NEW DELHI: On 9 October technical bids provided by eligible bidders, will be examined for the Request for Proposal for a consultation agency to conduct a study on listenership, reach and effectiveness of community radio stations in India.

The Evaluation Committee meeting in this connection will be held at 11 am in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry office in Shastri Bhavan.

A total of eight parties had been shortlisted on 24 September for a consulting agency.

The list of bidders of RFP contains six from Delhi, and one each from Lucknow and Bhopal. They have been shortlisted after evaluation of eligibility bids.

The parties from Delhi are: IMRB International, IPSOS Research Pvt Ltd, Kadence International Pvt Ltd, NIELSEN, AFC India Ltd, and Sigma Research and Consulting Pvt Ltd.

The other shortlisted applicants are Indian Institute of Development from Bhopal and AMS from Lucknow.

The purpose of the RFP is to select a Consulting Agency to conduct a study by way of tangible and intangible, direct or indirect benefits to the community in India.

Through this study, the Ministry seeks to assess community radio stations in terms of their listenership, reach and access among the communities they seek to serve and the extent to which they broadcast programmes relevant to the educational, developmental, social and cultural needs of the community. Of special interest to MIB is to understand the effectiveness of community radio in providing tangible or intangible, direct or indirect benefits to the community.

The announcement for bids was on 13 July, and there was a pre-bid conference on25 July. The issuance of the final RFP was 1 August and the last date for submission of bids was 29 August, with the eligible bids being opened the same day.

The contract will be awarded on 30 September and the work has to be done within 120 days. The final presentation will be on 31 January next year and the government will announce its acceptance or otherwise on 27 February.

The Government in December 2002 approved a policy to allow community radio stations to well-established educational institutions. The guidelines was amended in 2006 to include Not-for-profit organisations under its ambit in order to allow greater participation by the civil society on issues relating to development and social change.

Currently there are 170 functional CRS and another 250 in the pipeline going through different stages of the licensing process.