A Notice Inviting Tender (NIT) is dense, formulaic, and full of eligibility landmines. Skim the wrong sections and you waste 40 hours preparing a bid you were never eligible for. Here is the fast triage.
The 6 sections you MUST read first
- Section 1: Tender at a glance — dates, EMD, tender fee, contact person
- Section 2: Eligibility criteria — go / no-go for you
- Section 3: Scope of supply — is this actually your product?
- Section 4: Technical specifications — can you meet these exactly?
- Section 5: Financial bid format — is the price schedule sane?
- Section 6: Evaluation methodology — L1 pure, QCBS, or two-envelope?
Red flags — walk away
- "Only OEMs with 5+ years of supply to Delhi NCR govt hospitals" — restrictive clause, likely single-vendor-tailored
- Turnover requirement > 5x tender value — designed to eliminate SMBs
- Delivery timeline < 15 days for imported goods — impossible to comply legitimately
- Payment terms > 180 days without escalation clause — cash-flow killer
- Penalty clauses > 10% per week — over-punitive
- "Specifications may be modified at buyer's discretion post-award" — bait-and-switch risk
Yellow flags — proceed with clarification
- Pre-bid meeting scheduled — attend and ask about ambiguous specs
- Corrigendum window still open — wait for corrigendum before finalising bid
- Foreign OEM authorisation required — get letter well in advance
- Sample submission needed — factor 2-3 weeks lead time
The financial bid format — the biggest disqualification trap
AIIMS + most central buyers use Excel templates for the price schedule. Change ANY column, add a note, merge a cell — bid rejected. Never modify the format. If you need to add a caveat, put it in a covering letter, not on the price schedule.