Bidder Qualification and the Persistence of Non-Responsive Bids

Long before a price envelope is opened, an Indian public tender has already decided who is allowed to compete. This report examines the qualification and responsiveness gate as the rules construct it — the parameters the Manual for Procurement of Works, Second Edition 2025 permits, the thresholds a 2002 CVC circular still supplies, and the tests separating a fatal deviation from a curable one — and sets that against what audit finds in practice, where the same gate proves both too narrow to admit competition and too porous to exclude the unqualified.

Part of AECS Research Global's publications programme — drawing on ARG's work across cost management, EPC advisory and integrated project delivery. Download the full report below.