers and 7 JAM papers
in 8 sessions with 1 buffer session as shown in the table given below. The number of
papers may vary for 2017 & 2018. The complete schedule with details regarding the papers
and the respective sessions will be notified to the successful Company Partner at a suitable
date.

Session

Time

Day and date

9.00 AM to 12.00 noon

Saturday, 30th January 2016

2.00 PM to 5.00 PM

Saturday, 30th January 2016

9.00 AM to 12.00 noon

Sunday, 31st January 2016

2.00 PM to 5.00 PM

Sunday, 31st January 2016

9.00 AM to 12.00 noon

Saturday, 6th February 2016

2.00 PM to 5.00 PM

Saturday, 6th February 2016

9.00 AM to 12.00 noon

Sunday, 7th February 2016

2.00 PM to 5.00 PM

Sunday, 7th February 2016

Buffer for

9.00 AM to 12.00 noon

Saturday, 20th February 2016

GATE/ JAM

12

In the event of any unforeseen circumstances, examinations may have to be held in the
buffer session (20th February 2016 for GATE/JAM 2016). Dates for 2017 & 2018 will be
notified in due course.
6.2. Detailed description of the features and scope of work:
The following sections list the features in the Online Examination that the CP is expected to
provide through their technology and operations, and the capabilities of the CP needed for
delivery of the Online Examination:
6.2.1. Content Creation

The CP would provide the Question Paper Authoring software and train the GATE/
JAM personnel authorized by the Organizing Chairpersons, GATE/JAM 2016 - 2018,
on Question Paper Authoring and Question Pack Generation.

The CP should be willing to modify the Question Paper Authoring Software as per the
requirements of the GATE/JAM 2016, GATE/JAM 2017 and GATE/JAM 2018
committees.

These

requirements

of

the

GATE/JAM

committees

will

be

communicated to the CP as and when required, but well before the beginning of the
actual authoring processes.

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

the administering institutes as designated by the GATE/JAM Committee of the
Organizing Institutes for each of the three years of the term at the premises of GATE
/JAM offices of the respective Organizing Institute. The necessary infrastructure
required for Question Paper Authoring will be provided by GATE/JAM. However, the
CP has to provide the infrastructure requirement and set up a model test facility that
will be tested with dummy question papers.

The authoring software must support the following features in the question papers:
A. Two compulsory sections and two or more optional sections in GG, XE
and XL papers.
B. Numerical answer type questions for which the answer is a signed real
number with a maximum of 10 digits.
C. A Standard Scientific Virtual On-line Calculator should be made available
built into the software.
D. Multiple choice type questions with single correct answer or multiple
correct answers.

The Question Paper Authoring software must allow for creating multiple versions of a
question paper by jumbling the questions and the choices for a question.

Authoring software must allow for encryption and password protection of the question
paper following appropriate standards. The CP should provide the certificate of
confidentiality with regards to contents of all the question papers.
13

6.2. 2. Test Centres, Personnel, Infrastructure, Administration, Test Delivery and Postexamination Operations

Examination Cities - The tentative list of cities in which the GATE/JAM 2016
Online Examination for the term of three years may be conducted is given in
Annexure-7. The final list of cities will be identified by the GATE/JAM Committee
at a suitable date for each of the three years of the term.

Test Centres The CP would arrange to identify Test Centres that have been
certified and audited by the CP. A College may have one or more Test Centres.
Offices of the CP must not be considered for Test Centres. However, the Internal
Training Facilities (ITF) of the CP may be used as test centres. All the Test
Centres identified by the CP must be approved by GATE/JAM Committee as per
the norms of GATE/JAM. No service charges shall be paid to the test centres by
IISc/IITs. The minimum requirements for the candidate system and centre server
are given below:

Minimum requirements for the candidate system

Screen resolution

1024 X 768

Operating System

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 or higher

(only licensed versions)

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition

Service Pack 2, Windows Vista Enterprise Edition

Browser

Internet Explorer 6.0 or above

Browser Settings

Internet Explorer (IE) Java Script enabled

Pop-up blocker disabled
Paste operations via script enabled
Proxy disabled
USB disabled

Minimum requirements for the Examination Centre Server

Processor

CPU Speed: 1.5 GHz or more

RAM

2048 MB or more

Screen Resolution

1024 X 768

Operating System

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 or higher

(licensed version)

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition

Service Pack 2, Windows Vista Enterprise Edition

Browser

Internet Explorer (IE) 6.0 or above

14

Browser Settings

IE Java Script enabled

Pop-up blocker disabled
Paste operations via script enabled
Proxy disabled
USB disabled

Other software

Net 2.0 Framework

Microsoft Office Excel 2003 or above

Personnel

Personnel of Company Partner:

The CP would provide adequately

trained Test Administrators (TAs) in every Test Centre. The TAs should
be the staff of the CP, temporary staffs are not acceptable. There will be
one TA for every 100 candidates and part thereof at a Test Centre. There
will be a minimum of two TAs in a Test Centre. The TAs will administer
the conduct of test and provide the technical support for maintaining the
servers used in the conduct of examination at a Test Center. The CP will
also ensure availability of at least one adequately trained Network
Maintenance Engineer at each Center. The CP would identify a senior
staff member of the Company as the Centre Head (CH) at each College
or ITF. The CH will be responsible for supervising the Technical
Personnel of the CP at all the Test Centers in the College or ITF. The CH
will be the contact person of the CP for the College Personnel and the
GATE/JAM Personnel to interact regarding the conduct of Online
Examination at the College or ITF.

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

senior staff member of the ITF will be identified as the Presiding Officer
(PO). A faculty member from the College or a staff member from the ITF
will be identified as the Deputy Presiding Officer (DPO) for each Test
Center. The PO and DPO for a Test Centre will be responsible for the
availability of facilities to assist the CP in conduct of the Online exam.
Invigilators (Proctors) of the exam will be from the faculty members of the
College or from the permanent staff members of the ITF. There will be
one invigilator for every 20 candidates and part thereof at a Test Center.
At a Test Centre with less than 20 registered candidates, there will be a
minimum of 2 Invigilators. The CP should train the Invigilators for
invigilating the Online Examination. There will be two Technical Staff from
the College or the ITF at each Test Center to assist the TAs from the CP.
The PO will be responsible for identifying the DPOs, Invigilators and
Technical Staff for all the Test Centers at the College or the ITF. The
honorarium for PO, DPOs, Invigilators and Technical Staff of the

15

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

Organizing Institutes for their respective years. The PO will also be
responsible for ensuring the availability of infrastructure for the
conduct of examination at all the Test Centers in the College or the
ITF.

GATE/JAM Personnel:

GATE/JAM would provide at least 2 Institute

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

at a Test Center will be monitored and overseen by the IRs. The IRs shall
carry the examination material to the respective centres, ensure that all
the arrangements as mentioned in the specifications are made for smooth
conduct of examinations, conduct a mock test with the help of CP/ITF
personnel on the day before the examination and verify the adequacy of
the arrangements, load the question paper into the server before the
examination, as and when required take decisions in consultation with the
PO regarding the timing of the examination, ensure that the responses
are properly uploaded and copied onto the pen drives and bring the
material safely back to the GATE/JAM zonal offices.

The IRs, PO and DPOs at the Test Centers in a College or an ITF will interact with
the CH for resolving any issues regarding the Technical Personnel of the CP and any
technical problems that may arise during the dry run and during the conduct of
examination at any of the Test Centers in the College or ITF.

Infrastructure
The CP would arrange for the servers necessary to conduct the
examination at each Test Center. One main server and one backup
server will be available for every 200 candidates and part thereof at a Test
Center.
The College or the ITF would arrange for the client systems necessary to
conduct the examination at each Test Center. One client system will be
available for every candidate registered at each Test Centre. There will be
a reserve pool of client systems. The number of systems in the reserve
pool will be at least 10% of total number of registered candidates in a
session at a Test Center. However, there will be a minimum of 10 client
systems in the reserve pool at a Test Center with less than 100
candidates in a session. The client system should have at least 1GB of
main memory. The LCD monitors are preferred over the CRT monitors.
There must be adequate spacing (of at least 2 ft.) between two adjacent
seats, in addition the CP must arrange for providing partitions of
appropriate size between the adjacent seats.

16

 The CP shall ensure that during the course of conducting the GATE/JAM
Online Examination, the systems engaged by the CP do not become nonfunctional due to any reason whatsoever. The College or the ITF would
also ensure the availability of a functional local area network and a power
backup generator so as to ensure the continuous access to the systems
made available to each candidate during the course of the Online
Examination. The main server, backup server and client systems at each
test centre would be provided with functional UPS. Uninterrupted power
should be made available for the period of each session and for 30
minutes prior to and after each session on the day of examination.

Test Delivery Test will be delivered over the intranet at a Test Centre. A
maximum of 250 client systems will be connected to a main server and a backup
server. The proposal submitted by the vendor should indicate the limits to which
the server has been tested in terms of number of client systems connected
simultaneously without loss of performance in the examination environment.

Distribution of Question Packs to the Test Centers The Online Examination

Software developed and used by the CP must support the following two modes of
loading the Question Packs (QPs): (i) Locally at the server via a CD or a pen
drive collected from IRs and (ii) Over the network from Master Control Room. In
the former mode, the authoring software must ensure that encrypted and
password protected content is generated which can be loaded onto a CD or a
pen drive. In the latter mode, the CP must ensure confidentiality and protection of
the QP content both at the Master Control Room as well as during transfer over a
network. The loading of a QP into the Online Examination Software on the
servers at a Test Centre must be password protected.

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

candidate identity verification, attendance recording and collection of undertaking
given by candidates will be carried out by Invigilators. Attendance sheets,
Instruction sheets and other relevant documents would be provided by IRs.
Invigilators should also ensure proper conduct of examination and ensure that
candidates use no unfair means.

Zero Loss of Data The CP will ensure that there is no loss of response related
data for any candidate or any other data related to the examination either from
the client systems or from the main and backup servers.

Generation of Event based Log(Audit Trail) The CP will ensure that the
event (click) based log (audit trail) for every candidate will be generated and
saved on the servers.The audit trail for every candidate would be provided at the
end of session in the format agreed upon. The CP would not keep/have any audit
trail data with them post handover.
17

Saving of Response- The CP will ensure that the click-based activity of every
candidate will be saved on servers. This means that the answer responses for
each question at that click time will be only saved/updated. The question clicks by
candidates without a response is also recorded in the database. The final
response data in a format specified by GATE/JAM should be uploaded to the
server in the Master Control Room and should also be copied in a pen drive
within 30 minutes of the completion of each session of examination. The pen
drive will be handed over to the IRs. The CP will not keep/have any response
data with them post handover.

Security - The computers administering the examinations shall be disconnected

from the Internet and any other network other than the one on which the
examinations is being conducted. No computers other than the client systems
used for the examination shall be on this network during the examination. The
computers shall be sanitized (during pre-examination preparations) by booting a
trusted image of the Operating System (OS) that the examination is to be
conducted on.

Monitoring - The server shall have the capability to start the examination for all
candidates, monitor the status of each candidate (whether logged in, examination
started, idle/active, disconnected, submitted, etc.), award additional time for
candidates based on the instruction of the IRs, and close the examination. The
server MUST maintain an audit trail of every operation on the server. All serverside audit trails are also the property of GATE/JAM and shall be handed over to
the IR at the end of the examination.

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

Master Control Rooms in the premises of GATE/JAM offices in multiple zones.
The activities at each Test Center will be monitored in the Master Control Facility.
At each Master Control Room, the CP should provide at least 2 technical
personnel who are well versed with the Online Examination Software. These
personnel will interact with the TAs in each of the Test Centers. A secure and
highly available server should be set up in each Master Control Room. At the end
of examination in a session, the candidate response data and audit trail data from
each of the Test Centers will be uploaded to the servers at the Master Control
Facility.

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

and audit trail will be captured and loaded into a physical storage medium such
as CDs or pen drives in the presence of IRs. The CDs or pen drives will be
handed over to the IRs. The data will also be uploaded to a server at the Master
Control Facility. After the confirmation of proper transfer of data to the server at
the Master Control Facility, the TAs in the presence of IRs will delete the
responses and audit trails in the hard disks of the main and backup servers, and
18

post which the CP will not be responsible for any data in the context of nonavailability of data.

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

prepared by the CP and submitted to GATE/JAM Committee for approval latest
by the 15th day of October 2015.

Mock Tests

The CP must make arrangements so that static mock tests can be conducted by
the interested applicants using old question papers loaded on the respective
zonal websites of GATE/JAM 2016 for each of the three years of the term as set
out herein. The question papers should be available to all the applicants well
before the actual examination so that the applicants can have practice sessions.

The CP must conduct mock tests a day before each exam day in addition to any
unscheduled mocks conducted prior to this. The CP also has to make
arrangements to upload the results of one of the mock tests conducted onto the
server so that the Organizing Institute can make observations of the results from
the Master Control Facility.

Conduct of Examination and Security of Examination Centers

White labeling of the service: The entire operations of the GATE/JAM
online examination will be under the Brand name of GATE/JAM, and its
designated logo. At no point of time and location will the identity of CP be
displayed in public domain.
The CP and the College or the ITF shall ensure that the Test Centres are
kept in examination-friendly environments with no disturbances from
external sources. The CP will also ensure the secrecy of the examination
material and will support GATE/JAM in maintaining the secrecy of the
examination material. Any decision by the GATE/JAM appointed Institute
Representatives (IRs) in this regard shall be final. The CP will also ensure
that the examination is held in a candidate-friendly environment and
enough security arrangements have been made to ensure the safety of
examination material and the people involved in the conduct of
examination.

Features to be Provided in Online Examination Test Software

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

demonstrated for the AE, GG and XE papers of GATE 2015 and BL paper of JAM 2015
which are available on the GATE/JAM websites of the zones (e.g. http://gate.iisc.ernet.in).
The Online Examination Test Software should include the following features:

A Standard Scientific Virtual Calculator should be available.

19

Keyboard should be disabled

Login using a virtual keypad

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

the candidate.

Display of instructions to candidates upon login and before start of examination. The
candidate must be able to retrieve instructions at any time during the examination as
well. The software must obtain concurrence of the candidate having read the
instructions before start of examination.

Start and closure of the examination at scheduled time (candidates must not be able
to start their examination even if they login before the scheduled time).

Display of remaining time available.

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

the examination.

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

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

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

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

Display of status of questions using different colours and symbols for all questions of
the paper.

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

Disabling of exit from test software for the period of examination, i.e., the candidate
cannot exit at any point of time during the entire duration of the test.

7. Time Frame:
A tentative schedule of the activities for GATE/JAM 2016 is given below. However,
there may be minor variations in the schedule.
Sl.no

Activity

Date

Responsibility

1.

Initiation of the project and 1st meeting

01-08-2015

2.

Tentative list of centers with no. of nodes

to GATE / JAM 2016
Auditing and Vetting of test centers

15-08-2015
15-08-2015
to
01-10-2015

GATE/ JAM 2016

Committee & CP

Final list of test centers for GATE / JAM

2016

02-10-2015

CP

3.

4.

GATE/ JAM 2016

Committee & CP
CP

20

5.

Submission of Standard Operating Manual

to GATE/JAM committee
Vetting and finalization of Standard
Operating Manual
Testing of vetted test centers as per SOM
(e.g. testing of examination software,
server capability, network security)

15-10-2015

CP

22-10-2015

GATE/ JAM 2016

Committee & CP
CP

8.

Tentative list of TAs, CHs, POs, DPOs

28-11-2015

CP

9.

Final list of TAs, CHs, POs, DPOs

5-12-2015

CP

10.

Setting-up of Servers for Master Control

Facility at GATE/JAM Zonal offices

15-12-2015
to
26-12-2015

CP

11.

Custody of exam centres and security

arrangements
Mock tests at all centres selected for
GATE/JAM 2016

25-01-2016

CP

23-01-2016
to
27-01-2016

CP

13.

Review Meeting

23-01-2016

14.

GATE/JAM 2016 Online Examinations

30-01-2016
to
13-02-2016

GATE/ JAM 2016

Committee & CP
GATE/ JAM 2016
Committee & CP

15.

Handing over of raw data to GATE/JAM

Committee
Handing over of final data and other
examination related documents

13-02-2016

CP

14-02-2016

CP

6.
7.

12.

16.

01-11-2015
to
15-11-2015

The tentative schedule for the activities of the GATE/JAM 2017 and GATE/JAM 2018 shall
be provided by the respective Organizing Institutes at appropriate times in 2016 and 2017
respectively.

21

Annexure - 1: Financial Information

Details furnished below are to be supported duly by figures in Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss
Account for the last 5 years as certified by the Chartered Accountant and submitted by the
bidder to the Income Tax Department
Details

2010-2011

2011-2012

2012-2013

2013-2014

2014-2015

1) Gross annual turnover

for works of similar
nature
2) Profit/Loss
3) Financial position

Cash

Current assets

Current liabilities

Working capital

Current Assets to
Liabilities Ratio

Documents to be attached along with the above statement:

Up-to-date Income Tax Clearance Certificate

Certificate of Financial soundness from the bankers of the Bidders

Financial Arrangements for carrying out the proposed work

Any other relevant documents

(Signature of Bidder)

22

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

Sr. no

Name of the work

Clients

Cost of work

Starting

Ending

Details of officer to

organization

(in Crores)

date

date

whom reference can

Remarks

be made

(Signature of bidder)

23

Annexure-3: Projects of similar nature currently under execution

Sr. no

Name of the work

Clients

Cost of work

Starting

organization

(in Crores)

date

Expected

Details of officer to

date of

whom reference can

completion

be made

Remarks

(Signature of bidder)

24

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

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

1. Name and location of project:

2. Agreement No.:
3. Estimated Cost
4. Tendered Cost:
5. Date of Start:
6. Date of Completion
a) Stipulated date:
b) Actual date:
7. Performance report by client:
a) Quality of Work: (Excellent/Very Good/Good/Fair/Poor)
b) Approach to problem solving: (Excellent/Very Good/Good/Fair/Poor)
c) Resourcefulness: (Excellent/Very Good/Good/Fair/Poor)

Date:

(Signature of the client with seal)

25

Annexure-5: Structure of the Organization

1. Name and address of bidder:
2. Telephone No./Fax No./Email address :
3. Legal status (Attach copies of original document defining the legal status).
a) An Individual/ Consortium:
b) A Proprietary/ Partnership agency:
c) A Trust:
d) A Limited Company or Corporation:
4. Particulars of Registration with various
Government bodies & Statutory Tax Authorities
(attach attested photocopy)
a. Registration Number:
b. Organization/Place of registration:
c. Date of validity:
5. Names and titles of Directors & Officers with
designation to be concerned with this work
with designation of individuals authorized to
act for the organization.
6. Were you or your company ever required to
suspend the work for a period of more
than six months continuously after you
commenced the works? If so, give the
name of the project and reasons for not
completing the work.
7. Have you or your constituent partner(s) ever
left the work awarded to you incomplete? If
so, give name of the project and reasons for
not completing the work.
8. Have you or your constituent partner(s) been
debarred/black listed for tendering in any
organization at any time? If so, give details.
9. Area of specialization and Interest
10 Any other information considered necessary
but not included above.

26

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

this work

Sr.
no

Designation

Total No. of
employees in
this category

Number
available
for this
project

Name

Qualification

Professional
experience

Capacity in
which the
employee
was
involved in
this work

(Signature of the bidder)

27

Annexure7:
Tentative List of Cities for GATE/JAM 2016

IISc Bengaluru Zone

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

IIT Bombay Zone

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

IIT Delhi Zone

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

IIT Kanpur Zone

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

IIT Kharagpur Zone

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

IIT Guwahati Zone

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

IIT Madras Zone

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

IIT Roorkee Zone

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

28

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