REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP)
Recruiting an HR Consulting Firm for Hiring Data Annotators,
Reviewer and MEL Consultants
Closing Date for Submission
24th April, 2026, at 23:59
I. INTRODUCTION
Wadhwani AI is the flagship Artificial Intelligence (AI) initiative of LEHS, a charitable organisation dedicated to building equitable and sustainable systems that bring modern technology to underserved populations in India. Our core mission is to develop, deploy, and rigorously evaluate AI-powered solutions for social impact across domains, including healthcare, agriculture, governance, and education.
In alignment with our objective to support projects of national and social significance, Wadhwani AI promotes the integration of cutting-edge technologies like AI into the Indian mainstream systems. We execute this through strategic partnerships with State and National Governments, apex institutions, international agencies, and key ecosystem contributors.
This Request for Proposal (RFP) has been issued by Wadhwani AI, the initiative of LEHS, to identify a qualified Service Provider to support the sourcing of suitable candidates for data annotation, review, and evaluation roles for AI-driven agricultural initiatives.
II. BACKGROUND
Indian farmers face challenges due to limited access to extension services. The current coverage is lower than recommended levels, making it difficult for farmers to get timely support. In addition, agricultural information is often fragmented, and farmers lack access to clear, localised, and actionable insights. Many existing AI/ML solutions are not multilingual, not open-source, or do not work in real time. These gaps affect productivity, increase risks, and impact sustainable farming practices.
To address this, Wadhwani AI is building an Agricultural Domain-Specific Language Model (DLM). This will power a multilingual and multimodal conversational AI system for farmers and Extension Workers. By combining image, language, and contextual data, the system aims to provide reliable support based on real field conditions.
To support this work, Wadhwani AI is looking to engage a Service Provider to source and onboard suitable candidates for data annotation and evaluation roles, ensuring timely availability of resources as per project needs.
III.PROJECT OBJECTIVES
- Annotate high-quality images of crop pests and diseases across different crops, regions, and seasons using standard guidelines.
- Create reliable, ground-truthed datasets with relevant metadata to support training and improving AI models.
- To support the evaluation of a conversational AI system by validating agricultural knowledge, reviewing AI-generated advisory responses, and creating datasets to assess outputs against agronomic guidelines, with the aim of improving accuracy and relevance.
IV. SCOPE OF WORK
The selected Service Provider will be responsible for sourcing and initial screening of candidates for the roles of Data Annotators, Data Reviewer & Supervisor, and Data Consultants – MEL to support data annotation, validation, and evaluation activities for AIdriven agricultural systems. This includes identifying and shortlisting candidates in line with the specified educational, domain, and technical requirements, and facilitating initial onboarding coordination. Payroll processing, compliance, and contract management will be managed by Wadhwani AI.
All project related infrastructure and enablement, including access to annotation tools and training on required systems, will be provided and managed by Wadhwani AI. Wadhwani AI will also be responsible for quality assurance, performance evaluation, and ongoing feedback for all deployed resources. Accordingly, all resources will operate in a remote work setup.
The Service Provider is expected to ensure timely deployment of resources, adherence to defined quality benchmarks, and continuity of staffing to meet project needs.
Submission Details
All responses to this RFP must be received no later than 24th April, 2026. The proposal should be submitted only through e-mail in PDF format, addressed to the Procurement Team at the following e-mail address: rfp.lehs@wadhwaniai.org. The email's subject line must contain the reference number and title of the RFP: Proposal for – Recruiting an HR Consulting Firm for Hiring Data Annotators, Reviewer and MEL Consultants – Wadhwani AI(Name of the Agency).
Only shortlisted agencies will receive an acknowledgement and will be invited for an e-meeting to present their proposals.
Any proposals received by Wadhwani AI after the deadline for submission of proposals prescribed in the timeline of this document are liable to be rejected.
For detailed information, please check the complete version of the RFP attached below.