After the successful rollout of e-governance which has brought various public services to the computer terminals of the citizens, the next big plan of the government is to step up the mobile governance.
 
The Mobile Seva Project, the single Mobile Service Delivery Gateway (MSDG) through which the citizen services will be provided to the citizens through SMS, IVRS or mobile applications installed on the mobile phones, is all set to be scaled up in terms of infrastructure and technology to provide such services to the people.
 
As a first step to achieve this aim, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) has prepared a draft request for proposal (RFP) for selecting the technology partner for the national rollout of the Mobile Seva Project.
 
Initially, in the phase one of MSDG rollout, Points of Contact (PoCs) were created by DeitY to provide the services to the people. However, in the next phase, the services will be provided to the citizens’ mobile phones in a nationwide rollout.
 
Thus, the RFP has been prepared to find an agency which will provide technical expertise and support to CDAC to develop and enhance the existing Mobile Seva Platform (which was also developed by CDAC). It will help in scaling the platform in such a way that it will be able to handle the load from all over India.
 
The agency will also have to provide technical support and know-how in integration of the platform with the various telecom operators. The contract will be for a period of three years.
 
The draft RFP has been prepared in consultation with the industry and has been put up on

. Various stakeholders can review this draft and provide their suggestions and feedback so that a precise RFP can finally be floated by DeitY. The comments can be sent to [email protected]
 
The comments and suggestions for the RFP will be taken till March 10 after which the relevant suggestions will be incorporated in the RFP. The pre-bid conference for this RFP will be held in Delhi or Mumbai on a date which is yet to be announced where further queries and suggestions from potential bidders will be taken before finally the RFP will be floated to the bidders.