Custom software that ships daily updates — not yearly change requests. Without NIC's rigidity. Without TCS / Wipro / Infosys vendor lock-in. Open-source delivery, on-premise hosting, AI-augmented agile development. India 2026.
The actual situation
PSU CIOs, departmental heads, and procurement officers tell us the same story. NIC delivers what's standard — and only what's standard. Big private vendors lock you in for years and charge for every breath of change. The 70% of your real requirement that lives between "standard" and "exorbitantly customised" never gets built.
Why we fit where neither NIC nor big vendors do
An officer wants the leave-application form to add a "purpose: medical-second-opinion" dropdown. We ship it tomorrow. Not next quarter, not in CR-2024-187, not after vendor PMO clearance.
No account manager between you and the code. Direct WhatsApp / video / on-site visit to the actual engineer building your module. Faster fixes, zero translation loss, no escalation chain.
Delivered under MIT or Apache open-source licence with full git history, CI configs, deployment scripts, and architecture documentation. You can hire any other vendor tomorrow to maintain it. No exit cost.
We use latest LLMs (Claude, GPT-4, Llama) inside our development workflow to draft, review, and refactor code at 3–5× human-only speed. Result: weeks-not-months delivery, lower cost, more thoroughly tested.
On-premise data centre · NIC cloud · MeghRaj · STQC-empanelled provider · your private VLAN · or our managed VPS. Source code + data never leave your control. Crucial for sensitive ministries.
No 12-person account team to feed. Kashvi (Partner) is your direct contact. Engineering team is small, senior, and Indian. Result: 40–70% below TCS / Wipro / SAP for equivalent custom builds.
Most vendors hand you a quotation and disappear into the build. We do the opposite — we draft your noting, cite the right GFR/DFPR rules, prepare 30+ pre-canned responses to FA objections, and provide the audit-ready file structure. Your file clears in days, not months. See how →
What we'll build for you
Not a packaged "government suite". We start from your specific Standard Operating Procedures, your specific approval matrix, your specific HR/Finance manual, and build only what you need. Add modules later as departments mature.
Without forced Aadhaar (your CISO chooses). RFID, biometric, face, GPS, manual web-punch — any combination per department. Multi-shift, OT, comp-off, leave-on-OT.
EL · CL · ML · Paternity · Sabbatical · Study Leave · Vigilance Leave · Hospitalisation. Multi-level approval matrices that follow YOUR delegation chart. Historical balance carry-forward from legacy systems.
7th CPC scales · DA bands · NPS / OPS · GPF / CGEGIS · Group Insurance · LTC / HRA / TA tracking · custom allowance heads. Statutory: TDS · PT · Income tax. Bank-file generation in NEFT/RTGS format your treasury accepts.
Replace paper noting + dak-flow with custom digital file movement. Your specific routing rules, your specific seal-and-signature workflow, custom escalation timers. Mobile-first for travelling officers.
Vehicle master with RC/FC/PUC alerts. Driver-allocation. Trip log. Per-vehicle fuel allowance. Maintenance schedule. Cost allocation to cost-centres / departments / projects.
Mobile bill submission (photo of paper bill → OCR → auto-categorisation). Multi-level sanction. Treasury integration for actual disbursement. Audit-ready trail for CAG inspection.
Service application portals (licence renewal, certificate issuance, grievance, RTI), GIGW-compliant accessibility, multi-language (Hindi + 12 regional), mobile-first, integrates with Aadhaar e-KYC / DigiLocker / Bharat e-Sign on YOUR terms.
For Secretary / Director-General / Project Officer. Real-time KPIs from your data. Daily SMS / WhatsApp digest. Custom reports for parliamentary questions, RTI replies, audit responses.
CVC vigilance dashboards · CAG audit trail · RTI receipt + tracking · Lokpal compliance · grievance redressal (CPGRAMS-compatible) · vigilance/inspection register.
Hosting flexibility
We adapt to your IT policy. No lock-in to AWS, no forced Indian data centre that isn't yours. We've deployed on five different infrastructure types depending on the sensitivity, the budget, and the existing IT estate.
Source code + data never leave your physical infrastructure. We deploy and hand over admin. Suitable for defence, intelligence, sensitive financial.
India-government cloud. We onboard our app to your existing tenancy. Standard for most central / state ministries.
Cyfuture · Sify · Tata Communications · Yotta — Indian data residency, MeitY-approved. We deploy + manage on your account.
Web tier on government cloud, DB tier on your DC, all over your private network. We design + run the bridge.
Compliance & standards
Our codebase is built against Indian government IT standards. Not an afterthought. Not a foreign product retrofitted with "Indian customisation".
How we engage
Honest disclosure: GeM seller registration is in progress; Udyam (MSME) registration is in progress. Until those clear, here are the seven legitimate procurement routes Indian government departments and PSUs use to engage vendors like us. Most are how every successful new vendor enters the government IT supply chain. None of them bend rules — they're routes the GFR explicitly contemplates.
Project size: ₹25,000 – ₹2,50,000
Your department invites quotations from any three vendors — no GeM listing required. L1 (lowest qualified) wins. Perfect for a single-module pilot (e.g. attendance for one department, custom MIS for one project). Builds the reference for larger work.
Best when: You want to test our delivery on a small piece before committing to a department-wide build.
Project size: any · approval: Director / Secretary-level
Direct nomination based on written justification. Used when one vendor demonstrates a unique fit (e.g. "non-Aadhaar attendance with on-prem deployment — no GeM-listed vendor offers matching architecture"). Standard route for specialised / urgent work.
Best when: Your requirement is non-standard (most PSU custom requirements are) and you can document the justification.
Project size: any
The most common path for new vendors. A GeM-listed prime contractor (mid-size IT consultancy or systems integrator) wins the tender on GeM. We deliver the actual work as their named sub-contractor. They handle the procurement-side compliance; we handle the build. Standard sub-contractor agreement protects everyone.
Best when: Your tender mandates GeM but you want our team building. We have prime partners who do exactly this.
Project size: any · routes via own bye-laws
Autonomous bodies (ICAR institutes, IIT incubators, state innovation councils, KVKs, NABARD-promoted societies, district cooperative banks) have their own procurement bye-laws — often more flexible than central GFR. Many directly contract with any registered Indian Pvt Ltd.
Best when: You're an autonomous body / society / federation governed by your own rules rather than central GFR.
Project size: typically ₹5L – ₹50L
Central + state innovation budgets — MeitY NIF, Atal Innovation Mission, BIRAC, DST, state startup-mission grants. Designed explicitly to engage small / new vendors. Lighter procurement, faster cycle, often direct-contract.
Best when: You have an innovation / digitisation initiative under your ministry / department's R&D head.
Project size: any · per-state rules
Most state IT secretariats run their own empanelment — KEONICS (KA), ITE&C (TS), MahaIT (MH), ELCOT (TN), KSITM (KL), CDAC (multi-state), etc. Lower bar than GeM. We are pursuing 3 state empanelments in parallel.
Best when: You're a state-level department / corporation procuring under your state IT secretariat's vendor list.
Project size: starts under ₹2.5 lakh
Start with a small pilot under Rule 155 (three quotations). Once we've proven delivery on the pilot, your subsequent department-wide procurement has a credible justification for nominating us under Rule 161 — or we can be a documented technical reference in your open-tender process.
Best when: You want to verify delivery before committing to a larger contract — which is the wise move with any new vendor.
We are actively completing the registrations that streamline future procurement:
For tenders that require GeM, we currently engage as a sub-contractor (Route 3 above) until our direct seller listing activates.
Want a one-page memo on which route fits your specific procurement situation? WhatsApp Kashvi with your department type + intended project size; you'll get a tailored route recommendation within 24 hours.
Procurement concierge · USP
Most vendors disappear when you say "GFR procurement". We do the opposite. From the moment you engage us, our team behaves like a shadow Section Officer — drafting quotations, preparing the noting, citing the right rule numbers, pre-preparing responses to every objection your Financial Advisor or Competent Authority might raise. Your procurement file becomes audit-ready and clearance-ready in days, not months. This is the single biggest reason small-but-good IT initiatives die in government — and the single biggest gap we close.
We study your specific DFPR (or PSU SoD), your departmental procurement manual, and 2–3 of your past similar-scale procurement files (if you can share). We then tell you the optimal route, the approval level needed, the rules to cite, the typical bottlenecks at your FA wing, and the realistic clearance timeline. Free deliverable: 1-page Procurement Route Recommendation.
We draft our quotation in three formats — single-line summary, detailed line-item, GeM-bid-compatible — so you can put whichever your file needs into the procurement folder. For GFR Rule 155 (three quotations), we help you ensure the other two quotations are genuine and comparable — no fake-quote shortcuts. We have peer-vendor relationships that result in clean, comparable quotations from real competing firms.
We provide draft noting paragraphs in your standard noting-sheet format, ready for the Section Officer to type into the file. Each paragraph cites the relevant GFR / DFPR / departmental procurement-manual rule with proper notation (e.g. "Sanction is hereby accorded under GFR Rule 155 read with Para 8.3 of the Departmental Procurement Manual…"). Your noting reads like it was drafted by a 25-year veteran SO.
Before you send the file to your Financial Advisor, you receive our FA Objection Pre-Response Kit: 30+ common objections (cost reasonableness, single-vendor justification, IPR transfer, scope creep, hosting, exit terms, comparison with NIC option, MSME/GeM preference, etc.) with clause-cited responses ready to drop into the file. When the FA raises any of these, you have the answer in 10 minutes — not 10 days. Read the field guide to the 8 most common FA objections →
If the file goes up for additional clearance — JS / AS / Secretary — we pre-prepare the briefing note for that level. Cost-benefit summary, comparison matrix, risk-mitigation table, exit clause, what-if-vendor-fails analysis. The CA reads two pages and signs. Your meeting with them takes 15 minutes, not three follow-up rounds over six weeks.
We hand you the 12-element procurement file template indexed against CVC vigilance checklist + CAG audit standard. Every email, every quote, every justification, every approval, every UAT sign-off, every payment sanction — indexed in the order that audits expect. When the inspection happens (and it will), the file closes in one sitting.
Most government IT initiatives die not because the technology is hard — they die because the procurement file gets stuck at the FA's desk for three months and the officer transfers in the meantime. By taking the procurement burden off you, we shorten the time-to-shipped-software dramatically. This service is included free with any of our engagements — Pilot Module, Department-wide Build, or Enterprise. We earn it back through the build contract; you save 8-16 weeks of file-processing time and avoid the typical "officer transferred before sanction" failure mode.
Important note on propriety: every clause, citation, justification, and noting we draft is provided as subject-matter input from an external technical expert — exactly like a chartered accountant drafts your tax filings or a lawyer drafts your contracts. The Section Officer types it into the file under their own signature. The file stays in your department, in your officer's name, with your approving authority's signature. We are an external resource consulted by the file, not a co-author of it. CVC has consistently held that vendor-provided technical inputs to procurement files are appropriate when fully disclosed and when the procurement decision rests with the competent authority — which it always does.
Open RFP-builder tool
No pricing matrix on this page — every government engagement is negotiated on actual scope. Use this tool to assemble a structured RFP requirements document tailored to your department. Download it, share it internally, float it as your own tender — or send it to us for a quotation. Either path is valid.
Real scenarios (anonymised)
A defence-research PSU did not want their scientists' attendance data on the open Aadhaar-bridge network — for valid security reasons. NIC eHRMS forced it. They couldn't deploy. We built a custom RFID + face-recognition attendance module hosted entirely on their on-premise DC, integrated with their existing biometric devices and their HR data, in 9 weeks. Zero data leaves the premises. Cost: ₹14 lakh build + ₹3 lakh/year hosting on their own server.
A state department's e-office workflow needed restructuring four times in 18 months — each new Secretary wanted file routing reorganised. The big vendor quoted ₹6 lakh per Change Request × 4 = ₹24 lakh + 4 months × 4 = 16 months delay. We built it on a configurable rules engine: each new Secretary now reconfigures the workflow themselves through a UI in ~30 minutes. Build cost: ₹22 lakh. Cumulative CR savings to date: ~₹38 lakh.
A central PSU's HR / payroll vendor (a top-3 Indian IT firm) had been paid ₹4.2 crore over 5 years and the system still couldn't handle their custom OT structure for shift-based plant operators. They withheld payment. Vendor stopped support. They came to us. We rebuilt the entire HR + payroll + shift OT in 16 weeks for ₹38 lakh. Open-source delivery. 5-year saved TCO: ~₹2.6 crore.
FAQ
Book a 30-min discovery call · We sign NDA before any specific discussion · Indicative quote within 5 working days · Pilot module in 6 weeks if you want proof first
Read next — government IT deep-dives
Field guide to cost reasonableness, single-vendor justification, IPR, scope creep, hosting, exit terms, NIC comparison, MSME/GeM preference. New.
GFR Rule 155, Rule 161, sub-K, autonomous-body, innovation budget — all the routes the GFR actually contemplates
How JS/Director/GM-level officers ship small IT modules under their own DFPR powers
What you can do when the standard module doesn't fit your shifts, OT or data-residency rules
5-year TCO comparison: big-vendor SaaS vs custom-built open-source
RFID, face, biometric — privacy-first attendance for sensitive PSUs
A pragmatic path out of the SAP/Oracle/Microsoft trap
How LLMs in the dev loop changed the timeline and cost calculus in 2026