Issued by: EPIC India

Geography: Rajasthan, India

Strategic Area: Market-based solutions for air quality management

Duration: 1 Month

About the Trust:

The University of Chicago Trust (the Trust) is a charitable trust in India, established in 2008 by alumnus of The University of Chicago. The objectives of the UChicago Trust are to provide opportunities for grants to support educational programs, research programs and activities for the betterment of India.

About EPIC India:

India faces the dual challenge of rapidly improving living standards—through sustained economic growth and expanded access to reliable and affordable energy—while simultaneously reducing pollution for a cleaner and healthier environment. EPIC India researchers work hand-in-hand with government and industry partners to identify innovative ideas, pilot them on the ground, and rigorously measure outcomes.

Background:

Rajasthan, one of India’s largest industrial states with nearly 80 million residents, faces severe air pollution from energy-intensive sectors such as cement, thermal power, textiles, and chemicals. The state has expressed strong interest in implementing a market-based Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to reduce emissions of SO₂ through flexible, cost-effective mechanisms.

India has already demonstrated the success of ETS through the world’s first PM ETS in Surat, which reduced emissions by 20–30% while lowering compliance costs. Rajasthan has signed an MoU with Emissions Market Accelerator (EMA) to collaborate on designing an ETS, and this RFP represents the first and foundational phase, a Scoping Study to define pollutants, sectors, monitoring capacity, and data systems required for ETS design.

The scoping study will not only lay the foundation for Rajasthan’s ETS but also generate benefits that extend far beyond the state. Reductions in industrial emissions will spill over into the National Capital Region and Indo-Gangetic Plain—world’s most polluted regions—directly reinforcing India’s National Clean Air Programme and catalyzing broader adoption of market-based regulation across northern India. This study will generate the evidence base for market design and lay the foundation for subsequent phases such as monitoring strengthening, cap setting, allocation design, stakeholder engagement, and legal preparation.

About the Consultancy work:

The objective of this consultancy is to conduct a comprehensive one-month Scoping Study to assess the technical, institutional, industrial, and monitoring readiness for an ETS in Rajasthan. The study will:

• Identifying priority pollutants and sectors for ETS coverage
• Evaluate regulatory and industrial data systems, including CEMS integrity
• Assess industry readiness for ETS
• Document sector-wise emissions, monitoring capacity, and data gaps
• Build consensus among key regulatory and industry stakeholders

The consultancy firm will be responsible for conducting the scoping study required for this ETS project in Rajasthan.

Specific Responsibilities:

The selected agency will undertake activities under these defined core workstreams, each mapped to specific deliverables.

1. Regulatory data collection and Digitization

• Retrieve emissions, monitoring, production, fuel and compliance data from industries (~250 Industries) and concerned regional offices (~24 ROs).
• Digitize consent-to-operate (CTO) records, stack monitoring data, CEMS installation data, and historical emissions.
• Standardize and clean the datasets with documented QA/QC protocols.
• Deliverables associated with this responsibility:

Deliverable 1 — Consolidated database of >=90% available regulatory data

2. Industry Field visits and Surveys

• Conduct approximately 250 industries visits to map monitoring practices, abatement technologies, production processes, emissions sources, CEMS functioning and calibration.
• Stacks connected to the abatement technologies.
• Cross validates field observations with regulatory datasets.
• Deliverables associated with this responsibility:

Deliverable 2— Field data covering >= 200 industries

3. Industry readiness Assessment

• Assess coverage, reliability and calibration practices of existing CEMS installations
• Identify any gaps or maintenance issues
• Conduct workshops with the industries
• Evaluate industry preparedness for ETS participation
• Collect data on fuel inputs, emissions factors, monitoring equipment, process specifies.
• Deliverables associated with this responsibility:

Deliverable 3 — Industry readiness assessment

4. Stakeholder Consultation Report

• Conduct consultation with regional offices, Industrial partners
• Documentation of workshops and bilateral meetings with industries
• Document stakeholder feedback, concerns and consensus areas
• Deliverables associated with this responsibility:

Deliverable 4 — Stakeholder consultation summary

5. Pollutant and Sector prioritization and final report

• Develop transparent criteria for pollutant and sector selection based on monitoring feaseability, abatement potential, industry readiness and CEMS connectivity.
• Prepare the Rajasthan’s ETS Scoping Report.
• Deliverables associated with this responsibility:

Deliverable 5 — Final Scoping Report

Deliverables: The consultancy will have Five key deliverables:

Expected Timeframes:  January 1, 2026, to January 31, 2026

Intellectual Property Rights: All items produced from this project will be owned by the University of Chicago Trust.

Eligibility Criteria:

Applicants must be a registered consulting firm, research organization or consortium and also have 5 years of experience in industrial emission control or market-based instruments along with demonstrated capacity for large scale field surveys and data digitization.

The firm must demonstrate the experience with environmental regulations, strong data analysis (R, Stata, Python, GIS), experience with CEMS, stack monitoring or industrial pollution technologies. And ability to deploy field teams across multiple districts.

Proposal Submission Requirements

Technical proposal must include Organization profile, Understanding of the assignment, Detailed methodology for each deliverables, Team structure, CVs of key experts, Work plan and timelines, Prior Experience and case-study and Risk Management Plan.

Financial proposal must include activity wise cost breakdown, personnel cost, Travel and field deployment expenses, Digitization and tech tools, taxes as applicable and Total budget.

Evaluation Criteria:

Only agencies scoring above 70% technical score will be eligible for financial evaluations.

Contract Management:

Reporting to: EPIC India

Regular review meetings: Weekly

Weekly progress reports required.

Submission Instructions:

Interested organisations must submit Technical Proposals (PDF), Financial proposals (PDF), Organization registration documents, CVs of key personnel.

To

Email: dalshetty@uchicagotrust.org

Subject line: “RFP Submission – Rajasthan ETS Scoping Study – [Firm name]”

Submission deadline: December 27, 2025

Submission mode: through email