The ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) is reopening the empanelment process for technology partners specializing in artificial intelligence and machine learning projects. According to reports from The Times of India, the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) has issued a fresh tender to bring more companies onto an existing panel created for AI/ML manpower augmentation and AI-driven project delivery under the Digital India programme. The exercise will add to the existing panel rather than replace it, with new entrants required to accept the rate card established during the earlier empanelment process. The latest round aims to create a larger pool of agencies that central and state government bodies, ministries, departments, and public sector undertakings can use for AI-related manpower and project requirements, designed to avoid fresh procurement processes for every individual requirement.
The first round of empanelment resulted in six companies being selected to work on government AI projects. As reported by The Times of India, these companies include Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), NEC Corporation India and Kyndryl Solutions among the major players. The other three firms selected were Cactus Technology Solutions, CoRover and Innefu Labs. The original empanelment followed an evaluation of 80 bidders, with the first panel created by NeGD, the Digital India programme implementation arm under MeitY. The agencies were selected to address requirements spanning citizen services, analytics, process optimisation and automation across government organisations. The latest round aims to expand this vendor base rather than undertake fresh price discovery, with companies joining required to accept the rate card established during the earlier empanelment process.
According to The Times of India, NeGD published the reopened Request for Empanelment on August 10, with bid submissions scheduled to close on September 7. The bids are expected to be opened on September 8. The empanelled companies can be deployed for AI and machine learning professionals and execution of AI-led projects across government departments and Digital India initiatives. Agencies empanelled through the new process will remain on the panel until April 21, 2028, and will be governed by the same service-level agreements, performance bank guarantee requirements and contractual terms as the existing agencies. The government has specified that the approved rates cannot be increased or renegotiated, making the existing L1 rate card applicable to new entrants.
The proposal submission deadline is September 7, with technical bids to open the next day. As reported by The Times of India, agencies must score at least 75 out of 100 in the technical evaluation before proceeding to the final stage. The framework is intended to give ministries, departments, states and public sector undertakings easier access to specialised AI talent without having to conduct a fresh procurement for every requirement. Engagements can involve manpower augmentation, AI project team delivery or turnkey AI projects, with roles covering AI architects and programme managers to data scientists, AI/ML engineers, data engineers, MLOps professionals and AI quality-assurance engineers. This allows government bodies to source both individual technical capabilities and larger teams through the panel, with the government's procurement framework supporting AI deployments across government functions.
The first-round commercial bids showed a range of quoted prices among the selected agencies. As reported by The Times of India, Innefu Labs had submitted the lowest bid at ₹40.67 lakh, followed by TCS at ₹42.89 lakh and NEC Corporation India at ₹48.98 lakh. Cactus Technology, Kyndryl and CoRover had quoted ₹52.74 lakh, ₹55.70 lakh and ₹69 lakh, respectively. In July, Cactus Technology won a government contract to build an AI-powered platform aimed at helping departments draft, review and validate procurement documents, demonstrating continued government expansion of AI for administrative functions. The reopening comes as government agencies continue to expand the use of AI for administrative and citizen-facing functions, with the framework designed to support AI deployments across central ministries, departments, state governments and public sector entities.
