RFQ - for IT Infrastructure

Request for Quotation (RfQ) for IT Infrastructure

Issue Date: September 01, 2026, Tuesday

Response Deadline: September 04, 2026, Friday

FHI 360 is a US-based not-for-profit organization with extensive experience implementing research, technical assistance, and evidence-based programmes globally, including across the Asia-Pacific region. FHI 360 implements the Meeting Targets and Maintaining Epidemic Control (EpiC) project, a global initiative focused on supporting governments, civil society, private sector partners, and other stakeholders to strengthen and scale innovative, evidence-based HIV services. In India, the EpiC project supports national and state-level efforts to enhance youth engagement, private sector participation, and digital and AI-driven innovations, with a focus on strengthening HIV programme outcomes in priority geographies. EpiC project is requesting quotes from qualified suppliers for procurement of dedicated, on-premises server with mentioned detailed specifications. S.N. Item Key Specifications Qty Required Unit Cost (in INR) 1 Server Processor (CPU) - AMD EPYC 9354P (32-core) or Intel Xeon Silver 4514Y, high core count for parallel record blocking and pairwise comparison across million-record datasets Memory (RAM) - 256 GB DDR5 ECC — enables in-memory blocking/similarity scoring and local model loading without disk swapping GPU- NVIDIA RTX A4000 / A5000 (20–24 GB VRAM) —sufficient for local embedding/NLP-based matching models (inference only, not training-grade) Primary Storage - 2 × 2 TB NVMe SSD in RAID 1 — fast read/write for active de-dup passes with redundancy Archival Storage - 1 × 8 TB Enterprise SSD/HDD — backups and long-term archival of record sets Data Encryption - Self-encrypting drives (SED) or LUKS/BitLocker full-disk encryption — mandatory given PHI sensitivity Networking Dual NIC - one interface for isolated local processing; second interface firewalled and whitelisted to NIC endpoint only, scheduled outbound-only (push) sync, no inbound rules Power Supply- Redundant (dual) PSU for uptime reliability Form Factor- 2U rackmount (server room deployment) or tower workstation, depending on site and; Operating System - Linux (Ubuntu Server LTS) or Windows Server, with hardened access controls. 1

Quotation to Include:

• Please send your quote in INR.The quote should include unit cost for each item along with the total cost for the item.
• Specify applicable cost of packaging, shipment, insurance, and taxes (as applicable)
• For shipment charges specify mode of shipment (air, ship, others) and consider delivery to MSACS, including local freight charges as applicable.
• The brand and detailed specification of the items is preferred
• Expected time of delivery from the date of issuance of the Purchase Order
• All quotations to be dated, signed, and stamped.
• Validity of quotation should be a minimum of 90 days.
• Warranty (as applicable)
• Payment Terms

The following documents should be submitted along with the quotation:

• A copy of PAN/VAT/GST registration certificate
• A copy of Company registration certificate
• Company Profile
• Authorized distributorship certificate
• Specification of item/s to be supplied

SHIPMENT REQUIREMENTS

Delivery to:

Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society (MSACS) AckWorth Leprosy Compound Hospital R. A. Kidwai Marg Wadala (West) Mumbai- 400031 RESPONSE DEADLINE & FORMAT

• Responses to this RFQ should be submitted by email to: procurement.india@fhi360.org
• Responses must be received no later than 4 September, 2026 or sooner.
• For queries, please contact procurement.india@fhi360.org latest by September 3, 2026. No phone calls will be entertained.

EVALUATION Evaluation will be based on unit and overall cost and delivery time. Award may be made to the offeror submitting the RFQ that meets the minimum specification set for in this RFQ. CONTRACT MECHANISM FHI 360 expects to award a fixed-price purchase order to the responsive vendor whose quote best meets the evaluation criteria described herein. RESERVED RIGHTS All RFQ responses become the property of FHI 360, who reserves the right in its sole discretion to:

• Disqualify any offer based on offeror failure to follow solicitation instructions.
• FHI 360 reserves the right to waive any deviations by offerors from the requirements of this solicitation that in FHI 360's opinion are considered not to be material defects requiring rejection or disqualification; or where such a waiver will promote increased competition.
• Extend the time for submission of all RFQ responses after notification to all offerors.
• Terminate or modify the RFQ process at any time and re-issue the RFQ to whomever FHI 360 deems appropriate.
• FHI 360 reserves the right to issue an award based on the initial evaluation of offers without discussion.
• Award only part of the activities in the solicitation or issue multiple awards based on solicitation activities.
• FHI 360 will not compensate vendors for preparation of their response to this RFQ.
• Issuing this RFQ is not a guarantee that FHI 360 will award a purchase order.
• FHI 360 may choose to award a purchase order to more than one vendor for specific parts of the activities in the RFQ.

Key Requirements:

• Sufficient memory and compute to run in-memory blocking and similarity scoring without performance degradation
• GPU-accelerated inference for semantic/fuzzy matching models
• Full-disk encryption and hardened access controls, given the sensitivity of HIV-related personal health information (PHI)
• Scheduled, one-way (outbound) data push to the NIC portal, restricted via firewall whitelisting to the SOCH endpoint only — no inbound access permitted
• Audit logging of all data transmissions for compliance and reporting purposes

Network & Security Architecture The server operates on adual-interface network design. The primary interface remains isolated and is used exclusively for local data processing and deduplication it is not exposed to any external network. The secondary interface is firewalled and whitelisted tocommunicatesolelywiththe existing NIC portalendpoint,onascheduledbasis(e.g., nightly), pushing deduplicated records outbound only. No inbound connections are permitted on this interface, minimizing the attack surface while still satisfying SOCH registration and reporting requirements. Recommendation: Confirm NIC's prescribed transmission protocol, TLS version, and any certificate-based authentication or VPN requirements with their technical team prior to final procurement, as this may affect the networking hardware (e.g., a hardware VPN appliance).

Organisation: FHI 360

Listed on the SAMS-STC social-sector RFP board.