Summary
Details of Implementation
This Request for Proposal (RFP) represents a collaborative initiative between the JICA DX Lab and the Rajasthan Forest Department (RFD) to identify a Digital Partner for developing use cases aimed at:
- 1 . Streamlining Green Credit and Carbon Credit registration and monitoring in Rajasthan
- 2 . Generating wildlife habitat report cards, i.e., implementing a robust Habitat Monitoring module.
The use-cases has following primary objectives:
1. Digitally Enabled Green Credit Implementation
i. Automated Land Parcel Assessment
- Leveraging satellite-based indicators like land area and canopy density, the platform will automatically identify degraded land parcels suitable for afforestation, accelerating the registration process under the Green Credit Programme (GCP).
ii. Site Reports
- The system will generate comprehensive site reports-including satellite imagery, tree cover, canopy density, soil type, rainfall levels, and other relevant data points. These reports are designed to assist RFD officials in swiftly completing GCP registration by providing all necessary documentation in a ready-to-submit format.
iii. Longitudinal Monitoring for Transparency
- Beyond registration, the platform will enable ongoing monitoring of plantation sites through GIS-MIS dashboards-tracking ecological parameters over time to support evidence-based project management.
2. Simplifying Carbon Project Participation
i. Frictionless PDD Preparation
- A centralized, API-driven digital workspace will unify critical datasets-such as land-use history, biomass, and climate records-to streamline the creation of Project Design Documents (PDDs) for agroforestry and community-based carbon projects. Built-in geospatial intelligence tools, including satellite imagery analysis (e.g., NDVI trends, canopy density), automate key verifications like land-use stability and historical deforestation. This not only minimizes manual overhead but also powers a robust layer of business intelligence (BI), enabling faster decision-making, improved compliance tracking, and greater transparency throughout the project lifecycle.
ii. GIS-MIS Enabled Oversight by Officials
- RFD officials will gain structured access to GIS-MIS dashboards that provide a bird’s-eye view of all active carbon credit projects across the state
3. Habitat Monitoring
i. Habitat Intelligence
- Track changes in grasslands, forest cover, water bodies, and infrastructure over time.
ii. Biodiversity & Fragmentation Indices
- Incorporate advanced indicators (e.g., biodiversity index, habitat fragmentation index) to highlight ecological stress.
iii. Human-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) & Offense Mapping
- Integrate with Rajasthan’s FMDSS to visualize conflict hotspots, wildlife offense data, and encroachment trends.
It will be built on top of the RFD’s existing DigiVan portal, leveraging its established architecture, workflows, and partial data references-minimizing duplicate efforts and ensuring all new features align seamlessly with DigiVan’s foundation. This includes mapping relevant data sources, creating necessary APIs, enabling data analytics, building core business intelligence layers, and developing a user-facing visualization dashboard.
The maximum budget allocated for the development of the Use cases is USD 400,000, inclusive of all applicable taxes and expenses. However, this budget may be subject to revision based on the finalized Use case plan and associated costs.
Interim progress reports and a comprehensive final report will detail Use case outcomes, activities, and both quantitative and qualitative evaluations based on predetermined KPIs. These will be accompanied by technical, operational, and strategic recommendations for RFD and JICA DX Lab. Upon completion of the Use cases, the final product will be handed over to RFD, along with the necessary capacity-building support.
Timeline
The Use case is scheduled for 5 months, beginning tentatively in May 2025 and concluding in September 2025. By June 20, an MVP (features needed for MVP have been detailed in the RFP) must be operational. This period encompasses the Use case design, development, testing, deployment and stabilization phases.
Status
Index
Project Context
Rajasthan, India’s largest state, encompasses arid deserts in its western regions and forested, hilly terrains in the east. With roughly 9.6% forest cover, these woodlands are crucial for ecosystem services, climate resilience, and local socio-economic stability. However, persistent challenges such as desertification, climate variability highlights the need for more data-driven forest governance.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has long provided support to Rajasthan’s forestry initiatives, financing various afforestation, biodiversity, and rural development projects over the past two decades. To further modernize forest management through digital means, JICA and the Rajasthan Forest Department (RFD) collaborated to launch DigiVan—a unified system that combines two key use-cases enabling Forest Monitoring and Planning. DigiVan demonstrated how consolidated, analytics-driven data can empower on-ground teams and inform strategic decisions at senior levels. Building on these foundational lessons, RFD and JICA aim to scale digital forestry efforts beyond just two use-cases.
Brief Overview of DigiVan Architecture:
・Nuxt.js based Front-End Portal: Provides geospatial dashboards (e.g., forest cover changes, NDVI trends) and basic administrative tools for RFD staff.
・NestJS based Backend: Connects to a Postgres database to render GIS and MIS based insights on the UI.
・Airflow-Based ETL: Automates data ingestion from various sources, storing key environmental parameters in a PostgreSQL (with PostGIS) database.
・Raster and Vector Server: Visualize map layers on UI
・Containerized Deployment: Ensures code consistency across pilot sites, facilitating partial offline usage for remote forest divisions.
Encouraged by these recent successes, RFD and JICA are now advancing to the next phase with a new set of use cases focused on streamlining Green/Carbon Credit Registration & Monitoring, and Habitat Monitoring.
1. Green Credits
The Green Credit Programme is an innovative initiative launched by the Government of India under the LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) mission. Currently, approximately 400 hectares of land have been registered under the programme in Rajasthan-a figure significantly lower than in leading states like Madhya Pradesh. Through this Use case, RFD aims to simplify the registration and monitoring processes for land parcels, thereby increasing the state’s participation in the programme.
2. Carbon Credits
Similarly, carbon projects are gaining momentum globally. One of the major challenges faced by project developers lies in collating large volumes of data and preparing the Project Design Document (PDD), which is essential for project registration. The Carbon Use case seeks to consolidate key data points in a centralized platform, reducing the time and effort required for the registration of agroforestry and community land-based projects.
3. Habitat Monitoring
Equally vital is the need to safeguard Rajasthan’s diverse ecosystems and wildlife. A persistent challenge in this domain is the fragmentation of habitat-related information across multiple systems and data sources (e.g., vegetation status, water availability, human-wildlife conflict records). The Habitat Monitoring use case integrates these data streams into one cohesive platform, allowing forest officials to track ecological changes in real time, prioritize interventions, and ensure long-term biodiversity conservation.
In alignment with these efforts, this RFP has been launched to identify a Digital Partner capable of complementing the initiatives of JICA DX Lab and RFD and executing the Use cases successfully.
Join us on this transformative journey to elevate RFD’s vision of becoming a front-runner in Green/Carbon Credit and Habitat Monitoring in India. Let’s work together to make a lasting impact-enabling Rajasthan to lead in afforestation-based Green Credit and Carbon Credit programs while also advancing proactive habitat conservation, ensuring thriving wildlife and ecosystems for future generations.
RELATED MATERIALS
Project members
Project Owner
Mr. K.C.A. Arun Prasad
PD-CRESEP, Rajasthan Forest Department
The Rajasthan Forest Department is launching use cases to streamline the registration and monitoring processes under the Green Credit Programme (GCP), in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). Leveraging technology, these systems will simplify the identification and registration of land parcels, as well as support ongoing monitoring of afforestation efforts under the GCP.
In parallel, the Carbon Use case will also address key challenges in the Carbon Credit space-particularly in agroforestry and community land-based projects. By consolidating essential data and providing actionable insights through digital tools, the system will assist project developers in efficiently preparing Project Design Documents (PDDs), which are critical for carbon project registration.
Additionally, the Habitat Monitoring use case will integrate diverse ecological datasets-including vegetation cover, water resources, and wildlife presence-into a single digital platform. This will enable the Rajasthan Forest Department to track habitat health in near-real time, quickly identify areas under ecological stress, and implement targeted conservation measures.
Taken together, these initiatives position Rajasthan as a front-runner in Green Credit (afforestation-focused), Carbon Credit (tree plantations and agroforestry), and Habitat Monitoring-strengthening both sustainable land management and biodiversity protection across the state.
Sponsor
Saya Ishikawa
Representative of JICA India Office
The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has a longstanding history of supporting forestry initiatives in Rajasthan. With these new implementations, JICA aims to drive significant progress in Green Credit, Carbon Credit, and Habitat Monitoring projects across the state.
The broader vision for the Carbon Credit Use case is also to empower farmers in Rajasthan by enabling their participation in agroforestry-based carbon projects. At the same time, the Habitat Monitoring use case bolsters conservation efforts by integrating real-time ecosystem insights-helping to preserve local biodiversity and ensure the initiative remains firmly rooted in regional priorities. In addition to providing strategic guidance, technical expertise, and financial support, the JICA DX Lab plays a pivotal role in keeping these projects aligned with global best practices in digital innovation.
This initiative reflects JICA’s overarching mission to promote sustainable development and foster innovation in its partner countries.
PoC Implementation Requirements
Eligibility (excerpts)
Prospective bidders (hereafter “Digital Partners”) must demonstrate both the technical capabilities and the organizational acumen necessary to design, develop, and deploy the Green/Carbon Credits and Habitat Monitoring use cases within the existing DigiVan platform making sure that it is scalable and robust.
The selection process has defined eligibility criteria to ensure only qualified candidates proceed. This is followed by a technical evaluation and interview, where eligible bidders present their proposals. Post-presentation, technical marks are awarded based on the assessment of the proposals. Subsequently, commercial bid opening occurs, determining the highest scorer based on combined technical and commercial evaluations. This structured approach ensures a transparent and merit-based selection of the most suitable bidder.
Criteria for selection process
1. Organization Capacity
- The management members of the Digital Partner (and all management members in case of consortium bidders) do not include individuals with a history of corruption, arrest records, or affiliations with criminal organizations.
- The bidders must have a minimum annual revenue of USD 0.5 Mn in the past 2 fiscal years. For consortium bidders, the lead bidder must satisfy this criterion.
- The bidders must have a minimum of 30 FTEs. For consortium bidders, the lead member must have a minimum of 30 FTEs, while each consortium member must have a minimum of 15 FTEs.
2. Understanding the Existing DigiVan Architecture
- Must demonstrate familiarity with layered or microservices-based systems.
- Capable of reviewing existing DigiVan code/deployment (Node.js microservices, containerization, geospatial modules) and aligning new carbon workflows accordingly.
3. Microservice Development & Integration
- Proficient in secure REST APIs, building modular endpoints for carbon project data.
- Able to integrate new carbon USE CASE services (e.g., PDD creation logic, carbon analytics) seamlessly into the main DigiVan codebase, ensuring minimal disruptions to existing functionalities.
4. Geospatial & Data Ingestion Expertise
- Experience with GIS data ingestion, containerized geospatial tasks, and data transformations (ETL).
5. Consent & Governance
- Competent in RBAC (Admin, Developer) for new microservices, maintaining logs for compliance and future expansions.
6. Carbon Workflow & Use Case Relevance
- Familiarity with carbon offset processes (e.g., registering land under carbon protocols, tracking biomass, or producing Project Design Documents).
- Able to incorporate partial open-source code or new microservices to handle data required by carbon registries (IPCC-based metrics, region references, etc.).
7. Habitat Monitoring Workflow & Use Case Relevance
- Familiarity with habitat assessment processes (e.g., tracking biodiversity indices, habitat fragmentation, or detecting encroachments).
- Able to design or extend microservices that combine multi-layered ecological data (e.g., vegetation cover, water sources, wildlife census) and generate actionable habitat health metrics.
- Experience integrating new or partially open-source modules for advanced habitat analytics (e.g., fragmentation algorithms, hotspot detection), ensuring data interoperability and scalability.
8. Offline-Friendly Containerization & Scalability
- Ability to package all necessary dependencies in Docker images for restricted network environments.
- Experience scaling microservices to handle surges in data usage or concurrency, ensuring stable performance within the existing DigiVan ecosystem.
9. Legal & Ethical Standing
- Must show references of prior government/enterprise data platform or microservices projects.
- Willing to engage proactively with RFD, JICA, and any new or existing consultants, providing timely updates and risk mitigations throughout the use-case.
10. Legal & Ethical Standing
- The Digital Partner must not include individuals with any record of corruption, arrests, or affiliation with criminal entities.
- Must comply with all relevant local and international laws, including regulations around data protection and privacy.
Primary scope of work
Develop 2 use cases to streamline green credit and carbon credit registration and monitoring in Rajasthan
Green Credit Use case
・Development of a system to identify the degraded land parcels to be registered under the GCP based on certain rules like minimum land area of 5 Ha, canopy density less than 40% etc. It would also give GIS-MIS view of certain parameters like canopy density, land area etc. (non-exhaustive list)
・Site report of the selected land parcel with certain data points like tree cover, soil moisture, soil type, ground water levels, rainfall levels etc. (non-exhaustive list)
・Monitoring report of the land parcel which would be a GIS- MIS view of the information mentioned above over time.
Carbon Credit Use case
・Development of a system that will bring all the necessary data points required for the preparation of PDD for carbon project registration.
・Ease out monitoring of existing carb-n projects by bringing key data points at one place.
An administrator system to manage and update all the data points.
Visualization
・Admin & Stakeholder Dashboards: Include list of projects registered under Carbon Credit and Green Credit Program. Upon selection of a project the user is given access to all project details and other GIS- MIS data.
Final Handover & Roadmap
・Documentation & Code Transfer: Deliver comprehensive technical documents (API references, architectural diagrams, DevOps scripts), ensuring RFD and JICA DX Lab can maintain and extend the platform independently.
・Training & Capacity Building: Conduct workshops or knowledge-sharing sessions for RFD staff, developer communities, and potential operator teams.
・Future-Ready Expansion: Provide a strategic roadmap highlighting additional functionalities (e.g., carbon credit facilitation, biodiversity tracking), new data sources, and potential scaling strategies to other regions or users.
Submission Deadline
Electronic submission must be received at JICADXLab.RFP@bcg.com by the latest 23:59 Indian Standard Time on April 27, 2025.
RFP
The RFP includes further information, such as the project background, location of work, and detailed Scope of Work.
Required Technologies
Microservices (NestJS)
・Use NestJS for new Carbon use case services, aligning with DigiVan’s existing containers and code base.
Frontend
・Existing Nuxt 3 framework in DigiVan
Containerized Deployment (Docker)
・Package all carbon USE CASE dependencies (libraries, environment configs) into offline-friendly containers.
・Ensure no external fetch calls at runtime, for restricted on-prem environments in Rajasthan’s Forest offices.
Data Ingestion & MDM
・Airflow (or equivalent) for scheduling ETL tasks, pulling relevant climate/soil data, local MIS, and updating DigiVan’s database with Master Data references (region codes, species).
・Ability to unify synonyms/duplicates for carbon-related data sets (e.g., IPCC factors, local region references).
Database & Storage
・PostgreSQL / PostGIS for storing geospatial or species references; possibly reusing DigiVan’s DB schema.
・Structured logging to keep track of disclaimers, carbon project details (e.g., land parcels, verification steps).
Security
・Encryption at rest (AES-256) and in transit (TLS 1.3).
・Logging frameworks (ELK or Prometheus + Grafana) for compliance, auditing, and performance monitoring.
Info Session
We plan to tentatively host an information session for prospective bidders on April 17, 2025, 11:00 (Indian Standard Time / GMT+5.5). If you wish to participate, please contact us at JICADXLab.RFP@bcg.com.
Confirmation of participation by email is mandatory to attend the information session.
Inquiries and Contact
We are happy to address any inquiries from Digital Partners via email. Please reach out to us at JICADXLab.RFP@bcg.com
For those interested in co-creation with JICA DX
Other projects from JICA DXLab
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- PROJECT 9 Forest Stack PoC for Digital Forest Health Monitoring System in Rajasthan
- PROJECT 8 Forest Stack PoC for Carbon Credit Project Registration in Odisha
- PROJECT 7 RFP for Development and implementation of Meter Reading App, Management Dashboard & NRW Monitoring Tool at CWASA
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- PROJECT 5 Unlocking Digital Agri-advisory Solutions to Boost Productivity for Uttarakhand Horticulture Farmers
- PROJECT 4 PoC for Big Data Analysis on Customer Profiling and People Movement in Blok M TOD Area with MRT Jakarta
- PROJECT 3 Validation of Data Platform and Impact Measurement Methodology to Increase Women’s Financial Access in India
- PROJECT 2 Technology Testing to Mitigate Human-Elephant Conflict and Promote Coexistence in West Bengal
- PROJECT 1 Digital Talent Development in Ethiopia to Foster Innovation and Address Youth Unemployment
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