Data Management System and Field Data Collection Mobile Application for Animal Birth Control (ABC) Programme and Animal Rescue

Submission deadline May 15, 2022

HCL Foundation invites proposals from organizations for partnering to develop a ‘Data Management System and field data collection mobile application for Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme and Animal rescue’ for FY 2022-23, under its flagship programme HCL Harit.

ABOUT HCL FOUNDATION

HCL Foundation (HCLF) was established in 2011 as the CSR arm of HCL Technologies. It is a not for-profitorganization, that strives to contribute towards national and international development goals, bringing about lasting positive impact in the lives of people, through long term sustainable programmes. The foundation aims to alleviate poverty and achieve inclusive growth and development.

Active community engagement ensures optimal long-term gains and upward accountability. HCL Foundation works through Life Cycle Based, Integrated Community Development Approach with thematic focus on Education, Health, Skill Development & Livelihood, Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction & Response. Child protective strategies, inclusion and gender transformative approaches remain central in all initiatives of HCL Foundation, thus ensuring comprehensive development.

Presently HCL Foundation is implementing five flagship programmes, namely HCL Samuday & HCL Grant – Rural Development programmes; HCL Uday & Clean Noida – Urban Development programmes; HCL Harit (The Green Initiative) – Environment Action programme and 4 special initiatives – Power of One, Sports for Change, HCL Foundation Academy and My E-Haat.

VISION

To be the source code for sustainable socio-economic and environmental development.

MISSION

Nurture clean, green and healthy communities where everyone is empowered and equipped to reach their full potential in partnership with its employees, communities and stakeholders, while promoting volunteerism and establishing international standards of strategic planning, implementation and measuring impact.

HCL Harit

HCL Foundation launched HCL Harit – The Green Initiative a distinct flagship programme for Environment Action; with the vision ‘to conserve, restore and enhance indigenous environmental systems and respond to climate change in a sustainable manner through community engagement’. Throughout the process, HCL Harit ensures at building scalable and replicable models that are economically viable, socially acceptable, environmentally sustainable, holistic and inclusive. All these interventions follow ‘Participatory and Convergent Approach’ in attaining the desired results towards UN SDG goals aligned to the National Indicator Framework for SDG. Operational in nine States – Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Harit is building sustainable and inclusive models towards:

• A flourishing biodiversity, green cover and building climate resilience through afforestation;
• An abundance of water resources through rejuvenating vanishing waterbodies;
• A thriving coastal and marine habitats by on and off shore cleaning initiatives;
• A better life for animals by improving human animal relationships and addressing animal welfare inside community areas;
• Cleaner air through reducing and neutralizing CO2 emissions;
• Protecting and preserving the environment through education, community stewardship and participation.

From the inception of HCL Harit Programme in 2020, till March 31, 2022, more than 530,000 saplings have been planted, over 280 acres of land is under afforestation, 80 waterbodies rejuvenated, 85 compost pits constructed, around 8000 people have been reached through Environment Education, over 46,000 animals treated and 4 km of coastal stretch preserved.

Request for Proposals

Proposals are invited from agencies to partner on developing monitoring mechanisms for animal welfare projects undertaken by HCL Foundation, under its flagship programme HCL Harit in the locations mentioned above.

HCL Harit, under its Animal Welfare sector, plans to improve and sustain a positive human-animal relationship while focusing on both short term (stress reduction) and long term (stress resilience) efforts directed towards animals.

The purpose of this document is to request for proposals to improve monitoring mechanism of projects that are lined with the Animal Welfare sector strategy. Respondents are requested to submit their proposals on the basis of detailed instructions given below to set up high impact projects under the HCL Harit Programme in the proposed locations using innovative and sustainable models.

Scope of work

HCL Harit aims at building scalable and replicable models that are economically viable, socially acceptable, environmentally sustainable, holistic and inclusive. All these interventions follow ‘Participatory and Convergent Approach’ in attaining the desired results towards International and National Developmental Goals and are aligned with the India’s National Indicator Framework for SDGs. As indicated above, currently operational across 6 sectors, the overall aspiration of HCL Harit is towards the larger socio-environmental good; with special emphasis to mitigate climate change impact and to enhance native biodiversity, restore ecosystem services and improve human-nature co-existence.

The proposed scope of work, but not limited to, is as below:

Development of a Data Management System and field data collection mobile application for Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme and Animal rescue:

Harit programme under its Animal Welfare sector is partnering with various implementing agencies and Not for Profit organizations (NPO’s) to carry out Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme for street dogs and also rescues, treats and releases distressed animals. With respect to ABC, the partners are responsible for estimating baseline on dog population in target area, capturing dogs, sterilizing them, inoculating the sterilized dogs with Anti rabies vaccine, providing post-operative care and then finally releasing them back at the site of capture. The teams maintain hardcopy logs and also as a means of marking, notch the ear of Harit programme under its Animal Welfare sector is partnering with various implementing agencies and Not for Profit organizations (NPO’s) to carry out Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme for street dogs and also rescues, treats and releases distressed animals. With respect to ABC, the partners are responsible for estimating baseline on dog population in target area, capturing dogs, sterilizing them, inoculating the sterilized dogs with Anti rabies vaccine, providing post-operative care and then finally releasing them back at the site of capture. The teams maintain hardcopy logs and also as a means of marking, notch the ear of As technology leverage, HCLF is looking forward to collaborating with agencies that develop customized Data Management System and field data collection mobile application for Animal Birth Control (ABC) programme and Animal rescue. Below are the basic component requirements for the same which will be further detailed later.

a. Data variables such as GPS location, photographs, size, color, etc. for each and every animal that forms the beneficiary of the HCLF supported project.

b. Unique code for each entry and once the dog/animal recovers from the surgery and is released back, the case is closed.

c. In addition, a web portal for the data visualization (in the form of both spatial and temporal dashboards) and management should be also developed where all this information is stored and can be accessed.

d. The access to this data can be regulated based on permissions such as admin, user, viewer, etc. Each user has to create a unique account linked to their mobile number/email ID and once the same is made, the user will receive the link to install the application and starts with data entry. The user also based on the role and permission can have access to the web portal to visualize, generate reports, update and download raw data or a compiled PDF report.

e. An additional requirement to prevent data duplicity is for the application of Artificial Intelligence algorithm that can recognize each individual dog from the database (within a certain level of confidence) and raise an error in case the data is duplicated. This could be either through facial recognition or image recognition, however, the level of confidence in correctly identifying the individual unique dog.

f. As the model is trained with more test data and real time data, the system should also evolve and become more robust. While initial test and real-time data may come from only one or two locations (1-2) the system should be fully capable for scalability to include other locations as well.

g. The agency need to submit required risk and vulnerability audits before finalization of the system and application.

Preference will be given to agencies who have prior experience especially on the AI based facial/image recognition technologies. The agency should also be able to deliver quantifiable and clearly identified outputs periodically which will be mutually decided along with the technical team. The detailed parameters to be included in the data collection and web portal will be shared with the shortlisted team after finalization of the contract.

Submission Details & Deadlines

Reputed agencies may submit proposals as per their strength and area of expertise.

All proposals must be submitted with a short narrative indicating the objectives, features, etc; detailed breakup of budgets; and clearly defined milestones along with set of deliverables. There should also be technical details of the coding language that will be used, servers used, platform used and most importantly the mechanism of risks and vulnerability testing and proofing. Please send in your submissions with Subject Line in the given format: HCLF/ Harit/RfP/AnimalWelfare/Appdevt/25042022/<Name of Agency> latest by May 15, 2022 to abhishek.narayanan@hcl.com, marking ravikumar.sharma@hcl.com in cc.

Terms & Conditions

Duration of the project: Duration of the project from issuance of contract to final delivery with all the level of testing and vulnerability check should be within six months.

Deadline: Proposals received after the designated deadline may be subject to rejection by HCL Foundation.

Validity: Your proposal must remain valid for a minimum of three (3) months from the date of receipt by HCL Foundation.

Negotiations: The most competitive proposal is requested. It is anticipated that the partnership will made on the basis of merit of proposal. However, HCL Foundation reserves the right to request responses to questions and conduct negotiations with any potential organizationa prior to finalizing the partnership.

Rejection of proposal: This document is a request for proposals only, and in no way binds HCL Foundation to make an award. HCL Foundation reserves the right to reject any and all offers received and/or to cancel the RFP. HCL Foundation will not be obliged to either inform or provide a justification for rejection of proposals.

Incurring costs: HCL Foundation will not be liable for any cost incurred during preparation, submission, or negotiation of an award for this RFP.

Financial responsibility: Proposals must certify the financial viability and adequacy of resources of the agency/organization to complete the proposed assignment within the agreed time frame and in conformity with the agreed terms of payment.

Branding aligned: HCL Foundation has set brand guidelines that should be incorporated and followed while demonstrating the Foundation’s brand.

Copyright and Patents: HCL Foundation shall be entitled to all copyrights, patents and other proprietary rights and trademarks with regard to the products or documents and other materials which bear a direct relation to or are produced or prepared or collected in consequences of or in the course of the execution of the contract. All plans, reports, recommendations, estimates, documents and data compiled by the service providers under the contract shall be the property of HCL Foundation and shall be treated as confidential. All confidential documents should be delivered to the relevant people within HCL Foundation during the project duration and upon completion.