0% found this document useful (0 votes)
18 views

Computer For Digital Literacy E - Material

Uploaded by

ASHIKA J
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
18 views

Computer For Digital Literacy E - Material

Uploaded by

ASHIKA J
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 110

COMPUTER FOR DIGITAL

LITERACY

Dr N. Krishnan
Dr V. Balamurugan
Dr P. Arockia Jansi Rani

MANONMANIAM SUNDARANAR UNIVERSITY


TIRUNELVELI – 627 012
TAMILNADU, INDIA
COMPUTER FOR DIGITAL LITERACY
(Mandatory Learning Course for the undergraduate and integrated post
graduate student of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University)

E-CONTENTS

Authored by

Dr. N. Krishnan, Dean, Faculty of Science

Dr. V. Balamurugan, Professor/ CSE

Dr. P. Arockia Jansi Rani, Associate Professor / CSE

MANONMANIAM SUNDARANAR UNIVERSITY


Tirunelveli – 627 012
Tamilnadu, India
Computer for Digital Literacy
FIRST EDITION: 2018

ISBN:

Price: Rs. 100/-

©Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli

All rights reserved. Any part of the content may be reproduced with the prior
permission of the publishers.

Manonmaniam Sundaranar University Publications

Tirunelveli – 627 012


iii
Table of Content
Page No.
Preface viii
Acknowledgement ix
List of Figures x
List of Tables xiii
Abbreviations xiv

Unit - I
Chapter 1- Fundamental of Computers

1.1 The Role of Computers in Modern Society 01

1.2 Block Diagram of Digital Computer 02

1.3 Working Principle of Computer 03

1.4 Types of Computers and Their Specifications 04

1.4.1 Computer Specifications: 06

1.4.2 Server 09

1.4.3 Desktop Computers 10

1.4.4 Laptop 10

1.4.5 Tablet 10

1.4.6 Smart Phones 11

1.4.7 Port 11

1.5 Setting up a Computer 12

1.6 Computer Maintenance 12

Chapter 2- Computer Essentials 13

2.1 Computer overview 13

2.2 Types of Software 13

2.2.1 Function-based Classification 14

2.2.2 License-based Classification 15

2.3 Operating system 18

2.3.1 Loading and Execution 19

iv
2.3.2 Providing interface 19

Unit - II
Chapter 3 – Windows Operating System 20

3.1 Significance of Windows OS 20

3.2 Starting with Windows OS 21

3.2.1 Cortana 23

3.2.2 Virtual desktops 24

3.2.3 Microsoft edge browser 24

3.2.4 Disk Defragmenter 25

3.2.5 Keyboard Shortcut 25

3.3 Mobile Operating System 26

3.3.1 Features of Android 27

3.3.2 Android and its versions 28

Chapter 4 - Microsoft Office Package 30

4.1 Database 30

4.1.1 Characteristics of database tables 30

4.1.2 Database Management System and its Functions 31

4.1.3 Examples of DBMS 32

4.1.4 Database Applications 32

4.1.5 Managing Database 33

4.2 Basic Office Automation Tools 38

4.2.1 Microsoft Word 38

4.2.2 Microsoft Excel 50

4.2.3 Microsoft PowerPoint 53

Unit - III
Chapter 5 – Computer Communication 60

5.1 Components of a Communication System 60

5.2 Types of Networks 61

v
5.2.1 Local Area Network 61

5.2.2 Metropolitan Area Network 62

5.2.3 Wide Area Network 63

5.2.4 Wireless and Wired Network 63

5.3 World Wide Web (WWW) 64

5.4 Client - Server Computing 67

Unit - IV
Chapter 6 - Electronic Governance 68

6.1 Introduction 68

6.2 E-Governance Initiatives in India

6.2.1 E-Governance through Common Service Centre 68

6.2.2 CSC 2.0 Scheme 69

6.3 E-Governance through 70

6.3.1 National e-Governance Plan 70

6.4 Digital India 73

6.4.1 Agencies Enabling Digital India 74

6.4.2 Digital India Services 75

6.4.3 Electronic Payment and Receipt (EPR) 77

6.4.4 The Government policy statement on EPR states as follows 77

6.4.5 Overview of Payments and Receipts in Government Departments 78

6.4.6 Digital Locker 79

6.4.7 Benefits of Digital Locker 80

6.4.8 e-District Services 80

6.4.9 Digital AIIMS 81

6.4.10 India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS) 81

6.4.11 Geographical Information System (GIS) 82

6.4.12 Mobile Sewa App Store (m-Appstore) 82

6.4.13 GARV Grameen Vidyutikaran 82

vi
6.5 Integrated Nutrient Management 83

Unit - V
Chapter 7 - E- Learning and MOOC 84

7.1 E – Learning 84

7.2 MOOC 84

7.3 Coursera 85

7.4 edX 85

7.4.1 MOOC at India 85

7.5 Digital Library 87

7.5.1 National Digital Library 87

7.5.2 E-Journals and Books 88

7.6 Cyber Security 88

7.6.1 Computer Virus 88

7.6.2 Hacking 89

7.7 Big Data 90

7.7.1 Data Analytics 90

7.8 Introduction to IT Act 91

7.8.1 Publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form 92

7.8.2 Penalty for misrepresentation 92

7.8.3 Publication for fraudulent purpose 92

7.9 Socia Networks 93

7.9.1 Social Network Analysis 93

7.9.2 Government Initiatives on Social Media 93

7.10 Sentiment Analysis 94

7.11 Predictive Policing 95

Bibliography 96

vii
Preface

Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli has introduced a two credit course


“Computer for Digital Literacy” as a mandatory learning course for the under graduate and
integrated post graduate students who are undergoing the programmes during the academic year
2017-18 onwards. The course is the brainchild of our honourable Vice Chancellor Prof. K. Baskar
which aims to provide a computer literacy to all the students and to create awareness about the
several schemes of government which uses digital connectivity for the maximum benefits. It is
expected that the students will in turn, spread the knowledge to their neighbours and thereby
empower the society digitally. Thus, the university fulfils a part of its social responsibility.

The contents of the course are meticulously framed and the materials are prepared well,
keeping the credit hours in mind. This e-material can be used as a reference and guidelines and the
course teachers have the complete freedom to add more on the content in alignment to the course
educational objectives. The outcomes can be measured using the theoretical and practical
knowledge of the students.

Unless the people know the initiatives of the government, the scheme cannot be successful.
Therefore, sufficient sensitization needs to be created by the course teachers among their
counterparts. The authors will be happy to receive the comments and feedback from the faculty
members, students and other stakeholders. A book on the “Computer for Digital Literacy” will be
released soon. Till that time the stakeholders are requested to use the content in the present form.

Dr. N. Krishnan

Dr. V. Balamurugan

Dr. P. Arockia Jansi Rani

viii
Acknowledgement

ix
List of Figures
Page No.

Figure 1.1 Systems 02


Figure 1.2 Blocks of Computer System 02
Figure 1.3 Analog Computers 05
Figure 1.4 SATA and PATA Drives 08
Figure2.1 Components of a Computer System 13
Figure2.2 Types of Software 13
Figure 2.3 System Software 14
Figure 2.4 Application Software 14
Figure 2.5 Types of Application Software 15
Figure 2.6 Proprietary Software 15
Figure 2.7 Free Open Source Software 16
Figure2.8 Operating Systems 18
Figure2.9 User Interaction Process 19
Figure 3.1 Windows Family 20
Figure 3.2 Windows desktop 21
Figure3.3 Windows 10 Start Up Screen 22
Figure 3.4 Cortana 23
Figure 3.5 Virtual desktops 24
Figure 3.6 Searching the defragmentation program using Cortana 24
Figure 3.7 Disk Defragmentation 25
Figure 4.1 A Typical Database 30
Figure 4.2 Functions of DBMS 31
Figure 4.3 View Menu 34
Figure 4.4 Table Creation 34
Figure 4.5 Lookup wizards to enter the list of multiple choices 35
Figure 4.6 Student Record Table in the Database View mode after lookup wizard
settings for the ‘programme’ field 35
Figure 4.7 Primary key selections 36
Figure 4.8 Student Record: Table 36
Figure 4.9 Query Execution 37
Figure 4.10 Resultant Table Based on the search criteria 37

x
Figure4.11 Microsoft Word 38
Figure4.12 Microsoft Word – Page Layout view 39
Figure4.13 Microsoft Word – page setup 40
Figure 4.14 Microsoft word – Table of Contents settings 41
Figure 4.15 Example for Table of Contents generation 41
Figure 4.16 Bibliography Creation 42
Figure4.17 Inserting Caption to Figures 42
Figure 4.18 Inserting Equations 43
Figure 4.19 Formatting Pictures 43
Figure 4.20 Find and replace option 43
Figure 4.21 Microsoft Word – inserting shapes 44
Figure 4.22 WordArt 44
Figure 4.23 Inserting SmartArt 45
Figure 4.24 Microsoft Word – The Review Menu 45
Figure 4.25 Microsoft Excel – Formula Menu 50
Figure 4.26 An Example Table created using Excel 51
Figure 4.27 Creating Charts using Excel 52
Figure 4.28 Microsoft Excel-using built-in and user-defined formulae 53
Figure 4.29 Microsoft PowerPoint – Title Slide and Layout 54
Figure 4.30 The Design Menu 54
Figure 4.31 Picture Formatting Menu 55
Figure 4.32 Text Formatting Menu 55
Figure4.33 Inserting Animation 55
Figure 4.34 PowerPoint – Inserting Audio 56
Figure 4.35 Inserting Hyperlinks through the insert menu 56
Figure4.36 Setting Hyperlinks using Action Buttons in the Shapes option 57
Figure 4.37 PowerPoint – Slide Show Settings 57
Figure4.38 Cloud Callout box 58
Figure4.39 Sample PowerPoint Presentation Script 59
Figure 5.1 Communication System 60
Figure 5.2 Local Area Network 61
Figure 5.3 Metropolitan Area Network 62
Figure 5.4 Wide Area Network 62
Figure 5.5 Wirelesses and Wired Communication 63

xi
Figure 5.6 URL Example 65
Figure 5.7 Inbox page of an e-mail system 65
Figure 5.8 Cookies Example Screenshot 66
Figure 6.1 Services of Common Service Centre 69
Figure 6.2 Objectives of Digital India 73
Figure 6.3 Overview of EPR in Government Departments 78
Figure 6.4 Working Principle of Digital Locker 79
Figure 7.1 Screenshot of SWAYAM website 87
Figure 7.2 Screenshot of National Digital Library 88
Figure 7.3 Types of Hacking 89

xii
List of Tables
Page No.

Table 2.1. Categorical Proprietary and Open Source Software 17


Table 3.1 Windows Shortcut Keys 26
Table 4.1 Student Table in a Database 31
Table 7.1 Data Processed Per Day 90
Table 7.2 Government Initiatives on Social Media 94

xiii
Abbreviations

xiv
Fundamentals of Computer

1- Fundamentals of Computer
1.1 The Role of Computers in Modern Society
In today’s world, the computers are widely used by all to solve complex, scientific, business
administrative and day to day problems. They have played a major role in automating many
industrial and business domains. They make people life easier and comfortable. Anything that the
computers do is just as the result of human instructions. They execute the instructions using the
hardware as well as software, no matter whether they are Correct or wrong.

The use of computer saves a lot of time and it makes all the governmental and business services
available at one’s hand reach. The main advantages of using computers are:

1. High processing speed


2. High backup storage
3. Parallel processing
4. User friendliness
5. Sharing of resources
6. Affordable cost
7. Reduction in man power and
8. High accuracy

The advancement in the computing technology such as internet, data analytics, cloud
computing, multimedia applications, mobile computing changed the way of the governance in India.
Today they play an important role in the e-governance activities like digital India projects and they
are used in almost all the fields like agriculture, medicine, policing, finance, education, etc.

Further, the information systems are deployed in almost all the industries. Information systems
such as Management Information System, Decision Support System effectively utilize the database
storage and retrieval process. They provide sophisticated user interface so that any naïve employee
can use it with minimum training. Also, preparation of reports is easy and time saving in these
systems. Therefore, they are useful to the managers and high level of executives of any industries.

The advent of internet and World Wide Web (WWW) in the 90s, has changed our lives
tremendously and it helps us to connect with the other part of the world. As a result, all the
government and business organisation invariably own their web portal for promoting their business.
As a result, the information pertaining to the organisations are showcased effectively to their
stakeholders.

With the use of big data analytics it is possible to extract the potential knowledge from the
database and to predict the future. The advent of cloud computing technology allows us to share
the resources at lower cost.

1
Fundamentals of Computer

1.2 Block Diagram of Digital Computer


Computer System:
A set of components that are integrated together which receive the well-defined input and process it
to yield the expected outcomes. The above definition is applicable to any kind of system including
the computer system. The Fig. 1.1 illustrates the three components of a system.

Fig. 1.1 System

Blocks of a Computer System:

Fig. 1.2 Blocks of Computer System

A computer system has several components, as illustrated in the fig. 1.2 Each block is explained in
the following paragraphs:

1. Input Unit:
The process of feeding the data and Instructions to the processing unit through some
devices such as Keyboard, Mouse etc. is called Input. These devices translate the user input into the
electronic impulses which can be easily understood by the processor.

2. Processing Unit:
The user input is fed into the processor or Central Processing Unit (CPU) for further
processing. This unit is the brain of computer system as it does all the calculations, problem solving
and controls all elements of the computer. The CPU consists of the following three distinct units
namely.

i. Storage:
This holds the data in terms of program and files. The data stored can be accessed and used
whenever required by the CPU for further processing. This memory unit is usually referred as
primary storage section. The units in which memory unit is measured are known as Bytes. Byte is the
space required to store 8(bit) characters or alphabet or digit.

2
Fundamentals of Computer

ii. Control Unit:


This unit coordinates the activities of all the elements of computer. It decodes the
instructions given by the user and sends the commands and signals that determine the sequence of
other instructions. This unit does not process data but it acts as the central system for data
manipulation, as it controls the flow of data.

iii. Arithmetic and Logic Units:


This unit performs arithmetic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division. It also does logical operations such as AND, OR, NOT, etc and also the relational operations
such as comparison of numbers.

3. Output:
The process of decoding the processed result in a user understandable format is called
Output. The commonly used output devices are Printers, Monitor, Projector, etc.

1.3 Working Principle of Computer


The Computer receives the input from the users through the user interface, provided by the
operating system. Operating system is software that is to be installed immediately after the
purchase of computer. Other softwares are installed over the operating system. The input is sent to
the main memory by the operating system and based on the instructions of the software and
operating system the data is processed by the processor. To do that the instructions are converted
into machine understandable format by software called compiler which are associated with the
application software. The Operating System acts as a bridge between User and Hardware. Common
operating systems include Windows, Mac OS and Linux. The operating system in a computer
manages the resources by controlling the hardware elements including the hard disk, memory,
processor, input and output devices. At the opposite end, the operating system acts as an interface
and allows the user to control the computer. The processed data is sent to the output device
through the OS and the application software.

An input device provides interface between the user and the operating system. Input
devices are capable of converting data into electrical form which can be recognized by computer. A
computer can have several input devices. The primary input devices on a computer are the keyboard
and mouse.

The most common input device is the keyboard. Keyboard consists of a set of typewriter like
keys that enable the user to enter the data into the computer. They have alphabetic keys to enter
letters, numeric keys to enter numbers, punctuation keys to enter comma, period, semicolon, etc.,
and special keys to perform some specific functions. The keyboard detects the key pressed and
generates the corresponding ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) codes
which can be recognized by the computer.

Mouse becomes most popular device after the advent of Graphical User Interface (GUI). It is
a cursor-control device having a small palm size box with a ball at its base but now the ball is
replaced by the optical sensors, which senses the movement of the mouse and sends electrical
signal to the CPU when the mouse moves or its buttons are pressed.

3
Fundamentals of Computer

Generally, it has two buttons called the left and the right button and a wheel is present
between the buttons. A mouse can be used to control the position of the cursor on the screen, It can
also be used to enter the text or numbers with the help of virtual keyboard but the disadvantage is
the text cannot be entered at a faster rate like keyboard.

Output is the result that comes out of a computer after the processing of input. An output
device is mainly used for presenting information to the user. Monitors and printers are commonly
used output devices.

Monitor is a commonly used output device, sometimes called as display screen. It provides a
visual display of data. Monitors are connected with the CPU. The smallest dot on the screen that can
be displayed is called a pixel (picture element). The resolution of the screen improves as the number
of pixels is increased. Most of the monitors have a 4:3 width to height ratio. This ratio is known as
‘aspect ratio’. The resolution of the monitor determines the quality of the display. Some popular
resolutions are 640 x 480 pixels, 800 x 600 pixels, 1024 x 768 pixels and 1920 x 1080 pixels. High
resolution monitors provide better clarity.

Printer is an output device that prints text or images on paper or other materials. The
printers can be categorised into several categories based on the technology, speed and quality.
Based on the techniques there are two main types of printers viz. impact printers and non-impact
printers. Impact printers include all printers that print by striking a print head on the Paper. Impact
printers use a print head containing a number of metal pins which strike the ink ribbon placed
between the print head and the paper. Line printers, dot matrix printers are some of the impact
printers. Non-impact printers use the printing heads which spread the ink on the paper without
hitting hard. Non-impact printers include laser printers, inkjet printers and thermal printers.

1.4 Types of Computers and Their Specifications


Types of Computers
Computers can be classified into following three types, based on Principle of Operation and
Configuration.

• Analog Computers
• Digital Computers
• Hybrid Computers

Analog Computers
An analog computer operates on continuous range of values such as electric voltage,
current, etc during its operations. They are built with discrete electronic components like transistors,
diodes etc. They are large in size and lacks in accuracy. An analog computer is illustrated in the Fig.
1.3.

Digital Computers
Digital Computers use binary values in which the voltage variations are either 0 or 1. Each
variation is called as bit. The digital computer is designed using digital integrated circuits which have
two levels for Input and Output as already told.
4
Fundamentals of Computer

Fig. 1.3 Analog Computers

Digital Computers perform the operations in a speedy manner and also with high accuracy.
Further, they are capable of solving many complex problems. Hence digital computers have an
increasing use in the field of design, research and data processing.

Based on the purpose of usage, the digital computers can be classified into two types viz.
general Purpose and specific purpose digital computer

General Purpose Digital Computer


The digital computers that are used for several general purposes are called as general
purpose digital computers.

Specific Purpose Digital Computer


The digital computers which are used for single specific purpose is called as Specific Purpose
digital computer.

Hybrid Computers
We know that, both analog and digital computer has its own advantages. By combining the
advantages of both, a new type of computer called hybrid computer is formed. The digital
component does the logical and numerical operations and the analog component solves differential
equations and other mathematical equations.

Based on Performance, Speed, Size, and the Cost, the computers are classified as follows:

• Super Computers
• Mainframe Computers
• Mini Computers
• Micro computers

Super Computers
Super Computers are the most Powerful, Large in size, High price and High speed systems. It
is used in the sectors where the decisions need to be taken instantaneously. It has the power of
processing billions of instruction per second. It is normally used in domains like Stock market,
weather forecasting, etc.

5
Fundamentals of Computer

Mainframe Computers
Mainframe Computers are the computers which can process millions of instructions per
second. They are large in size. They are used to process voluminous data in banks, airlines, railways,
etc.

Mini Computers
The mini computers are the one which is small in size and it has low power, low cost and low
speed. They are used in the day to day operations where minimum amount of calculations are
needed.

Micro Computers
The Micro Computers are the one which is small in size when compared to other Computers.
The micro Computers are came into existence due to the invention of micro processor. It is very
cheap when compared with other computers. The Micro Computers are became smaller which can
be easily fit in our hands.

1.4.1 Computer Specifications: Specifications are key features which a computer


possesses. They represent the inherent qualities of a system which we refer. While buying a
computer one must know the purpose of usage, price range, durability, etc. Some of the common
specification to be considered while purchasing a computer is given below:
• Processor speed
• Size of the Random Access Memory
• Size of the Hard disk
• Provision for Network Interface Card
• Provision for WiFi Interface
• Provision for Bluetooth services
• Display size and resolution
• Port Connectivity such as USB 2.0 or USB 3.0
• Additional Memory Slot
• Audio/ Video Connectivity
• CD/ DVD / Blue Ray Disk Drive and their specifications

Processor
The processor is a chip which processes the basic instructions that drive a computer. The four
primary functions of processor are Fetching, Decoding, executing and writing back to storage. It can
be said as brain of computer. Some of the manufactures of processors are Intel, AMD, etc. In the
recent period there are many processors built in a single chip. Some of the multiple processor chips
are dual core, core2 duo, Quad core, penta core, etc.

The following are the four main components in Processor:


• Arithmetic Logic Unit(ALU)
• Floating Point Unit(FPU)
• Register
• Cache Memory

6
Fundamentals of Computer

Arithmetic Logic Unit


The Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) is a part of processor where we can perform mathematical
calculations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and also the logic operation
such as AND, OR, NOT, etc.

Floating Point Unit


The Floating Point Unit (FPU) is also known as Math co-processor or numeric coprocessor. It
is a specialized coprocessor that manipulates numbers more quickly.

Register
Register is a part of micro processor which hold instructions and other data for ALU
operations. Registers supply the Operands to the Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) and store the result of
operation.

Cache Memory
It is an electronic memory in the processor that saves time while fetching a data from the
Random Access Memory (RAM). It holds the frequently used data and there by reduce the execution
time. The size of cache memory is small when compared to the RAM and the cost is high compared
to the other types of memory. The maximum transfer rate at L2 cache is approximately 1,064 Mbps.

Random Access Memory


Random Access Memory (RAM) is a primary data storage which holds data and instruction at
the time of execution. It is the working memory of the computer. A Random Access Memory is a
volatile memory and it can hold the data till it receives the power. The following are the several
categories of RAM:

• SRAM
• DRAM
• SDRAM
• DDR SDRAM

SRAM
SRAM can be expanded as Static Random Access Memory which uses multiple transistors,
typically four to six for each memory location.

DRAM
DRAM can be expanded as Dynamic Random Access Memory which has memory cells with a
paired transistor and capacitor. The main disadvantage of DRAM is its constant refreshing.

SDRAM
SDRAM can be expanded as Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory which takes
advantage of burst mode concept to improve performance. The maximum rate L2 cache is
approximately 528 Mbps

DDR SDRAM
DDR SDRAM can be expanded as Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access
Memory is just like SDRAM except higher bandwidth or greater speed.

7
Fundamentals of Computer

Hard Disk Drive


HDD can be expanded as Hard Disk Drive. The Hard Disk is an external storage area where
the programs and data are stored permanently. In HDD the data in the disk are accessed using a
reading head which moves front and back when the disk rotates. HDD is a non-volatile memory
where the storage disks are magnetized.

Types of Hard Disk Drive


Currently, there are four types of HDD are available. They are
• Parallel Advanced Technology Advancement(PATA)
• Serial Advanced Technology Advancement (SATA)
• Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)
• Solid State Drives (SSD)

Parallel Advanced Technology Advancement


PATA can be expanded as Parallel Advanced Technology Advancement is a standard for
attaching hard disk drive into computer systems. The name itself reveals that the HDD is based on
parallel signalling Technology. The connections for PATA devices are made using 40 pin connectors.
The maximum workable length of PATA is 46 Centimetre. The Signal Voltage of PATA is 5V.

Serial Advanced Technology Advancement


SATA can be expanded as Serial Advanced Technology Advancement is also a standard for
the attaching the hard disk into computer systems. The name reveals that it is based on serial signal
processing technology. The connections are made through 7 pin data cable. The signal voltage is
0.25 V. The fig. 1.4 shows the SATA and PATA drives.

Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)


SCSI can be expanded as Small Computer System Interface is also a standard for attaching
the hard disk into peripheral systems more flexibly than the previous parallel data transfer data
transfers. The speed of operations in SCSI is faster than other HDD. The main disadvantage of SCSI is
not all devices support all levels of SCSI.

Fig. 1.4 SATA and PATA Drives

8
Fundamentals of Computer

Solid State Drives


Solid State Drives are also called as Solid State Disk. A traditional HDD consist of spinning
disk with a mechanical arm called as actuator. An SSD on other hand has an array of Semiconductor
memory organized as a disk drive.

1.4.2 Server: A server is a special purpose computer which serves the data when requested by
other computers. The computer that requests the server for data is known as Client. A server
program awaits and fulfils the request of the client. To fulfil the request the server must have the
capacity in terms of memory space, parallel input/output process, high speed processor, security
features, etc.

Types of Servers
The Server are categorised based on the purpose of their usage. Here there are some servers
they are

Application Server
An application server is a program in a distributed network that provides logic to the
application program

Web Server
A Web server is a Computer program that serves the requested page to the web client. The
web client is just a web browser which requests the page to the server.

Proxy Server
A proxy server is an intermediary device between client and end device. So there will be no
need to access the server.

Virtual Server
A virtual server is a program running on a shared network that is configured in a way that it
makes an illusion to every user that they have full access over the server.

File Server
A file server is a program responsible for the management of the data files on the central
storage so, that the computers on the same network can access them.

Database Server
Database server is widely used in Industries for storing voluminous data.

1.4.3 Desktop Computers: The Desktop Computer is a personal computer which has several
components viz. monitor, key board, mouse, central processing unit, power supply unit, etc, called
peripherals that are connected together. Apart from the in-built power supply unit, the desk top
computers need external power supply unit for their safety. The external power supply unit is known
as Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS). UPS provides power to the Computer. There are two kinds of
UPS viz. Online UPS and Offline UPS. The cost of the online UPS is high as this kind of UPS supply
power through the battery even when supply is available. The UPS that are used with our desktop
has 0.5 KVA output.

9
Fundamentals of Computer

Advantages of Desktop Computers


• Desktop Computers have more versatility
• Cost of desktop computers is low
• Desktop computers have higher storage
• The processor of Desktop Computers are Faster
Disadvantage of Desktop Computers
• Desktop computers are large in size
• The portability of desktop computer is low

1.4.4 Laptop: Laptop Computer is the one which doesn’t have separable Components. All the
components are connected under hood. So, that it is a whole package. The size of laptop computer
is small. So, that it can be easily displaced from one place to another.
Advantages of Laptop
• Easily portable
• Small in size
• Built-in power supply
Disadvantages of Laptop
• Low storage and processing power when compared to Desktop.
• High Cost

1.4.5 Tablet: Tablet Computer is a portable PC. It generally has an operating system that is used
in mobile phones. It has touch screen monitor. Tablet computers can do what other PC can do,
However, it lacks some input and output capabilities. The mouse is replaced by the stylus or finger.
There are no external/ built-in key board and the input can be supplied through touch screen which
has virtual keyboard.
Advantages of Tablet
• It is more portable than the Laptop
• Very small in size
• It can be used as a mobile
• The price is much less than the lap top
Disadvantages of Tablet
• It lacks in some Input and Output Capability
• Less facilities when compared to desktop

1.4.6 Smart Phones: A smart mobile Phone can do much operations of a computer. It is a
hand held personal computer with mobile operating system. The size of Smart Phones is even
smaller than the tablet computers. It also can do what a PC can do. However, it lacks some input and
output facilities. Touch screen monitor is used in smart phones.
Advantages of Smart Phone
• It is more portable than the Tablet
• The size is much reduced in Smart Phone
• It can also be used as a mobile communication device
• The price is much reduced than the Tablet

10
Fundamentals of Computer

Disadvantages of Smart Phone


• It lack some Input and Output facility
• User needs to be trained on Mobile operating system

1.4.7 Port: The Port in the computer will act as an interface between the connecting device and
connected device. These ports act as interface between the devices so, that we can share the
information or data through the ports.

Types of Port
• Serial Port
• Parallel Port
• USB Port
• VGA Port

Serial Port
The Serial Port is the one which is used to connect external modems and older computer mouse.
In Serial port the data travels at the speed of 115 kilo bits per second. There are two versions in
serial port, they are

• 9 Pin Serial Port


• 25 Pin Serial Port

Parallel Port
The parallel port is used to connect Printer and scanner. The Parallel Port is also called as
Printer Port. The parallel port has 25 pins

USB Port
The USB can be expanded as Universal Serial Bus. The USB Port was introduced in 1997. By
USB we can connect all kind of external USB devices such as external hard disk, pen drive, peripheral
devices, etc.

VGA Port
The VGA can be expanded as Video Graphics Array. This port is used to connect the Monitor
to the CPU. The VGA port has 15 holes. It is similar to the Serial Port. But serial port consist of pins
VGA port has holes.

1.5 Setting up a Computer


Step 1
Unpack the monitor, CPU, UPS and other input and output devices from the box. Remove
the plastic covering or protective tape. Keep the computer in a ventilated room so that we may
avoid the heating issues.

Step 2
Connect the monitor and CPU by using a VGA cable and tighten the screws if it has

11
Fundamentals of Computer

Step 3
Then, Connect the Keyboard to the CPU if the Keyboard uses the USB port connect it to the
USB port on the CPU. Otherwise if the keyboard has PS/2(round) Connector then, connect it to the
Purple PS/2 port on the CPU

Step 4
Next, connect the mouse and determine whether it uses the USB or PS/2 connector. If it
uses USB connector, plug into the USB port of the CPU. Otherwise connect it to the green PS/2 port
on the CPU

Step 5
If we have external speakers or headphones, we can connect them to the audio port which
will be in green in colour. If we have mic connect it to the pink port. Otherwise connect it in the blue
port which is for both headphone and mic

Step 6
Then, connect the Power supply cables from CPU and Monitor to the UPS which act as
Power Source. If there is no UPS connect it directly to the wall outlet.

Step 7
Finally, connect the UPS into the wall outlet.

1.6 Computer Maintenance


Computer maintenance is the practice of keeping computers in a good state of repair.

• A computer containing accumulated dust may not run properly. Therefore keep the
computer away from dust.
• Carry your laptop in a protective case or bag
• Always shut down your laptop after every use
• Keep the screen and keyboard clean and dry
• Keep the laptop on a flat surface
• Back up your data regularly
• Install antivirus software, keep it updated, and perform scans regularly.
• Set strong passwords and remember them.
• Don’t allow any other person to know your passwords
• Keep the desktop of the system free from storing unnecessary files
• Delete unwanted programs and files, and avoid installing the program which are unknown
free open source programs
• Update operating systems such as Windows/ Linux OS regularly.
• Avoid Pirated software.
• Keep track of your software CD/DVDs and license keys.
• Don’t apply force while plugging the connectors
• Read the instructions before installing any software

12
Computer Essentials

2- Computer Essentials
2.1 Computer overview
As we have seen in the previous chapter, a computer is an electronic data processing device,
which receives, stores input data, processes it, and delivers the output in a required format.

Figure2.1 Components of a Computer System

Fig2.1 represents the basic components of a computer system which includes Hardware and
Software.
1. Hardware refers to the physical components of a computer
2. Software refers to the intangible components i.e. computer programs that are executed
using hardware

2.2 Types of Software


The theory of software was first proposed by Alan Turing in 1935. The word software was
first used by John Tukey in 1958. Computer Software refers to the set of instructions that enables
the user to interact with the computer, its hardware, or perform tasks. Software can be broadly
categorized in two ways either Function based or License based. Various categories of software are
shown in fig2.2.

Figure2.2 Types of Software

13
Computer Essentials

2.2.1 Function-based Classification:


A) System Software:
Software that can interact with hardware directly and act as an interface between user applications
and hardware. An interface is needed for the users, since hardware devices can understand only the
machine language and users use English, Tamil, Hindi, French, etc. Therefore, system software
converts user instructions into machine readable instructions. Examples include Operating systems,
database managers, compilers, BIOS, device drivers, etc.

Figure 2.3 System Software

B) Application Software:
Software, developed using any programming languages for the use of naive users. On other
hand application software is a set of one or more programs designed to implement a task or to solve
a specific problem. Fig. 2.4 illustrates the variety of application software widely used in our day to
day life. These include the office packages, browsers, multimedia players, etc.

Figure 2.4 Application Software

14
Computer Essentials

Classification of Application Software:


Application Software can be classified into two types viz. General Purpose Programs and
Special Purpose Programs, as illustrated in Fig. 2.5.

Figure 2.5 Types of Application Software

General Purpose Software:


Ready-made Software that can be used by any user for performing general day to day tasks
such as listening music, drafting a letter, carrying out mathematical calculations, etc. The examples
for these kinds includes MS Word, MS Excel, MS Power Point, VLC media player

Special Purpose Software:


Software that is developed to meet specific requirements such as medical imaging, space
research, forensic investigations, automatic controls in vehicles and used by the specialised users are
known as special purpose software.

2.2.2 License-based Classification :


A) Proprietary Software:
Software that can be used only by the licensed users. Examples include Windows, MS Office,
Visual Studio, etc where we need the license key to make use of the software. Shareware is a type
of proprietary software, which is offered on a “try before you buy” basis. Fig.2.6 illustrates some of
the proprietary software.

Figure 2.6 Proprietary Software

15
Computer Essentials

B) Open Source Software:


Open-Source Software (OSS) is computer software with its source code made available with
a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change, and distribute the
software to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative
public manner. These programs are developed using High Level Languages. Examples include Linux,
Libre Office, Google Chrome, My SQL, etc. Figure 2.6 Proprietary Software

provides examples of the two categories of License-based Software.

Figure 2.7 Free Open Source Software

Freeware :

Software that is offered at free of charge without the freedom to modify the source code.
Free Software Foundation (FSF) defined free software as software that can be freely used, modified,
and redistributed with only one restriction: any redistributed version of the software must be
distributed with the original terms of free use, modification, and distribution.

Free and Open Source Software (FOSS):

It is a software that can be classified as both freeware and open-source software. FOSS
is freely licensed to read, copy, share, and change the software in any way, and the source code is
openly shared so that people are encouraged to voluntarily improve the design of the software.
Examples for FOSS are shown in fig 2.7.

16
Computer Essentials

Table2.1. Categorical Proprietary and Open Source Software

Type of Software Proprietary Software Open Source Software

Operating System

Office Package

Web Browser

e-book management

Media Player

Image Editor

Database Management

17
Computer Essentials

2.3 Operating system


An Operating System, also abbreviated as OS is system management software that manages
the computer hardware resources, peripherals and storage space. It also provides a basis for
application programs and acts as an interface between computer user and computer hardware.
Fig2.8 shows some examples of operating systems that we widely use in our practical life. Windows
is one of the popular operating systems used by many people on their desktop computers Also, we
have Linux and Ubuntu which are open-source operating systems that are widely used in desktop
and laptop computers. Apart from these there are many other operating systems such as MAC, Unix,
Android, etc available in market. iPhones use iOS operating systems. Android is used in the mobile
devices.

Figure2.8 Operating Systems

Initially, when a computer is bought from the vendor the system may not have any software
installed over it. At that time the computer is preloaded with system software called Basic Input
Output System (BIOS). We need to install an operating system and the device drivers of the
peripherals over the BIOS. Then the application software is installed over the OS. While invoking
application software the OS has to provide the resources for the execution of application software.
The fig 2.9 illustrates the user interaction process.

1. Hardware
2. BIOS
1 3. OS & Device Driver
4. Application Software
2

4
User Interaction

Figure2.9 User Interaction Process

18
Computer Essentials

During the user interaction process the software is loaded in the main memory by the OS by
allocating memory space. The application software cannot avail the hardware resources directly as it
is not designed to do so. To do the further operations the OS supplies the resources such as memory
space, Input / Output Bus, ALU, printer, display, etc by interacting with the BIOS where BIOS is the
system software that is designed to provide

Therefore, in the presence of OS, all that the user has to do is, just to double click on the
application icon or symbol and then the operating system takes care of supplying the resources. The
main functionalities of OS are as follows:

2.3.1 Loading and Execution: The user application resides at hard disk; and it is required
that any program which is to be executed should reside in the main memory (RAM). OS is
responsible for loading application and also for supporting the process execution.

2.3.2 Providing interface: User interface controls how we input data and instruction and
how information is displayed on screen. The operating system offers two types of interface to the
user:

i) Graphical User Interface:

It interacts with the visual environment to communicate with the computer. It uses
windows, icons, menus and other graphical objects to issue commands. e.g. Microsoft Windows,
Linux

ii) Character User Interface:

In this category the users communicate with the computer by typing commands. e.g. DOS,
Unix, etc.

19
Windows Operating System

3- Windows Operating System


The most popular desktop Operating System around the world is Microsoft Windows.
According to the research published recently, there are about 83 percent of desktop computer users
choose Microsoft Windows as their operating system. Microsoft Corporation is an American
multinational software corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington. It develops,
manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services related to computing.
Microsoft Windows is a series of graphical interface operating systems developed by Microsoft.
Table 3.1 provides the basic information about Microsoft Windows.

3.1 Significance of Windows OS


Before the release of Microsoft Windows, Microsoft users were using the single-
task command line operating system MS-DOS where the users need to be trained on several
commands for executing the operations. Windows OS eliminates the need to memorize commands
by providing an interface, known as Graphical User Interface (GUI). GUI enables the use of
a mouse to navigate through various menus, icons, buttons, and dialog boxes. Generally, Microsoft
names most of its products with one word, for example, MS-DOS, Windows, etc. The Windows OS
allows the users to have multiple windows for carrying out multiple tasks simultaneously.

Fig. 3.1 Windows Family

The detailed list of various windows versions released by Microsoft is given in fig 3.1.
Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as a

20
Windows Operating System

graphical operating system shell for MS- DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user
interfaces (GUI). There have been many versions of Windows since then, but the recent ones
include Windows 10 (released in 2015), Windows 8 (2012), Windows 7 (2009), Windows
Vista (2007), and Windows XP (2001).

The most current version of Windows for end users is Windows 10. Windows 10 was
released by Microsoft as part of the Windows NT family of operating systems. It was released on July
29, 2015. It is the first version of Windows that receives ongoing feature updates.

3.2 Starting with Windows OS


There are several process or procedures involved in the starting the Windows OS. Since
Windows is not an open-source, only Microsoft has the exact procedure for starting their OS which
will not be shared to all generally. But, EVERY OS must start with some basic set of stuff to do, which
almost every OS has in common. In this part of this book, let us look into the booting procedure of
an operating system.

There are several steps such as Power On Self Test (POST), boot files loading, Master Boot
Record (MBR) reading, Kernel initialization, etc involved in starting the OS. Once all the steps are
executed and the operating system is safely loaded into RAM, the boot process relinquishes control
to the OS. The OS then proceeds to execute any pre-configured start up routines to define user
configuration or application execution. Now, the computer is ready for use.

Figure 3.2 Windows desktop

A desktop view of the Windows OS is shown in fig 3.2. The taskbar runs along the bottom of
the Windows desktop and includes everything from the start button on the left to the clock on the
right. There is a start (window) button, Cortana (search) button, task view button, Microsoft’s new
Microsoft edge browser, etc. are available in the task bar. On the bottom right, you have the
notification area which includes useful information like the time and date if you have multiple

21
Windows Operating System

language keyboards and installed on your computer. You have the ability to connect to Wi-Fi; if you
click the Wi-Fi icon, it'll show you all of the Wi-Fi points that are nearby you.

All opened apps are also available in the task bar. To include an app in the task bar for quick
access,

• Select the App


• Right click on it
• Choose the option ‘pin to task bar’ from the pop up

You can switch from desktop to the start screen by clicking the start button.

Figure3.3. Windows 10 Start Up Screen

The Start menu has been part of Windows from its old version windows 95 to the Windows
7. In Windows 8 the start menu is completely reformed and it is replaced with the Start screen.
Because of users dissatisfaction the start button is back with Windows 10. But, it is a hybrid of the
Windows 7 Start menu and the Windows 8 Start screen. In Figure 3.3, there is a Windows 7 style
Start menu on the Left and the frequently used and recently installed apps in the middle section
which is similar to the start screen of Windows 8.

Using the power app in the start menu we can shut down the computer or restart it; it is also
possible to have other options like sleep and hibernate.

The settings app is a more simplified and easy to use version of the old windows control
panel. Microsoft is gradually moving as many settings as possible to the new interface so that there
is a single user experience across desktops, laptops, tablets and phones.

We can make changes to the network and Internet connections; personalize the background
imaging colors; Personalization helps to set up bluetooth devices, printers and make changes to the
user accounts. We can see the name of the currently logged in account in the start menu; if we right-
click on the account name we will get a menu with several options; we can select sign out option to
22
Windows Operating System

log out of the current account and log in using a different account; we can select lock option to lock
the computer with this user logged in; nobody would be able to use the computer without the
password for this account or another account on this computer; we can select change account
settings option to manage our account.

File Explorer App is available in the Start menu of the start up screen; It is a file management
application for Microsoft Windows; click on the app to browse through the files and folders on your
computer.

The right side of the Start menu in the windows start up screen has a Windows 8 style Start
screen with dynamic tiles. Tiles are representations of apps. There are Windows 10 Universal apps to
use live tiles without even having to open the apps. There is a news app which shows a slideshow of
the latest current news and the weather app shows the current weather conditions, calendar and
mail - after these apps are set up they will begin to show updates; these tiles can be rearranged by
selecting and holding on the tile and then dragging it around the menu. Windows 10 Universal apps
will run on all Windows 10 devices including Windows desktop, laptop, Windows Phone, tablet and
the Xbox.

Onedrive is a free online storage for Microsoft that comes as part of every Microsoft
account. Microsoft says it's like an extra hard drive and it's safer than using USB flash drives.
Onedrive is integrated directly into Windows 10 and it comes with 15 gigabytes of online storage for
free accounts.

3.2.1 Cortana: Cortana is just at the right of the start menu as shown in fig 3.4. It is an intelligent
digital assistant; Cortana is Microsoft's answer to Google now; Cortana is able to recognize natural
spoken language and provide assistance; Cortana can search the web, search your computer, help
you with calling and texting calendars, reminders, note-taking, alarms, maps and directions, local
business questions, weather and flight information, weight measure and currency conversions, stock
and finance and much more.

Figure 3.4 Cortana


23
Windows Operating System

3.2.2 Virtual desktops: Virtual desktops View, as shown in Figure 3.5 is a new feature in
Windows 10. Previously all applications you open would open on the same desktop. And, it is
inconvenient to play and work with the same computer at a time. The Task View button located just
to the right of Cortana on the taskbar, allows you to create multiple virtual desktops each with their
own open applications; you could have one virtual desktop running your business applications like
Word and Excel and have another virtual desktop running Facebook and Twitter;

Figure 3.5 Virtual desktops

3.2.3 Microsoft edge browser: Microsoft has replaced the default web browser included
with Windows; the default web browser since Windows 95 was Internet Explorer; Microsoft
developed a new edge browser keeping in mind the speed and modern technologies.

Search for the


defragmentation
program
Cortana

Figure 3.6 Searching the defragmentation program using Cortana

24
Windows Operating System

3.2.4 Disk Defragmenter: We can optimize our drives to help our computer run more
efficiently, or analyse them to find out if they need to be optimized. Cortana, as shown in figure 3.6
can be used to search this program. Disk Defragmenter is a utility in Microsoft Windows designed to
increase access speed by rearranging files stored on a disk to occupy contiguous storage locations, a
technique called defragmentation. Defragmenting a disk minimizes head travel, which reduces the
time it takes to read files from and write files to the disk. As of Windows 10, the program has been
renamed to Defragment and Optimize Drives. Figure 3.7 illustrates the screen shot view of the Disk
Defragmention.

However, in 2014, Microsoft admitted losing the majority of the overall operating system
market to Android, because of the massive growth in sales of Android smart phones. This
comparison however may not be fully relevant, as the two operating systems traditionally target
different platforms.

Figure 3.7 Disk Defragmentation

3.2.5 Keyboard Shortcut: Keyboard Shortcut provides access to computer software,


applications and files easily using a set of one or more keys. Keyboard shortcut is an alternate means
for invoking certain commands that would otherwise be accessible only through a menu, a mouse.

Word, Internet Explorer, File Explorer, Firefox, Excel, Chrome, etc. are few example
programs or files that are invoked through keyboard shortcuts. Few of the Windows Shortcut Keys
are listed in Table 3.1.

25
Windows Operating System

Table 3.1 Windows Shortcut Keys

Sl. No. Windows Shortcut Purpose

1. Windows Key + F Open - search for files and folders

2. Windows Key + D Display / hide – desktop

3. Windows + Break Open - System Properties dialog box

4. Windows Key + E Open – Explorer

5. Windows Key + R Open - Run menu

6. Windows Key + Up Arrow Maximize - current window

7. Windows Key + Down Arrow Minimize - current window

8. Alt + F4 Quit - active application or close current window

9. Alt + Esc Switch between programs - in the order they were


opened

10. Alt + Tab Switch between open programs

11. F1 Open - Help menu for active application

12. Ctrl + Shift + Esc Open - Task Manager

13. Ctrl + Esc or Windows Key Open - Start menu

3.3 Mobile Operating System


A mobile operating system is an operating system that operates a smart phone, tablet, or
other mobile devices. Android is a mobile operating system based on the Linux kernel and now
developed by Google. Android OS uses touch inputs to manipulate on-screen objects, and uses
virtual keyboard. It is the most widely used operating systems and it is the highest selling mobile
operating system in the recent periods. Android is an open source software and therefore anyone
can use it to build their own applications.

The company Android Inc was founded in Palo Alto, California by a team of four members
namely Rich Miner, Nick Sears, Chris White and Andy Rubin in Oct 2003. In 2005, the company was
acquired by Google along with the developing team. That team felt that Android could be offered to
third-party mobile phone manufacturers at free of cost and that the company could make money by
offering other services including mobile applications (apps). In 2007, Android became the member of
a consortium called the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), in which the other members were HTC and
Motorola, chip manufacturers such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, and carriers including T-

26
Windows Operating System

Mobile. The Android OS has been developed using C/C++ and Java. The recent version is “Oreo”
which was released on December 2017.

3.3.1 Features of Android:


a) Battery power - Doze is a feature used to turn off the all the applications when not in use in
order to save battery. Doze improves battery life by deferring CPU and network activities
when a user leaves a device unplugged, stationary, and with the screen turned off.

b) Data saver - This feature aims to make your smart phone to use less data. When Data Saver
is turned on, apps in the background won't be able to access mobile data.

c) Multitasking – Android phones can run many applications simultaneously. We can browse
Face book while listening to a song or watch movie while texting.

d) Multi-window – This feature allows two apps to be run simultaneously in split-screen mode;
The Recent apps button is available on the bottom left of the mobile. From the Recent apps
screen, press and hold the first app you want to run in multi-window mode. Then, open
another app from recent apps screen in the secondary window. Press the recent apps list for
few seconds to restore the primary app to full screen.

e) Notifications - Android’s notifications feature allows us to view mails, messages and other
notifications easily. There is no need to go into a messaging app or mail anymore. You can
reply to messages, see other replies and conduct your business without even leaving the app
you were already in. So, you no longer need to launch the app to send a quick response.

f) Quick Settings - You can rearrange your Quick Setting tiles so that you can get to what you
want faster.

g) Display size - It is possible to change the size of the text and all the display elements like
icons and images in the smart phone

h) Text-to-speech - This feature allows us to listen to an article/message or any content. if you


have an Android device. Do the following to hear incoming information rather than
viewing it:

Go to Settings -> Accessibility -> turn on the Text-to-Speech Output option.

i) Variable text-to-speech speed option allows users to set speech speed and pitches from a
wider range.

j) Work mode - Work mode allows you to turn on and off your device's work apps and
notifications for a better work-life balance.

k) Emergency information - This feature allows storage of information such as name, blood
type, allergies and an emergency contact in the smart phone so that emergency responders
can view this information even in the lock screen of the device.

27
Windows Operating System

Do the following set up for storing your Emergency Contacts.

Open apps → select contacts → option button → Groups → ICE- Emergency Contacts → Edit →
Add members

l) Device Safety - This feature allows you to locate and block your smart phone without losing
your data via the link given in your mobile if the smart phone is lost.

Do the following to set this feature in your device:

Go to Settings →Lock Screen and Security → Device administrators, and check the boxes: Remotely
locate this device, and Allow remote lock and erase.

m) Smart phone access with head movements – There may be situations when you just have
to use your device but your hands are otherwise occupied or it is too cold outside to take
your warm gloves off. This feature allows us to access the device with head movements
instead of fingers. Install a free app called EVA Facial Mouse to use this feature.

n) Secret Game - Starting with Android 2.3 Gingerbread, Google puts a small secret present for
users into all their devices. However, finding it may prove to be quite difficult. Go to Settings
and choose About phone or About tablet. Quickly tap Android version several times, and
when a small marshmallow shows up on the screen, quickly tap it again, and get a special
mini-game. But you need to install an app to access it.

3.3.2 Android and its versions: The initial versions of Android include Version 1.0 and 1.1.
But Google has considered Version 1.5 as the first popular version that highlighted the true power of
its platform and named it as Cupcake Android 1.5.

Every Android version after 1.5 has been released with definite code names named after yummy
desserts. Surprisingly, these names have been chosen in an alphabetical manner and there is no
official explanation available for this naming convention. The several versions of the android OS is
furnished below:

➢ Cupcake Android 1.5 (April 2009)


➢ Donut Android 1.6 (September 2009)
➢ Éclair Android 2.0/2.1 (October 2009)
➢ Froyo Android 2.2/2.2.3 (May 2010)
➢ Gingerbread Android 2.3/2.3.7 (Dec 2010)
➢ Honey Comb Android 3.0 (Feb 2011)
➢ Ice Cream Sandwitch Android 4.0/4.0.4 (Oct 2011)
➢ Jelly Bean Android 4.1/4.3 (July 2012)
➢ Kitkat Android 4.4 ( Oct 2013)
➢ Lollipop Android 5.5 (Nov 2014)
➢ Mashmallow Android 6.0 (Oct 2015)
➢ Nought Android 7.0 (August 2016)
➢ Oreo Android 8.0 (December 2017)

28
Windows Operating System

Know your Android Version:


To find out the version of Android that is currently running on your device, do the following
steps:

1. Press the Settings Button from the home screen

2. Select the Settings option

3. Scroll down and select About Phone

4. Scroll down to Android Version

The small number under the heading is the version number of the Android operating system
on your device.

29
Microsoft Office Package

4 - Microsoft Office Package


4.1 Database
Database is a structured/ non-structured collection of data, stored in a computer using data
management software in order to transform data into useful information

DATABASE

Collection of Data

Figure 4.1 A Typical Database

In a database, data is held in tables, which are made up of rows and columns. Each table has
one or more columns, and each column is assigned a specific data type, such as an integer number,
a sequence of characters (for text), or a date. Each row in the table has a value for each column.

4.1.1 Characteristics of database tables:

• No significance to the order of the rows or columns

• Each row contains one entry for each column

• Each entry in a given column has the same data type

A typical fragment of a database table containing student information is given in Table 4.1.
One can see that the fields such as student id, student name and student mark are used to
characterise a student and it has values of similar data types

30
Microsoft Office Package

Table 4.1 Student Table in a Database


Table

(row entry details) Fields (characteristics of records)

Std_id Std_name Std_mark


Records

CSE18C01 LEE 680

CSE18C02 TEEN 575

CSE18C03 BEN 620

CSE18C04 DON 498

4.1.2 Database Management System and its Functions:

Database Management System

Collection Activities related to Computer-software


of Data the manipulation of application that interacts
data viz. Insertion, with end-users, other
deletion, applications, and the
modification, etc database itself to capture
and analyze data

Create
Read

Update Delete Extract

Figure 4.2 Functions of DBMS

Figure 4.2 shows what a database management is? and also, the services provided by DBMS.
The database is a collection of tables. The services can be classified into five main functional groups:

1. Creation – Database creation by adding fields and records

31
Microsoft Office Package

2. Update – Insertion, modification, and deletion of the actual data (records/field names…)

3. Querying – Retrieval of data in a form directly usable or for further processing by other
applications; (i.e) searching, sorting, printing / display of records based on a criterion,
creating forms and reports

4. Administration – Database maintenance, data security, data integrity, Registering users,


monitoring users, monitoring performance, and data recovery in the event of unexpected
system failure.

The ultimate purpose of a database management system is to organize and transform data into
information to support decision-making process. Database Administrator (DBA) is responsible for
the maintenance of database. He is responsible for storage planning, database design, installation,
configuration, data backup and data recovery.

4.1.3 Examples of DBMS: Database management systems Software include DB2, MySQL,
Oracle, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server, MS Access and Sybase.

Microsoft Access
Microsoft Access is a desktop version of database system, developed by Microsoft. It helps
users to create and maintain databases to certain extent for their personal use. It is a powerful
database package that covers almost all the activities of a major DBMS.

MySQL
MySQL is one of the most popular DBMS on the web. It is an open source DBMS. It enables
multiple users to access multiple databases. The software runs on multiple platforms. For example it
supports most of the UNIX and Windows platforms.

SQL Server
SQL Server is a database server developed by Microsoft. It is designed to handle databases
with millions of records. It can be run on the same computer or on the other computers across the
network. SQL is a standard language for storing, manipulating and retrieving data in databases.

Oracle
The Oracle database is developed by Oracle corporation. It is mainly used in online
transaction processing (OLTP), Data Warehousing (DW) and mixed (OLTP & DW) database
activities. The maximum size of an Oracle database is 8 million terabytes.

4.1.4 Database Applications: Applications of databases include banking, finance, business,


organization and education.

Educational Institutional Management Information System


Currently, universities and colleges implement online admissions, online examinations,
online result publication. Student’s registrations details, programs and courses, fee details, results,
grades and all the other related information are stored in database.

32
Microsoft Office Package

Library Management System


DBMS is used to keep a record of all the books in a Library; it is also responsible for
maintaining all the information related to book issue details, book title / name / author search and
availability of the book.

Banking
Banking include tracking of credit /debit transactions, customer - record maintenance,
various bank statement generation, etc. Bank transactions are online now just because of DBMS
that manages them. Customers can access the bank sitting at home.

Telecom
Telecom departments store call details, billing details, network usage, customer details etc.
And, the amount of data is huge which keeps updating every millisecond. Certainly, DBMS is a boon
to this department to store data, update data and generate various reports.

Industry
Companies have employees and they make products for sales. DBMS is used to keep records
of employee data, products and sales particulars.

4.1.5 Managing Database:


Activity 1: creating database using Microsoft Access
A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet or Microsoft Access is good example of desktop database
programs. These programs allow users to create, store, update, secure, and retrieve data when
needed. Let us now understand the method of creating a database and accessing it using Microsoft
Access.

Let us see the design of a Student Register database containing a table named
StudentRecord with 6 fields/columns and 11 student records/rows. Also let us discuss the form
design with navigation buttons. Finally, we’ll see how create and use queries to retrieve relevant
records those meet the search criteria.

Database design procedure


1. Open the application - Microsoft Access from windows start-up screen

2. Click on the blank database option on the home screen, after that give the database a name,
for eg. StudentRegister. This step creates a database with an empty table by default.

3. Click on the table name and select the design view option from the View Menu as shown in
Figure 4.3 and give the table a name, for eg. Student Record

4. Add the desired fields along with their data type as shown in Figure 4.4. The data-type of
each field in the database determines the type of data that will be accepted in the database.

5. The lookup wizard allows the user to define fixed multiple values for a field in the table. To
do this, click on the respective data type column (say, for eg., the data type for
‘programme’) and select the lookup wizard option; A popup window appears on the screen;
enter suitable values using this option (Figure 4.5Figure ). Now, if you view the table in the
33
Microsoft Office Package

‘view mode’ and click on the specific field, fixed multiple choices appear for that field (Figure
4.6)

6. Field attributes other than data-type, for eg. Field size, format, default value etc., can be set
using the Field Properties Pane in the bottom of the window.

Figure 4.3 View Menu

List of Fields in Type of data


the Table allowed in the field

Click to select
suitable data type
Std_ID field is
the primary key Field properties pane
for the Table

Figure 4.4 Table Creation

34
Microsoft Office Package

To select a programme from the list of ME, MCA and M.Sc. from the programme field, do
the following:

a) Click the datatype option of the field named ‘Programme’ and select ‘lookup Wizard…’
in the StudentRecord:Table which is opened in the design view.

b) Proceed further to enter the lookup column values namely ME, MCA, MSc and then
click ok.

c) Now click the ‘database view’ option from the view menu. Click the programme filed of
any record to enter a value. Now, a dropdown list will pop out, from which you can
select your choice.

Figure 4.5 Lookup wizards to enter the list of multiple choices

Figure 4.6 StudentRecord Table in the Database View mode after lookup wizard
settings for the ‘programme’field

7. Set one of the fields with unique properties as the ‘primary key’ so that records from the
tables can be searched using this field (primary key) value. To change the primary key, select
the specific field (table in the design view) and then click the ‘primary key’ button (Figure
4.7Figure ).

35
Microsoft Office Package

Figure 4.7 Primary key selections

8. Now that a table has been stored in the Access database

9. Open this table in the ‘database view’ mode using the view menu and enter records as
shown in Figure 4.8

Click this box to Name of Name of the


select a record Open Table database in title bar

Field Names

Navigation
Pane

Table with
11 Records

Type here to insert a new record

Figure 4.8 StudentRecord:Table

10. Creating Queries


Now, let us see how to create and use queries with Access database. Queries are just an
alternate name for searches.
1. Open the Table named StudentRecord
2. Click ‘Query Wizard’ button in the Create Tab
3. Select ‘simple queries’, choose the table and select all data (fields names)
4. Click, Next →default→ ‘I will modify the query design’→finish

36
Microsoft Office Package

This is the design view in which you can pass the queries. To search the list of students who
pursue ME, type ‘ME’ in the cell corresponding to the column ‘programme’ and row ‘criteria’.
11. Query Execution
1. Click the ‘run’ button in the design menu to execute the query. The search result will
be displayed as shown in Figure 4.9.
2. Click the save button to save this query with a name, say, list of ME students
3. Obtain the result for the query as shown in Figure 4.10.

Run Query

Figure 4.9 Query Execution

Figure 4.10 Resultant Table Based on the search criteria

37
Microsoft Office Package

4.2 Basic Office Automation Tools


Office automation helps to automate / computerize existing office procedures. It refers to
the computer network with a set of software used to digitally create, store, manipulate, and
communicate official information needed for accomplishing basic tasks. The functions of office
automation systems include data processing and communication systems. Microsoft word and excel
are examples for data processing software; e-mail, facsimile, voice mail and video conferencing are
examples for data communication software. Let us discuss MS word and excel in this chapter.

4.2.1 Microsoft Word: Microsoft Word is a computer program used to create, edit, and
format text documents. It is one of the sophisticated word-processing programs available. Word is
used to create a wide range of official and personal documents, from the simplest letter to the most
complex report.

Features of Microsoft Word:


1. Launch Microsoft Word and open a blank document
2. Save the document even before you start typing anything; To do this, click the ‘file’ menu,
select ‘save as’ and choose the location where you want to save the file.
3. The ‘home’ tab is MS Word’s standard view(Figure4.11)
4. The Page Layout Tab is used for page setup and paragraph settings such as Margin,
Orientation, Size and Columns
5. The ‘styles’ section in the Home page contains different styles of page formatting. When you
type, your layout will automatically match the format selected. It also allows you to change
the color scheme, watermark, and paragraph spacing of the document (Figure4.12).

Save Undo &Redo

Figure4.11 Microsoft Word

38
Microsoft Office Package

Click this button to


Margin setting setup page layout

No. of columns
in a page

Figure4.12 Microsoft Word – Page Layout view

The author recommends the following Page Setup (Figure4.13) details for report writing:

✓ Custom Margin:

Top : 2.5cm; Bottom : 2.5cm;

Left : 4.0cm; Right : 2.5cm

✓ Size: A4

✓ Heading1

Font Size: 14; Alignment: Center; Spacing: before: 0 pt; After: 12pt;

Line spacing: 1.5; Bold; All Caps;

✓ Heading2

Font Size: 12.5; Alignment: Left; Spacing: before: 12 pt; After: 0 pt;

Line spacing: 1.5; Bold; All Caps; Character spacing may also be set.

✓ Heading3

Font Size: 13; Alignment: Left; Spacing: before: 6 pt; After: 0 pt

39
Microsoft Office Package

Line spacing: 1.5; Bold; Sentence case;

✓ Heading4

Font Size: 12.5; Alignment: Left; Spacing: before: 6 pt; After: 0 pt

Line spacing: 1.5; Bold; Sentence case;

✓ Paragraph:

Font Size: 12.5; Alignment: justified; Spacing: before: 0 pt; After: 0 pt

Line spacing: 1.5; Regular; Sentence case;

✓ It is best to use a serifed font (such as Times) for body text and a sans serif font (such as
Arial) for figures such as graphs

Figure4.13 Microsoft Word – page setup

6. The References Tab contains options to add Table of Contents, Footnotes, Bibliographic
Information, Indexes and Citations.

7. With proper page setup it is easy to generate Table of Contents (Figure 4.14). To do this,
first type the document following the page set up instructions, then goto ‘References’ tab →
Table of Contents → insert new table → select a format of your choice and then click ok.

8. In a similar way, indexes and citations can be created for the bibliographic information
(Figure 4.1616). It is also possible to generate list of figures and tables (Figure4.17). These

40
Microsoft Office Package

features in MS word are a blessing to the researchers for documentation and article
preparation.

Figure 4.14 Microsoft word – Table of Contents settings

Figure 4.15 Example for Table of Contents generation

41
Microsoft Office Package

Figure 4.16 Bibliography Creation

3
1

Type the title here

Select the figure to be titled

Figure4.17 Inserting Caption to Figures

9. To insert equations, goto the insert tab and click ‘Equations’; Built-in equations pop up. It is
also possible to insert a new equation by selecting the ‘insert new equation’ option;

42
Microsoft Office Package

Figure 4.18 Inserting Equations

10. The format tab is used to edit pictures (Figure 4.19). There are many features available to
format a picture. The feartures include brightness & contrast adjustment, compress picture,
picture effects, rotate picture, crop, text wrapping, etc.

Figure 4.19 Formatting Pictures

11. The find and replace option (Figure 4.) is used to search for the text to be replaced in the
document and replaces it with the replacement text.

Figure 4.20 Find and replace option

43
Microsoft Office Package

12. To add shapes of different kind, click insert tab and select the desired shape from the
‘shapes’ option (Figure 4.).

Figure 4.21 Microsoft Word – inserting shapes

13. Word art (Figure 4.) is another interesting feature which is used to type text artistically.

Figure 4.22 WordArt

44
Microsoft Office Package

14. Smart art (Figure 4.) option in the insert tab is used to create flowcharts and other block
diagrams.

Figure 4.23 Inserting SmartArt

15. The review tab contains various options including track change settings, accept/reject
changes, marking options which enables the reviewer to revise an article or report without
the need for pen and paper. In addition, word also provides a summary of revisions which
describes the quantum of revisions made by the reviewer interms of no. of pages, no. of
words, no. of insertions/deletions, average edits per page, etc (Figure 4.).

Figure 4.24 Microsoft Word – The Review Menu

45
Microsoft Office Package

Attention….

Save your document every 5 to 10 minutes! There is an alternate way to save it from the
keyboard by holding down the CTRL key and the S key.

Activity 2: Create a Cover Letter and Resume using Microsoft Word


Prepare a word document containing a cover letter for job application in your area of
interest and your own resume. Sample cover letter and resume are given below:

From
Type your Name,
No. 120/5, XX Street,
Palayamkottai,
Tirunelveli – 12.
To
The Correspondent,
XXX Matric. Hr. Sec. School,
Near High Court,
Palayamkottai,
Tirunelveli – 12.
Respected Sir,
Sub: Application for the post of Computer Science Teacher.

Ref: Your advertisement in The Hindu dated 5th May 20XX.

With reference to your advertisement cited above, I would like to apply for the post of
Computer Science Teacher in your esteemed institution. The enclosed Curriculum Vitae enlist my
educational qualifications and experience.

I assure you that I will discharge my duties to the best of my ability if I am given an
opportunity.

Thanking You,

05.06.20XX Yours Faithfully, Palayamkottai

(Arockia Jansi Rani P)

46
Microsoft Office Package

Curriculum Vitae Insert


your
Type Your Name here
photo
No. 120/5, XX Street, Palayamkottai, Tirunelveli - 12
here
Mobile No: 94xxxxxxxx Email-ID: [email protected]

Professional Experience

❖ Organization : Manonmaniam Sundaranar University,Tirunelveli

Designation : Lecturer

Period : June 2015 to till date

Academic Qualification

Year of
Name of the Class or Division
Degree of
School/College/ Average Marks
Examination Subjects taken
University of Grade
Entry Leaving

SSLC Type your School’s Name, xxxx yyyy Tamil,English, 80.60%


City Name Mathematics,
Science,
History,
Geography

HSSC Type your School’s Name, xxxx yyyy Tamil,English, 87.42%


City Name Mathematics,
Physics,Chemistry
& Biology

B.E., Type your College’s Name, xxxx yyyy Computer Science 60% with
City Name and Engineering First class

M.E., Type your College’s Name, xxxx yyyy Computer Science 75%, First Class
City Name and Engineering with Distinction

47
Microsoft Office Package

Awards / Prizes Received

• National Conference on Advances in Electronic Communication, ADELCO 2004 at National


Engineering College, Kovilpatti

• T.A.Shajila and P. Arockia Jansi Rani, “Elliptic Curve Cryptography in VLSI Implementation of
Digital Signatures”, National Conference on Advances in Electronic Communication, National
Engineering College, Kovilpatti, 2012

Symposium/Seminar/Workshops Attended

• Participated in the UGC-SAP sponsored Two day Seminar for the teaching Faculty
members on Digital Image Processing using MATLAB, organized by the Department of
Computer Science and Engineering on 2nd and 3rd February, 2012.

Resource Persons : Dr. R.A. Alagu Raja and Ms. B. Sathya Bama,

Assistant Professor, Remote Sensing and GIS LAB, TCE

Technical Skill Set

❖ Operating Systems : Windows, Android

❖ Programming languages : Mat Lab, C, C++, & VC++

❖ Productivity Tool : MS-OFFICE 2013

❖ Networking : TCP/IP, FTP

❖ Professional Training : Printed Circuit Board Making

Project Profile

B.E. Project:

Title : Wireless Communication using MODEM.

Role : Analysis, Design, Report writing, PCB Designing,

Aligning & Soldering, Testing.

Team Size : Four

Description : This project envisages Wireless Communication between a computer and


a remote printer. For transmitting a character, a specific baud rate is chosen. This project
can be extended for transmitting data from several computers to a single printer.

48
Microsoft Office Package

PERSONAL DETAILS

Date of Birth & Age : DD/MM/YYYY / xx years

Gender : Female

Father’s Name & Occupation : Mr. xxxxx, Designation

Mother’s Name & Occupation : Mrs. xxxxxxxx, Designation

Brothers/Sisters : 1 Brother

Languages Known : Tamil and English

Marital Status : Married

Nationality : Indian

Declaration:

I hereby declare that the information given above is true to the best of my knowledge.

Signature,

Put your Signature

(Type Your Name)

Activity 3: Create a Cover Letter and Resume using ‘Microsoft office word template’

49
Microsoft Office Package

4.2.2 Microsoft Excel: MS-Excel is a Windows based application package. In addition to


entering, editing and storing of data, it is quite useful in manipulating data. Arithmetic operations
such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division can be done with Excel. Sorting data based
on a criterion (like ascending, descending etc.) and solving simple financial, mathematical and
statistical problems are also possible.

Features of Microsoft Excel

Page Setup
Select File→Page Setup from the menu bar to format the page, set margins, and add
headers and footers. The size of the worksheet on the page can also be formatted using Scaling.
Select Fit to 1 page(s) wide to let the worksheet to print only one page wide so that all the columns
appear on the same page. Change the top, bottom, left, and right margins under the Margins tab.
Enter values in the header and footer fields to indicate how far the text should appear from the
edge of the page. Check the boxes for centring horizontally or vertically on the page.

As you have been exposed to MS Access and MS Word, you must be familiar with the
standard home tab, page layout tab, insert tab and the save settings; MS excel does have similar
settings. In excel each cell is identified by the column number – row number pair, for eg.C5
corresponds to the cell with column id C and row id 5. This kind of cell representation is useful in
relative referencing.

Relative reference
When a formula is copied into other cells, the row numbers for the cells change according to
the row into which the formula has been copied.

Eg. F5: = C12 if F5 is copied into cells H6 and H7 then, H6=C13; H7=C14

Absolute reference
The formula remains the same even if it is copied into other cells.

Eg. G6: =$C$12 if G6 is copied into cells H8 and H9 then, H8=G6; H9=G6

(i.e.) Relative reference points to the contents of a cell whereas Absolute reference points to
a specific cell.

Figure 4.25 Microsoft Excel – Formula Menu

To understand the main functions of excel, let us create a student table and try to manipulate it
using the excel software. In this section, let discuss the use of the formula bar and formulae which
are available in the formula tab shown in the Figure 4..

1. Launch Microsoft Excel

50
Microsoft Office Package

2. Create a table with 7 fields and enter the data as shown in the figure. To do this, just enter
the name of each field in each column in the excel sheet. The column/row size can be
adjusted according to the length/width of the contents (Figure 4.).

Note: buil-in formula can be inserted from the Formula tab; User defined formula can be
entered in the formula bar with ‘=’ symbol.

3. Enter the information below in the cells indicated.

B12: Weightage; C12: 0.3; D12: 0.3; E12: 0.3; F12: 0.1

4. Enter the information below in the cell indicated.

B13: C_Average; B14: Sumfn; B15: C_Averagefn

5. Enter the formulae below in the cells indicated. These formulae demonstrate three methods
for calculating averages for a column of data.

C13=(c5+c6+c7+c8)/4 C14=sum(c5:c8)/4 C15=average(c5:c8)

Note: C13=C14=C15

C13 (user defined formula); C14 (Built-in function to compute Sum); C15 (Built-in
function to compute Average);

6. Charts for comparison can be generated as follows:

Select a group of cells to be compared; Choose a chart option from the insert tab;
Chart as shown in the Figure 4. is created.

Auto fit to
column width

Select column

Figure 4.26 An Example Table created using Excel

51
Microsoft Office Package

Figure 4.27 Creating Charts using Excel

7. Relative/ Absolute Referencing

a) Enter the formula below into cell G5 and copy it into cells G6 to G8. Notice that
when this formula is copied into other cells, the row numbers for the cells change
according to the row into which the formula has been copied.

G5: = 0.3*c5+0.3*d5+0.3*e5+0.1*f5

This demonstrates the use of a "relative reference" that points to the


contents of a cell.

b) Enter the formula below into cell H5 and then copy it into cells H6 to H8.

H5: =C12*C5+D12*D5+E12*E5+F12*F5

Note:

c) Enter the formula below into cell I5 and then copy it into cells I6 to I8.

I5: =$C$12*C5+$D$12*D5+$E$12*E5+$F$12*F5

Note:

d) Enter the formula below into cell J5 and then copy it into cells J6 to J8.

J5: =$C$12*$C$5+$D$12*$D$5+$E$12*$E$5+$F$12*$F$5

Note:

52
Microsoft Office Package

e) This demonstrates the role of an "absolute reference" that points to a specific cell.
Notice that the absolute reference (for eg. $C$12) remains the same(J5) whereas
the relative reference (for eg. C12 ) changes according to the location into which the
formula is copied (H5)(Figure 4.).

=$C$12*C5+$D$12*D5+$E$12*E5+$F$12*F5
Correct answer

J5: =$C$12*$C$5+$D$12*$D$5+$E$12*$E$5+$F$12*$F$5
Incorrect answer

=C12*C5+D12*D5+E12*E5+F12*F5
Incorrect answer

Figure 4.28 Microsoft Excel-using built-in and user-defined formulae

4.2.3 Microsoft PowerPoint: PowerPoint is a presentation software that enables the users
to present their thoughts using interactive and multimedia content. Basically, presentation is a
collection of data and information that is to be delivered to a specific audience. Similarly,
PowerPoint presentation is a collection of digital multimedia data.

Microsoft Word: To create and edit official /professional/personal documents.

Microsoft Excel: To perform Calculation and analyze data

Microsoft PowerPoint: To present the document summary, calculations carried out, resultant data
analysis and reports in slides shows.

Features of Microsoft PowerPoint

We have discussed Microsoft Word and Excel earlier. In this section, let us discuss the method of
preparing a presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint.

1. Open Microsoft Office PowerPoint. The presentation with default title slide layout is
created.

2. Type a title in the title box and the author’s name in the subtitle box; save this file.

53
Microsoft Office Package

3. Insert a new slide using the insert option from the Home menu and Choose
appropriate slide layout using the layout option (Figure 4.)

4. Appropriate design layout can be chosen from the Design menu (Figure 4.)

5. Two types of format menu are available: one for text formatting and the other for
picture editing. The text format menu (Figure 4.) contains insert shape, shape styles,
wordArt Styles, arrangement of textbox options. The picture format menu (Figure
4.) contains picture colour – contrast adjustments, picture styles and arrangement
of picture options.

Figure 4.29 Microsoft PowerPoint – Title Slide and Layout

Figure 4.30 The Design Menu

6. Animation menu contains various animation effects; to add animation effect, select
an option from the ‘transition to this slide’ list; the transition speed, sound can also
be set from the animation tab; The ‘Advance Slide’ option is used to set the way of
advancing each slide in the slide show ( Figure4.).

54
Microsoft Office Package

Picture
editing
menu

Figure 4.31 Picture Formatting Menu

Figure 4.32 Text Formatting Menu

Figure4.33 Inserting Animation

7. The insert tab contains options to shapes, chart, pictures, etc. It is also possible to
insert media clips like movie or sound into the slide. For example, to insert audio
clipping, click the insert tab and select the sound option from the media clips list.
Click ‘record sound’ in the sound option for voice recording. An action button
appears in the slide. Click that button to playback the recorded audio when the
presentation is run in the slideshow mode (Figure 4.).

8. Hyperlinks help us to navigate to another slide in the same document or to some


other document (either in your hard disk or in the web). Hyperlink can be set to
either text from the slide (Figure 4.) or an action button in the insert shapes option
(Figure4.). To insert a hyperlink, select the text or the action button to which a
hyperlink is to be set, click the ‘Hyperlink’ option from the Insert menu and choose
an option from ‘link to’ option in the popup window (say, for eg., ‘existing file’).
Select the choice from the ‘look in’ option.

55
Microsoft Office Package

Voice
recording

Click this action button to play the audio

Figure 4.34 PowerPoint – Inserting Audio

9. After successful preparation of the presentation, slideshow can be run either by


pressing the F5 button in the keyboard or by clicking the slideshow button in the
slide. In the slideshow mode, the computer screen can also be used as white board
as shown in the Figure 4..

Figure 4.35 Inserting Hyperlinks through the insert menu

56
Microsoft Office Package

Slide Show

Figure4.36 Setting Hyperlinks using Action Buttons in the Shapes option

Figure 4.37 PowerPoint – SlideShow Settings

Activity 4: Create a PowerPoint Presentation


A sample presentation (Figure4.) along with seven pictures is given below. Use those
pictures and prepare a PowerPoint presentation titled ‘A Smart presentation’ by incorporating
various features of the Microsoft PowerPoint software. As part of this activity record your own voice
and insert it in the slides as shown, add animation and insert hyperlink. Use the cloud callout box
(figure 4.38)from Microsoft Word.

57
Microsoft Office Package

Figure4.38 Cloud Callout box

The objective of this activity is to be familiar with certain PowerPoint features and also to
learn the art of preparing PowerPoint slides containing only powerful points! At the end of this
activity you will understand the method of choosing slide layout, inserting shapes and text boxes,
inserting media clips (sound), inserting pictures, etc.

58
Microsoft Office Package

Figure4.39 Sample PowerPoint Presentation Script

59
Computer Communication

5 - Computer Communication
Communication refers to the process of sharing information. Computers or other computing
devices can be used for sharing the information. While doing so, the information is converted into
binary data and transmitted over the wired or wireless medium. This kind of communication is
known as Data Communication and the computers along with the connectivity are known as
Computer Network.

Rule 1 Rule 1
Rule 2 Rule 2

Rule n Rule n
Protocol Protocol

Message

Sender Receiver

Figure 5.1 Communication System

5.1 Components of a Communication System


The communications system comprises of 5 components viz. sender, receiver, message,
transmission medium and protocol as illustrated in Figure 5.1.
Sender:
It may be a computing device such as computer, mobile phone, video camera, or any other
computing device that originates the message for communicating with the recipient.
Receiver:
The receiver may be another computing device to which the message is intended to be sent.
Message:
It is the information (data) that is to be communicated to the receiver. General forms of
message may be text, numbers, pictures, audio, and video.
Transmission medium:
The transmission medium refers to the physical connection, used for carrying the message
from sender to receiver. Some examples of transmission media may include shielded/ unshielded
twisted-pair cable, coaxial cable, optical fiber cable, radio waves, etc.
Protocol:
A protocol is a set of rules that manages data communications. In other words, it represents
an agreement between the communicating devices. Communication among computing devices
without a protocol is similar to a person speaking French to a person who can only understand
Tamil.

60
Computer Communication

5.2 Types of Networks:


There are various kinds of computer networks, widely used by all. They are:
• Local Area Network (LAN)
• Wide Area Network (WAN)
• Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
• Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
• Storage Area Network (SAN)
• Controller Area Network (CAN)
• Personal Area Network (PAN)
• Global Area Network (GAN)
• Internet Area Network (IAN)
Each node in the network has a specific internet protocol (IP) address for identifying the nodes and
the IP address comprises of network address and node address. Basic networks which include Local
Area Network (LAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) and Wide Area Network (WAN) are
discussed in this chapter.
5.2.1 Local Area Network: LAN links computing devices together within a limited
geographical area as shown in Figure 5.2 LAN allows users to communicate messages, transfer files,
and share resources, at home, school, office or college. LANs can span over a limited range i.e. of 1
km in radius. The smallest LAN can consist of 2 computers. LANs are usually owned, controlled, and
managed by a single person or any organization. Many devices such as Ethernet switches, hubs,
repeaters, and bridges are used in LAN.

File Server
Print Server

Figure 5.2 Local Area Network

61
Computer Communication

LAN A P MAN LAN B

LAN

Figure 5.3 Metropolitan Area Network


5.2.2 Metropolitan Area Network: MAN is used to connect two or more LANs in a
common geographic area, say, a city or a group of buildings. It can be considered as a larger version
of a LAN but smaller than the area covered by a WAN. It can span over a range of 5 to 50 km. MANs
usually owned by an association of users or by a network service provider. Examples of metropolitan
area networks of various sizes can be found in the metropolitan areas of Bengaluru, London,
England; and Switzerland. The best-known example of a MAN is the cable television network
available in many cities. Figure 5.3 illustrates a typical MAN that consists of 3 LANs.

LAN LAN

Wide Area Network

Figure 5.4 Wide Area Network


62
Computer Communication

5.2.3 Wide Area Network: A WAN connects several networks, including LANs and MANs.
This ensures that computers and users in one location can communicate with computers and users
of other locations.WAN is used to connect reasonably large geographical area such as a state, a
country, a continent, or the Internet. WAN allows users to access computers or file servers that are
available outside their region. Internet browsing is also possible using WAN. It can span over a
range of huge area of about 100,000 km (Eg. Planet – Internet). WAN management is distributed
and it cannot be handled at individual level. Devices such as routers, communication servers,
repeaters and modems are used in WAN. A WAN is illustrated in Figure 5.4.

5.2.4 Wireless and Wired Network:

Figure 5.5 Wirelesses and Wired Communication

Wired Network
Wired network refers to the computer network in which the computing devices are linked
together using specialised cables, such as ethernet cables for data transfer. Fiber-optic Networks,
Telephone networks and cable television are examples of wired Networks.

Wireless network
It is a computer network that uses wireless medium between the computing devices.
Examples of wireless networks include cellular phone networks, satellite communication networks,
wireless local area networks (WLANs), and wireless sensor networks. The wired and wireless
communication is illustrated in Figure 5.5.

63
Computer Communication

Wi-Fi Network
Wi-Fi is a kind of WLAN that use the IEEE 802.11 communications standard and it is a
trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance, an international association of companies involved with wireless
LAN technologies and products. It is a technology that uses radio waves to provide network
connectivity. Wi-fi Network can be used to link computers, smart phones, or any other computing
devices to the internet and to the wired networks.
It is easy to establish Wi-Fi network service at homes, businesses, as well as in public places
either free-of-cost or on commercial basis. Corporate sectors and business places, such as airports,
hotels, and restaurants, often provide free-use hotspots to attract customers where hotspot is a
physical location where people can avail internet access using Wi Fi technology. .

Router:
A router is a computer networking device that acts as mediating device and transfers data
packets between two or more computer networks. These networks may use different technologies
and communication formats. The router possesses a routing table which describes the route to be
followed while transferring the packets from the source to the destination. In this case, the router
receives the data packet, reads the network address, determines the destination and directs the
packet to the next network till it reaches the destination.

Switch:
A network switch is another computer networking device that connects devices together on
a computer network to receive, process, and forward data to the destination device.

Internet:
The internet is a network of networks that allows the users to send and receive information. The
internet consists of heterogeneous network and provides several services such as World Wide Web
(WWW), File Transfers, secured transactions, etc. Today several applications run on internet. Some
of the common uses of internet to the society are:
✓ Sending and receiving of messages
✓ Uploading and downloading of files
✓ To play games, listen to music, search for pages and watch film.
✓ To carry out money transactions
✓ Effective e-governance
✓ Online application process, etc

5.3 World Wide Web (WWW)


WWW is one of the services provided by the internet. WWW contains huge amount of
information that are shared and stored at several locations. These information are in the form of
Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) pages and can be made available to the users using Hyper Text
Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The HTML pages are also called as web pages. Web browser is a program
on the computer that allows you to browse the web pages. A collection of web pages are called as
website. A computer that hosts a website on the Internet is called web server. Users can log on to
the web server using the IP address of the web server or they can use Uniform Resource Locator
(URL).

64
Computer Communication

Uniform Resource Locator (URL):


A URL as shown in figure 5.6 allows the browser to find a specific webpage or file across the
internet just similar to a postal address which enables mail to reach its destination. The term
‘Uniform’ refers to the fact that the address for every web page follows the same rules – i.e. they
are uniform. The term ‘Resource’ refers to the website, a document or a video. The term ‘Locator’
refers to the components of the web address put together to indicate its place on the internet.

Search engine:
A website that helps us to find other web pages that contains our search criterions are
known as search engine. Example: yahoo, google, bingo, etc.

URL

Figure 5.6 URL Example

Electronic Mail (email or e-mail):


It is a method of exchanging messages between people using the computing devices. Email
operates over the Internet. Today, email systems are working on store-and-forward model.
Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers
are required to be online simultaneously. Electronic mail system comprises of in-box, sent folder,
draft folder, spam folder, etc. The screenshot shown in figure 5.7 is the "Inbox" page of an email
system, where users can see new emails and take actions, such as reading, deleting, saving, or
responding to these messages

Figure 5.7 Inbox page of an e-mail system

65
Computer Communication

Cookies:
The details regarding the list of sites, visited by the user is stored in files called cookies. They make
user’s online experience easier by saving the browsing information. With cookies, sites can keep us
signed in, remember our site preferences, and give us locally relevant content.
There are two types of cookies:
• First-party cookies: These are created by the site visited by the user. The site is shown in the
address bar.
• Third-party cookies: These are created by other sites. These sites own some of the content,
like ads or images that you see on the webpage, visited by the user.
Steps to see cookies in Chrome browser
i. From the Chrome menu in the top right corner of the browser, select Settings.
ii. At the bottom of the page, click Show advanced settings....
iii. Under Privacy, select Content settings....
o To manage cookie settings, check or uncheck the options under "Cookies".
o To view or remove individual cookies, click “All cookies and site data” and hover the
mouse over the entry. Select the X that appears next to the cookie to remove it.
o To delete all cookies, click All cookies and site data and select Remove all
Sample list of cookies in a computer (search result based on keyword “iitb” are captured and shown
in figure 5.8

Figure 5.8 Cookies Example Screenshot

SMS (Short Message Service):


It is a text messaging service that uses communication protocols to enable mobile devices to
exchange short text messages. With an SMS, a message of up to 160 characters can be sent to
another device. Longer messages will automatically be split up into several parts. Most cell phones
support this type of text messaging.

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS):


It is a standard way to send multimedia messages. Multimedia message includes pictures,
video, or audio content. MMS is most commonly used to send a photo to another phone. It can

66
Computer Communication

deliver a variety of media, including up to forty seconds of video, one image, a slideshow of multiple
images, or audio.

5.4 Client-Server Computing

In a Client-Server Computing environment, a client is any process or a computer that


requires specific services from a server which may be some other process or another computer. A
server is a process that provides requested services for clients. Client and server processes can
reside in the same computer or in different computers connected by a network.
Servers can control access to a network, send/receive e-mail, manage print jobs, or host a website.

Cloud Computing:
The term cloud refers to a network or internet. Cloud computing refers to the process of
storing and accessing data over the Internet instead of the user computer's hard disk.
An example of a Cloud Computing provider is Google's Gmail. Gmail users can access files
and applications hosted by Google via the internet from any device. Users can also publish
documents so that other people can read them or even make edits. So, Google Docs is also
an example of cloud computing. Web e-mail providers like Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail store e-
mail messages on their own servers.
Applications such as e-mail, web conferencing, customer relationship management, run in
cloud.

Public Cloud:
The users are not responsible for any of the management of a public cloud hosting solution.
The users’ data is stored in the service provider's data centre and the provider is responsible for the
management and maintenance of the data centre.
Examples of public clouds include Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), IBM's Blue Cloud,
Sun Cloud, Google AppEngine and Windows Azure Services Platform.

Mobile Application:
A mobile app is a computer program designed to run on a mobile device such as a smart
phone/tablet or watch rather than desktop or laptop computers. A mobile application may also be
known as an app, Web app, online app, iPhone app or smartphone app.
Commonly available app stores include Google Play for Android, App Store for iOS,
and Microsoft Store for Windows 10, Windows 10 Mobile, and Xbox One.
Facebook, YouTube, Google Maps, Mobile banking, Mobile ticketing, Mobile vouchers &
coupons, Location-based services, Mobile Browsing are few examples of Mobile Apps.

67
Electronic Governance

6- Electronic Governance
6.1 Introduction
Governance of a country or a business organization can be defined as the process of
establishing, implementing and monitoring the well defined policies, processes and procedures in
order to optimize its objectives by keeping all its stake holders satisfied. Good governance has eight
major characteristics. It includes participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent,
responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive services. Further good governance must
follow the rules. Governance in India like countries involves several challenges due to the high
population and vast areas. As a result the dissemination of policies, plans, and the welfare schemes
of the central and state governments to the common public becomes challenging and the
implementation becomes difficult.

6.2 E-Governance Initiatives in India


The advent of new technologies such as internet, e-commerce, cloud computing, big data
analytics, etc., pave a way to overcome the above challenges. The Government of India (GoI) try to
exploit the technologies to the maximum extent to make the governance effective.

The e-governance initiative in India was started in the year 1970, when the GoI established
the Department of Electronics in 1970 followed by the establishment of the National Informatics
Centre (NIC) in 1977. The advent of personal computers further accelerated the e-governace process
by the effective utilization of storage, retrieval and processing capacities of the modern computers.
In the early 90s, the computerization began in the government offices with the use of word
processors. In late 90s, the effective use of Data Base Management System (DBMS) for processing
official information becomes a reality.

Advances in communications technology further accelerated the versatility and reach of


computers. As a result, many government departments started using ICT for a number of
applications such as Management Information System (MIS), Executive Support System (ESS), etc.
MIS facilitates the managers by instantly providing their departmental information using computers
and the ESS on the other hand supports the senior executives to take strategic decisions related to
the organizational goals. In 1987, NICNET, a national satellite based computer network was
launched. Following this, the District Information System programme of the National Informatics
Centre (DISNIC) was established to computerize all district offices in the country.

6.2.1 E-Governance through Common Service Centre: E-governance in India has


reached the ‘transactional’ stage and started yielding various services to citizens, business and
government organizations. These services are dispensed by central government agencies and
different state government departments. The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was initiated in
2006, for making all Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through
Common Service Centres (CSC). CSCs are the access points for delivery of essential public utility
services, social welfare schemes, healthcare, financial, education and agriculture services, apart from

68
Electronic Governance

host of Government to Citizen (G2C) services. In Tamilnadu the CSC is named as People’s Computer
Centre. They offer services in Tamil language to meet the requirements of the rural people.

Figure 6.1 Services of Common Service Centre

The major focus of e-governance is to support the ongoing e-governance movement in India by
providing a single point information access for the following services:
• Availing online citizen services
• Disseminating state specific e-governance initiatives
• Creating awareness about online legal services
• Providing mobile governance
• Creating awareness about the Right To Information (RTI)
The other services offered by CSC are illustrated in figure 6.1.

6.2.2 CSC 2.0 Scheme: Based on the assessment of CSC scheme, the Government launched the
CSC 2.0 scheme in 2015 to expand the outreach of CSCs to all Gram Panchayats across the country.
Under CSC 2.0 scheme, at least one CSC will be set up in each of the 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats across
the country by 2019. CSCs functioning under the existing scheme will also be strengthened and
integrated with additional 1.5 lakh CSCs across the country. CSC 2.0 scheme would consolidate
service delivery through a universal technology platform, thereby making e-services, particularly G2C
services accessible to citizens anywhere in the country.

69
Electronic Governance

6.3 E-Governance through:


During the late 1980s and early 1990s, initial attempts towards e-Governance were made
with a focus on networking government departments and developing in-house government
applications in the areas of defence, economic monitoring, planning and the deployment of IT to
manage data-intensive functions related to elections, census, tax administration etc. These
applications focused on automation of internal government functions rather than on improving
service delivery to citizens.

6.3.1 National e-Governance Plan: The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) has been
formulated by the Department of Information Technology (DIT) and Department of Administrative
Reforms & Public Grievances (DAR&PG) to connect e-Governance systems throughout the country
and create a nation-wide network for electronic delivery of government services. NeGP comprises of
3 tiers viz. CSC, backbone data network and Mission Mode Projects (MMP). The NeGP infrastructure
is reliant upon the development of State Wide Area Networks(SWAN) to be connected to form a
nation-wide network, State Data Centres (SDC) to consolidate services, applications and
infrastructure, and common service Centres (CSC) for end user access. Initially the NeGP comprised
of 27 MMPs, which were classified as state, central and integrated projects and it has been modified
recently to accommodate more services.

The state government is responsible for implementing the following state level MMPs under
the overall guidance of respective line ministries:

1. Agriculture: This MMP aims to provide sophisticated interface to the farmers for making
informed decisions. The information will be delivered using multiple delivery channels
such as the internet, government offices, touch screens, Krishi Vigyan Kendras,
electronic media, Kisan Call Centres, Agri-Clinics, Common Service Centres and mobile
phones (broadcast, Interactive Voice Response System, interactive messaging using
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data and Voice Recognition), which will enable
easy access to information for the farmer.

2. Commercial Taxes: The administration of the commercial taxes like VAT, CST etc.
Involves handling of a large number of dealers, who act on behalf of the State
Departments to collect tax from consumers and deposit it in the State treasury. This
MMP will lead to reduced official-dealer interface, reduced response time, faster service
delivery, reduced transaction cost, increased transparency and increased accountability.

3. e−District: This project aims at providing support to the district administration by


undertaking backend computerization to enable electronic delivery of high volume
citizen centric government services using State Wide Area Networks (SWAN), State Data
Centres (SDC) and Common Service Centres (CSCs) to the common people.

4. Employment Exchange: This MMP will help in providing speedy and easy access to
employment related services and information to job seekers and employers (both
organized & unorganized sector) and enable the Employment exchanges to play the
pivotal role in the modern Indian economy and flexible business environment.

70
Electronic Governance

5. Land Records: National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP)- It comprises


of two schemes viz. Computerization of Land Records (CLR) and Strengthening of
Revenue Administration and Updating of Land Records (SRA&ULR). This MMP aims to
provide free accessibility to the land records thereby reducing interface with the
Government functionaries to the Indian citizens.

6. Municipalities: e-Governance in municipalities comes under the National e-Governance


Plan (NeGP) and the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNURM). The
main objective is to improve the operational efficiencies within Urban Local Bodies
(ULBs). It will assist the municipal bodies across India to improve service delivery
mechanism, achieve better information management & transparency and ensure utmost
citizen's involvement in participative governance.

7. e-Panchayats: This MMP will enable the Panchayats to deliver its mandated services to
the Citizens through ICT, effectively with transparency. It will also enable the panchayats
to take better decision by better data management and expenditure monitoring.

8. Police: Crime and Criminal Tracking Network &Systems (CCTNS)- It aims to provide a
comprehensive system for efficient policing at all levels using e-Governance and IT-
enabled state-of-the-art tracking system.

9. Road Transport: It provides software viz. Sarathi and Vahan for the standardisation of
Road Transport offices. The Transport MMP also intends to setup National and State
Registers for providing the real time services to the citizens to enable the citizens to get
the work done from their home.

10. Treasuries Computerization: It aims to achieve greater efficiencies, reducing costs,


eliminating redundancies and facilitating the adoption of modern public expenditure
management practices. This project will promote real-time reconciliation of accounts,
strengthen Management Information Systems (MIS), and improve accuracy and
timeliness in accounts preparation.

The line ministries/ Departments of Central government are responsible for implementing the
central level MMPs include the services as given below:

1. Banking: It covers the services like Electronic Central Registry, One India One Account
and Electronic Mass Payment System.

2. Central Excise & Customs: It aims to re-engineer the business processes and turn the
existing tax administration in to a modern, efficient and transparent system.

3. Income Tax (IT): It provides a comprehensive service that enable citizens to transact all
businesses with the Income Tax department on an anywhere, anytime basis.

4. Insurance: It aims to develop an integrated information technology solution for better


service delivery mechanism of public sector insurance company.

71
Electronic Governance

5. Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) 21: To provide a secure portal that offers
availability of all registries related services including filing of documents, registration of
companies and public access to corporate information.

6. Passport: It aims to provide passport and consular services to Indian citizens and visa
services to foreign nationals.

7. Immigration, Visa and Foreigners Registration& Tracking (IVFRT): It aims to provide


services related to immigration check and to implement a secure and integrated service
delivery framework that facilitates legitimate travellers while strengthening security.

8. Pension: It is aimed at making the pension/ retirement related information, services and
grievances handling mechanism accessible online to the needy pensioners through
interactive and non-interactive components.

9. e-Office: It aims to modernize the central government offices through introduction of


information and communication technology.

10. UID - Unique Identity Number (Aadhaar): It aims to create verifiable and credible
databases of individuals that would enable efficient and effective delivery of benefits to
eligible individuals.

The following integrated MMPs are implemented by both the Central and state
governments:

1. CSC: It aims to deliver all government, social and private sector services in the areas of
agriculture, health, education, entertainment, banking, utility payments, etc.

2. e-Biz: This MMP intends to transform the business environment by providing efficient,
convenient, transparent and integrated electronic services to investors, industries and
business throughout the business life cycle.

3. e-Courts: As the 3 Crores pending cases affects the development of India, this MMP
intends to use the ICT for the e-filing facility in the Supreme Court & High Courts.

4. e-Procurement: In India, government procurement accounts for around 5-15% of the


national GDP. This MMP will cover all aspects of procurement right from indent to
tender preparation, bidding, bid evaluation and award of contract.

5. EDI For eTrade: This MMP intends to simplify procedures, introduce electronic delivery
of services by regulatory and facilitating organizations, provide 24x7 accesses to users,
increase transparency, reduce transaction cost and time, and introduce international
standards and practices in the area of foreign trade.

6. National e-governance Service Delivery Gateway: The goals of the eGovernance plan
are to increase the efficiency of service delivery, empower citizens by providing
information, and create an environment of transparency. The eGovernance plan aims to
make the government more accessible to citizens and businesses alike and foster a more

72
Electronic Governance

open atmosphere. The total cost of all MMPs is estimated to be Rs. 32488 Crores
approximately.

7. India Portal: This MMP provides a single window unified interface for over 5000
websites thereby reducing inconvenience to the citizens. This portal acts as a logical
front end to the e-governance initiatives under various central/state/UT government
schemes and programmes.

6.4 Digital India


Digital India is a programme initiated by the Government of India and coordinated by the
Department of Electronics and Information Technology. The aim of the programme is to transform
India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. Overall Costs of Digital India
initiative is approximated as Rs. 1.13 lakh crore. The primary objectives of the programme are:
1. Infrastructure as Utility to every Indian Citizen
2. Governance and Services on Demand
3. Digital Empowerment of Citizen

Digital Infrastructure as a Utility to Governance & Services on Demand Digital Empowerment of Citizens
Every Citizen
➢ Availability of high speed internet as ➢ Seamlessly integrated services ➢ Universal digital literacy
a core utility for delivery of services across departments or ➢ Universally accessible digital
to citizens jurisdictions resources
➢ Cradle to grave digital identity that ➢ Availability of services in real ➢ Availability of digital resources /
is unique, lifelong, online and time from online & mobile services in Indian languages
authenticable to every citizen platforms ➢ Collaborative digital platforms
➢ Mobile phone & bank account ➢ All citizens entitlements to be for participative governance
enabling citizen participation in portable and available on the ➢ Citizens not required to
digital & financial space cloud physically submit Government
➢ Easy access to a Common Service ➢ Digitally transformed services Documents / Certificates
Centre for improving ease of doing
➢ Shareable private space on a public business
cloud ➢ Making financial transactions
➢ Safe and Secure Cyber-space electronics & cashless
➢ Leveraging Geospatial
Information Systems (GIS) for
decision support systems &
development

Figure 6.2 Objectives of Digital India

The figure 6.2 illustrates the above objectives and usefulness of Digital India scheme.

Digital India comprises of various initiatives under the single for bringing effective e - governance
to citizens. Important projects under the digital India scheme are:
• Information Highways for broadband services
• Easy access to mobile connectivity
• IT Training for Jobs
• Manufacturing of electronics equipments
• Public access to internet
73
Electronic Governance

• E-Governance
• E-Kranti
• Global Information
• Early Harvest Program
• MyGov.in

Some of the expected outcomes of Digital India project are:


• Creation of employment opportunities for 17 million people directly or indirectly
• IT training to 100 million students in smaller towns and villages
• India will emerge to be a leader in the effective use of ICT.
• It will assure broadband connectivity in all panchayats, schools, libraries and other public
places.
• Financial Inclusion through Mobile and internet banking
• Revenue Increase in Telecom sectors.
• Reduction in import

6.4.1 Agencies Enabling Digital India: There are more than 30 agencies, involved in
enabling the Digital India project. Most of the agencies are also involved in implementing the MMPs
of the NeGP. Some of the important agencies along with their descriptions are listed below:

1. Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA): Its aim is to promote the growth of e-


commerce and eGovernance through a wide use of digital signatures. It regulates the
working of certifying authorities and also ensures the compliance of IT act. Its head
quarter is located at New Delhi.

2. Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-Dac): Centre for Development of


Advanced Computing (C-DAC) is the premier organization of the Ministry of Electronics
and Information Technology (MeitY) for carrying out research and development in IT,
Electronics and associated areas. The head quarter of CDAC is located at Pune.

3. Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS): It comes under the Ministry of Railways
and it develops and manage the IT Applications of Indian Railways and other
organizations too. The head quarter of CRIS is located at New Delhi.

4. Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare (DAC & FW): It


coordinates with state level agencies for implementing central sector schemes in the
respective fields. The Head quarter of DAC&FW is located at New Delhi.

5. Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC): SFAC is an exclusive society focused on


increasing incomes of small and marginal farmers through aggregation and development
of agri business. The Head Quarter is located at New Delhi.

6. Department of empowerment of persons with disabilities (depwd): it comes under the


ministry of social justice and empowerment and located at new delhi. It facilitates
empowerment of the persons with disabilities of the country.

74
Electronic Governance

7. Department of Finance Services: It covers all the activities of Banks, Financial


Institutions, Insurance Companies and the National Pension System. It is located at New
Delhi.

8. Department of Science & Technology (DST): It promotes emerging areas of Science &
Technology, and it play the role of a nodal department for organising, coordinating and
promoting S&T activities in the country. It is head quartered in New Delhi.

9. Directorate General Of Supplies and Goods (DGS&D): The main activity of DGS&D is to
fix the rate contracts for common user items required by government organisation
through an e-procurement portal.

10. Indian Council for Agricultural Research (iCAR): ICAR is the apex body for co-ordinating,
guiding and managing research and education in agriculture including horticulture,
fisheries and animal sciences in the entire country.

The other agencies involved in the Digital India project are:


• Education & Research in Computer Networking (ERNET)
• Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (ICERT)
• Common Service Centres (CSC)
• Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA)
• Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY)
• Ministry of Labour & Employment
• Ministry of External Affairs
• National Assest Directory
• National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT)
• National Health Mission (NHM)
• National Informatics Centre (NIC)
• National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELET)
• National Institute of Health and Family Welfare
• National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)
• National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)
• NASSCOM
• National Payments Corporation of India
• National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL)
• National E-Governance Division (NEGD)
• National University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA)
• UIDAI
• National Centre of Geo_Informatics (NCOG)
6.4.2 Digital India Services: There are many services offered by the Digital India Platform.
Some of the important services that are available for the common people are listed below:

1. Un-Reserved Ticket through Mobile Application (UTS APP): Indian Railways has
launched the above android mobile Unreserved Ticketing System application for

75
Electronic Governance

enabling the passengers to get the unreserved paperless ticket as well as the
issue/renewal of season ticket.

2. Unified Mobile Application for New-Age Governance (UMANG): It is aimed for


developing a common, unified platform and mobile app to facilitate a single point of
access to all government services.

3. UDAAN: The programme is designed to encourage corporate to travel to Jammu &


Kashmir meet with the youth and hire aspiring youth in J&K who wish to explore the
opportunity to work with corporate.

4. Study Webs of Active – Learning for Young Aspiring Minds (SWAYAM): It uses an
indigenous developed IT platform for hosting all the courses, taught in classrooms from
9th Class till post graduation to be accessed by anyone, anywhere at any time.

5. Swatch Bhaarat: It aims to promote the cleanliness activities across the nation.

6. Startup India: Startup India is an initiative of the Government of India, intended to build
a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and Startup in the country that will drive
sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.

7. Public Financial Management System (PFMS): It aims to link the financial networks of
Central, State Governments and the agencies of State Governments.

8. National Scholarship Portal (NSP): NSP is a one-stop solution for end-to-end scholarship
process right from the submission of student application, verification, sanction and
disbursal to end beneficiary for all the scholarships provided by the Government of
India.

The other services offered by the Digital India are:

• Sugamaya Pustakalya - online platform that makes accessible content available to print-
disabled people

• Soil Health Card – To promote Integrated Nutrient Management through the judicial use
of fertilizers

• SMS-based Mid-Day Meal Monitoring Scheme

• Shala Siddhi: A comprehensive instrument for School evaluation leading to school


improvement.

• Shaala Darpan: An e-Governance platform for all Kendriya Vidyalayas in the country.

• SARANSH: Tool for comprehensive self review and analysis for CBSE affiliated schools.

• Pusa Krishi: It helps the farmers to find easy solutions to problems in their farm fields
and get information about weather and accordingly take measures to save crops.

76
Electronic Governance

• Project Monitoring Website for E-Courts: The website was planned to develop, deliver,
install and implement automated decision-making and decision support system in 700
courts.

• Project Management System (PMIS):PMIS is an integrated information system that


offers decision oriented information on cost, time and performance parameters of a
project

• Passport Seva Project (PSP): It enables simple, efficient and transparent processes for
delivery of passport and related services.

• Parivahan Portal: To improve the quality of service delivery to the citizen and the quality
of work environment of the RTOs.

• Online Labs (OLABS): It provides students with the ease and convenience of conducting
experiments over the internet.

• NIRBHAYA App: It is android emergency application, which can send a distress call or
emergency message to a specified contact or group in an emergency situation faced by a
woman or any other individual in general

• NIKSHAY: To monitor Revised National Tuberculosis Programme (RNTCP) effectively, a


web enabled and case based monitoring application has been developed by National
Informatics Centre (NIC)

6.4.3 Electronic Payment and Receipt (EPR): EPR is a payment or transfer made using
electronic medium either by the department to external/internal entity or external/internal entity to
department. Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology (MeitY) envisages a common e-
Governance infrastructure that will offer end-to-end transactional experience for a citizen,
businesses as well as internal government functions, which includes accessing various services
through internet with payment gateway interface for online payments. Since 2008-09, Central
Government Departments are already using Public Finance Management Systems (PFMS) for plan/
non-plan schemes. With 139 Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and more than 800 Central Sector
Schemes (CS), along with State Plans and Additional Central Assistance (ACA), the PFMS is managing
funds in excess of Rs.3,00,000 crore annually.

6.4.4 The Government policy statement on EPR states as follows: Jan Dhan
Yojana, the Aadhaar initiative of UIDAI and Mobile number (JAM), this Trinity of reforms is one of
the biggest pieces of reform ever attempted in India for direct subsidy transfer to poor citizens of
India. With financial inclusion as one of the key priorities of Government, using JAM, it is necessary
for Government Departments to adopt modes of electronic payments & receipts for its internal and
external transactions. The EPR framework is formulated with the aim of enabling 100 percent
electronic payment for all the external or internal transactions of the Departments. The framework
provides the guidelines for facilitating the Departments to expeditiously enable electronic payments
and receipts leveraging all the payment channels.

77
Electronic Governance

6.4.5 Overview of Payments and Receipts in Government Departments:

Figure 6.3 Overview of EPR in Government Departments

The payments and receipts in the government departments are done in following six ways:
1. Government to Business (G2B)
2. Government to Citizen (G2C)
3. Government to Employee (G2E)
4. Government to Government (G2G)
5. Business to Government (B2G)
6. Citizen to Government (C2G)
In general the payments are collected by the departments in the following modes:

C2G & B2G Payments


Payments to government department are paid through Cash, Paper based payments,
Cheque to the department, Demand draft in favour of Departments, Chillan to the department,
Electronic payments through Online mode such as National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT), Real
Time Gross Settlements (RTGS) ( especially for B2G services), Net Banking, Point of Sale (PoS)
Terminal Based through Debit and Credit Cards, Mobile App Based ( NEFT/RTGS/Net banking),
IMPS/PPIs and also through department specific web portal.

G2C Payments
Government to Citizen Payments paid through Cash, Paper Based (Cheque), Direct Benefit
Transfer to Citizen through NEFT/RTGS, Aadhaar Enabled Payments (AEPS), PFMS, eLekha and
COMPACT.

G2B Payments
Government to Business payments are paid through cheque, cash, NEFT and RTGS.

78
Electronic Governance

G2E Payments
Central Departments make salary, General Provident Fund and pension payments to
employees through electronic means primarily; e-Lekha and COMPACT developed by Controller
General of Account (CGA). State Departments too started using the automated software systems for
making payment.

G2C Payments
Central Government Departments use Public Finance and Management (PFMS) for making payments
against plan and non-planned schemes.

6.4.6 Digital Locker: It is a Digital India initiative and it covers the two aspects of digital India
viz. Sharable Private space and storage of digital documents in public cloud. The main objective of
Digilocker is to achieve the paperless governance using a cloud based platform for issuance and
verification of documents & certificates digitally.

Figure 6.4 Working Principle of Digital Locker

The components of Digital lockers are Citizens, Issuer, Requestor, and Di. Issuers are the
authorities who have the right to issue the certificates. Requesters are those who are interested in
verifying the documents of the Citizens. To work with the Digital Locker one has to register their
names with the Digital Locker portal (https://digitallocker.gov.in) by logging on to it. To sign in the
portal the user has to enter aadhaar number and then to feed the One Time Password or Finger
print. Presently, Indian citizens will get a maximum of 10MB storage space, which can later be
increased to 1GB. The detailed step by step guide to upload the document is given here.

Step 1
To sign-up for your DigiLocker, one needs Aadhaar number and a mobile number that is
linked to that Aadhaar number. Users can also link the account to their Google, Facebook accounts.
Once you have registered, you can start uploading documents in the My certificates section.

79
Electronic Governance

Step 2
Select a document type. You'll have options such as SSC Certificate, HSC Certificate, PAN
card, Voter ID card, etc. in a drop down list.

Step 3
You are allowed to provide a name for the document.

Step 4
Fill in some details related to the document being uploaded.

Step 5
Choose the file from your local machine. It should not be more than 1MB in size and only in
PDF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP or GIF format.

Step 6
Provide a short description of the document in 50 characters.

Step 7
Click 'upload' button. The document should now appear under the 'Uploadd Documents'
sub-section.

6.4.7 Benefits of Digital Locker:

i. Citizens can access their digital documents anytime, anywhere and share it online.

ii. It leads to paperless governance.

iii. It is easy to validate the authenticity of documents as they are issued directly by the
registered issuers.

iv. Self uploaded documents can be eSigned which is similar to the process of self-
attestation.eSign service is an easy, efficient and secure way of digitally signing
electronic documents. With this service, any Aadhaar holder can digitally sign an
electronic document without having to obtain a physical digital signature dongle. One
can use eSign service to digitally sign the self-uploaded documents in DigiLocker as a
method of self attestation.

6.4.8 e-District Services: Districts are the actual front-end of government where most G2C
interaction takes place. The eDistrict project is aimed to improve this experience and enhance the
efficiencies of the various Departments at the district-level to enable seamless service delivery to the
citizen. Front-ends under the scheme, in the form of citizen facilitation Centres, are envisoned to be
built at District, Tehsil, Sub-division and Block levels. Village-level front-ends would be established
through Common Services Centres (CSCs) for delivery of services.

Indicative services planned to be delivered through this MMP include:

1. Certificates: Creation and distribution of certificates for income, domicile, caste, Birth, Death

2. Licences: Arms Licenses, mining licence, etc.


80
Electronic Governance

3. Public Distribution System (PDS): Issue of Ration Card and related matters.

4. Social Welfare Schemes: Disbursement of several kinds of pensions.

5. Complaints: Related to unfair prices, absentee teachers, non-availability of doctor, etc.

6. RTI: Online filing and receipt of information relating to the Right to Information Act

7. Linking with other e government projects: Registration, Land Records, and Driving Licences,
etc.

8. Information Dissemination: About government schemes, entitlements, etc.

9. Assessment of taxes: Property tax, and other government taxes.

10. Utility Payment: Payments relating to electricity, water bills property taxes etc.

6.4.9 Digital AIIMS: The Digital AIIMS project is a part of the Digital India Initiative
implemented at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS). It is aimed to implement digital
technology for better healthcare in India. The online registration software for AIIMS and three other
hospitals of Delhi was launched on July 4, 2015 as part of Digital India initiatives. The Digital AIIMS
project is useful to 45 lakh beneficiaries and it has reduced patient wait times by six hours per visit.
Also, the effective utilization of clinician’s OPD timings is increased by the transparent and
streamlined patient records. Under this scheme, Nursing Informatics Specialist cadre was created to
coordinate between the departments and the computer facility to ensure transparency in patient
management practices. The patient’s appointment data are available on the Aadhar-enabled digital
platform for easier management. The cadre of Data Entry Operators has enabled speed in
registration at the OPD Counters. There are fast track registration counters for those patients who
have made online registrations. The Patient Care Coordinators enable the patients to reach the
clinician’s OPD consultation rooms and allow follow up appointments. The Exit OPD counters have
been created to ensure that the next visit date of the Patient is available to him along with
investigation dates.

6.4.10 India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS): In the recent past the IT and BPO/IT
Enabled services provides enormous employment opportunities to youth of the nation and also
contributes significantly for the growth of the GDP. IBPS is a part of Digital India Programme for
enhancing the BPO/ITES operations across the country. This would help in capacity building in
smaller cities in terms of infrastructure & manpower and would become basis for next wave of
IT/ITES led growth. This scheme has potential to create employment opportunities of around 1.5
lakh direct jobs considering three shift operations. It may also create good number of indirect jobs.
Salient Features
1. Financial Support: Up to 50% of expenditure incurred on BPO/ITES operations towards
capital expenditure (CAPEX) and/or operational expenditure (OPEX) on admissible items,
subject to an upper ceiling of Rs.1 Lakh / Seat.
2. Special incentives toward employment of women & specially enabled persons.
3. Incentive for generating employment beyond target & wider dispersal within state
including rural areas.
81
Electronic Governance

4. Encouragement for local entrepreneurs.


5. Special consideration for Hilly states of HP, J&K and UK.
6.4.11 Geographical Information System (GIS): GIS is a computer system capable of
assembling, storing, manipulating, and displaying geographically referenced information (that is data
identified according to their locations). In simple way GIS can be define as an image that is
referenced to the earth or has x and y coordinate and its attribute values are stored in the table.
These x and y coordinates are based on different projection system and there are various types of
projection system. Most of the time GIS is used to create maps and to print. To perform the basic
task in GIS, layers are combined, edited and designed.
Advantage of GIS:
• Better decision made by government people
• Improve decision making with the help of layered information
• Citizen engagement due to better system
• Help to identify communities that is under risk or lacking infrastructure
• Helps in identifying criminology matters
• Better management of natural resources
• Better communication during emergency situation
• Cost savings due to better decision
• Finding different kinds of trends within the community
• Planning the demographic changes

6.4.12 Mobile Sewa App Store (m-Appstore): A mobile application is a software


application designed to run on smart phones, tablet computers and other mobile devices. M-apps
are fast becoming the preferred mode of accessing a particular solution or service, especially
amongst young citizens of the country. m-Appstore is a part of mobile governance initiative of Digital
India and developed by CDAC. It has been created with an aim to facilitate development and
deployment of suitable applications for delivery of public services through mobile devices. The store
is based upon service oriented architecture and cloud based technologies using open standards as
far as practicable. It integrates Mobile apps with SMS, Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS),
Uunstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), etc.

6.4.13 GARV Grameen Vidyutikaran: The Government of India launched ‘Rajiv Gandhi
Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana(RGGVY) – Programme for creation of Rural Electricity Infrastructure &
Household Electrification, in April 2005 for providing access to electricity to rural households. There
is a mobile app that has been designed under the Digital India for the effective implementation of
the above scheme. Recently, the government has launched GARV- II app to track Rural Household
Electrification. This is the next step in Government of India’s aim to provide access to electricity to
all households in the country. GARV-II allows peoples participation for rural electrification work. It
opens rural electrification work to public scrutiny and input about rural electrification programme. It
also has a citizen engagement window ‘SAMVAD’ to enhance participation.

82
Electronic Governance

6.5 Integrated Nutrient Management


Integrated Nutrient Management refers to the maintenance of soil fertility and of plant
nutrient supply at an optimum level for sustaining the desired productivity through optimization of
the benefits from all possible sources of organic, inorganic and biological components in an
integrated manner.

Concepts:
1. Regulated nutrient supply for optimum crop growth and higher productivity.

2. Improvement and maintenance of soil fertility.

3. Zero adverse impact on agro – ecosystem quality by balanced fertilization of organic


manures, inorganic fertilizers and bio- inoculant

Determinants:
1. Nutrient requirement of cropping system as a whole.

2. Soil fertility status and special management needs to overcome soil problems, if any

3. Local availability of nutrients resources (organic, inorganic and biological sources)

4. Economic conditions of farmers and profitability of proposed INM option.

5. Social acceptability.

6. Ecological considerations.

7. Impact on the environment

Advantages:
1. Enhances the availability of applied as well as native soil nutrients

2. Synchronizes the nutrient demand of the crop with nutrient supply from native and
applied sources.

3. Provides balanced nutrition to crops and minimizes the antagonistic effects resulting
from hidden deficiencies and nutrient imbalance.

4. Improves and sustains the physical, chemical and biological functioning of soil.

5. Minimizes the deterioration of soil, water and ecosystem by promoting carbon


sequestration, reducing nutrient losses to ground and surface water bodies and to
atmosphere

83
E- Learning and MOOC

7- E- Learning and MOOC


Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge and expertise through studies experience or
being taught. In other words, learning is relatively a permanent change in behavioral tendencies and
is the result of reinforced practice. In the traditional system the students learn from the teachers in
an academically conducive atmosphere. The teachers apply several teaching methodologies to make
the students learn. The advent of modern Information Communication Technology tools facilitates
both the learners and teachers by keeping them to be away from physical contact. As a result, the
imparting of education to the mass becomes possible. MOOC stands for Massive Open Online
Courses which uses the internet and web resources for better delivery of contents.

7.1 E – Learning
It can be defined as a process in which the Internet technologies are used to deliver
educational curriculum outside of a traditional class room to enhance knowledge and performance.
In most cases, it refers to a course, program or degree delivered completely online where one can
communicate with his teachers, professors or other students. At sometimes the lectures are
delivered live and at some other times pre-recorded lectures are made available. There is always a
teacher communicating with learners and grading their participation, assignments and tests. E-
Learning has become popular method of training and education for many citizens in India.

The e-learning will be beneficial and successful for those who have self discipline and self
control as they learn with their choice on schedule, pace and place. E- Learning reduces the per
capita cost on education as the learners need not to spend on travel, hard copy materials and other
educational resources. As the content delivery is consistent and replicable the learners can make
use of them for their better understanding. E-learning has been widely used in the corporate sector,
especially when training programs are conducted by experts for employees across the globe.

Learning Management System (LMS) is a part of e-learning and it allows you to access online
training in the same way you might log on to email system (like Hotmail or Google mail). Users can
monitor how far they have progressed through each module by logging on to the LMS using their
user id. By using an LMS teachers can easily keep track of how much training a person has
completed. Since everything is stored online, it is fast and easy to access learners’ records without
having to keep piles of paperwork.

7.2 MOOC
Indian Higher Education System can be classified into three sectors viz. Formal, Non-formal
and informal sectors where as the formal education deals with the traditional teaching – learning
process, the non-formal education deals with the formal programmes offered through non-formal
methods and informal education deals with the continuous learning where the learners are
interested in gaining knowledge rather than getting certified. MOOC can play a vital role in all the
three sectors.

84
E- Learning and MOOC

The word MOOC was coined by David Cormier and it was started in the year 2008. In April
2012, Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng, both Stanford colleagues involved in the Stanford MOOCs,
started Coursera. In May, Harvard and MIT joined together to create the EdX platform. Since then
many universities have joined the xMOOCs bandwagon globally (including the IITs from India), and
many new MOOC initiatives have sprung up rapidly across the world such as Udemy, P2PU,
FutureLearn, OpenStudy and Canvas. IIT Delhi and BITS Pilani are offering courses using Coursera to
their students. The MOOC deploys several learning strategies such as gamification, adaptive
learning, etc., where as the gamification is the use of gaming techniques for non-game situations
and the adaptive learning is the process of adjusting the speed of learning based on learners’ profile.

Unlike regular college/ university courses, MOOCs can attract thousands of learners around
the world. They can come in the form of active course sessions with participant interaction, or as
archived content for self-paced study. MOOCs can be free, or there can be a charge – either on a
subscription basis or a one-time charge. Most of the MOOCs offers free of cost delivery of courses
and a paid “verified certificate” option. In the recent periods the process of integrating the MOOC
with formal education is on the way in India. There are thousands of MOOCs available worldwide
from several hundred colleges, universities and other institutions of higher learning. Some of the
popular international MOOC platforms are Coursera, edX, iversity, udacity, Futurelearn, etc.

7.3 Coursera
It was founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew
Ng and Daphne Koller. Princeton, Stanford, the University of Michigan and the University of
Pennsylvania were the first universities to offer content on the platform. The platform contains
collections of courses that build skills in a specific subject as well as degrees and a workforce
development product for businesses and government organizations. As of October 2017, Coursera
had more than 28 million registered users and more than 2,000 courses. The duration of Coursera
courses are four to ten weeks, with one to two hours of video lectures a week. These courses apply
several learning methods such as quizzes, weekly exercises, peer-graded assignments, and
sometimes a final project or exam. Courses are also provided on-demand, in which case users can
take their time in completing the course with all of the material available at once. The learners can
register their courses by logging on to the website URL:http://www.coursera.org

7.4 edX
edX is an online learning destination and MOOC provider, offering high-quality courses from
the world’s best universities and institutions to learners everywhere. It was founded by Harvard
University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2012, and offers the courses on
nonprofits basis and also as an open source. With Open edX, educators and technologists can build
learning tools and contribute new features to the platform, creating innovative solutions to benefit
students everywhere. There are more than 1000 courses, available in edX platform. Learners can log
on to https://www.edx.org for registering their courses.

7.4.1 MOOC at India: In India, there are several MOOC platforms available for the learners to
gain knowledge. Some of them are Khan Academy, NPTEL, SWAYAM, etc. Khan Academy is a non-
85
E- Learning and MOOC

profit organisation which offers online practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized
learning dashboard that empowers learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the
classroom. It offers online courses on the subjects like mathematics, science, computer
programming, history, art history, economics, and more. The learners can log on to
https://www.khanacademy.org for registering online courses.

National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning is a joint venture of all the Indian
Institute of Technologies (IITs) and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. NPTEL offers online
courses and certification in various topics on technical/ engineering discipline. They offer
certification for selected courses for a fee of approximately Rs 1000. NPTEL has videos focused on all
disciplines of Engineering so many of which you won’t find in Coursera, edX, etc. The NPTEL offers
the programmes with the duration ranging from 4 weeks to 12 weeks. Learners can log on to
https://www.nptel.ac.in for registering their courses of interest.

SWAYAM is a programme initiated by Government of India and designed to achieve the


three principles of Education Policy viz., access, equity and quality. There are eight national
coordinators to integrate the various disciplines of higher education. Indian government has
selected Microsoft as its technical partner for SWAYAM. They are:

1. National Programme for Technology Enabled Learning (NPTEL) for Technical/Engineering


UG/PG Programmes.

2. University Grants Commission (UGC ) for post-graduation degree programmes.

3. Consortium of Educational Communication (CEC) for non-technology under-graduate


education

4. National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for School Educational
Programmes from class 9th to 12th

5. National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) for school education

6. IGNOU for Diploma and Certificate Programme

7. Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Banglaore, for Management Programmes

8. National Institute of Technical Teacher Training (NITTR), Chennai for Teacher Training
Programme.

The learners can log on to https://www.swayam.gov.in for registering the course of their choice
as shown in Figure 7.1.

86
E- Learning and MOOC

Figure 7.1 Screenshot of SWAYAM website

7.5 Digital Library


A digital library is a collection of digital documents or objects. As per the definition of Smith
Abbey, a digital library is an organized and focused collection of digital objects, including text,
images, video and audio, with the methods of access and retrieval and for the selection, creation,
organization, maintenance and sharing of collection. As the digital contents of the library are
accessed through the internet the location and time of access are no bar for accessing the contents.
Multiple users can access the same resource at a time. These advantages are only possible if the
digital contents are organised and indexed properly.

7.5.1 National Digital Library: Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) under its
National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NMEICT) has
initiated the National Digital Library of India (NDL India) pilot project to develop a framework of
virtual repository of learning resources with a single-window search facility. NDL India is designed to
hold content of any language and provides interface support for leading Indian languages. It is being
arranged to provide support for all academic levels including researchers and life-long learners, all
disciplines, all popular form of access devices and differently-abled learners. It is being developed to
help students to prepare for entrance and competitive examination, to enable people to learn and
prepare from best practices from all over the world and to facilitate researchers to perform inter-
linked exploration from multiple sources. NDL is being developed at Indian Institute of Technology
Kharagpur.

Students can log on to https://www.ndl.iitkgp.ac.in for accessing the resources. The fig. 7.2
illustrates the facilities available at NDL. Students can access e-books from several service providers
such as Digital Library of India (DLI), Googlebooks, Kobo, FreeBookSpot, BookPub, etc.

87
E- Learning and MOOC

Figure 7.2 Screenshot of National Digital Library

7.5.2 E-Journals and Books: Electronic journals, also known as e-journals, are electronic
version of research journals or articles which can be accessed using ICT tools or internet. In general
they are available in the PDF or HTML format. A subset of these journals exists as Open Access titles
which can be accessed freely. The E- Book is the electronic version of the books which can be
accessed using ICT tools and internet. The specific problems that are associated with e – journals or
books are as follows:

1. Organising the resources needs better planning.

2. Indexing of resources is necessary for speedy retrieval.

3. Search on several criterions are required

4. User friendly navigations are required

7.6 Cyber Security


There are various ongoing activities and programs of the Government to address the cyber
security challenges which have significantly contributed to the creation of a platform that is now
capable of supporting and sustaining the efforts in securing the cyber space. Due to the dynamic
nature of cyberspace, there is now a need for these actions to be unified under a National Cyber
Security Policy, with an integrated vision and a set of sustained & coordinated strategies for
implementation.

7.6.1 Computer Virus: A computer virus is a malicious software program (malware) that
copies itself by modifying other programs and inserts its own code. In a networked environment,
Virus has the ability to spread from one system to other system. It operates by inserting itself to a

88
E- Learning and MOOC

legitimate program or document that supports macros (piece of program used to perform a task
repeatedly) in order to execute its code. A virus can harm the system software by corrupting or
destroying data. Some viruses can erase the data or cause damage to the hard disk and some other
can benefit financially. Viruses can be spread through email, Internet file downloads, social media
scam links, and mobile applications download. As a best practice, one should not download text or
email attachments that one is not expecting, or files from websites you don’t trust. To protect our
systems from viruses we need to install antivirus programs. There are several antivirus programs
such as McAfee, Norton, Kaspersky, K7, Avast, etc, are available in the market.

7.6.2 Hacking: Hacking is a process of finding the possible ways for getting into the computer or
network and stealing data. Typically hacking is divided as two parts as follows; legal and illegal
hacking. An alternate name for legal is ethical hacking which means the process that finds the
weakness in computer or network systems to be addressed such as a testing phase. On the other
hand, illegal hacking could be defined as a practice with the motivation of stealing private data from
the computer or network systems. As of now the hacking is associated with five categories as shown
in figure 7.3.

COMPUTERS

WWW NETWORKS

HACKING

E-MAIL PASSWORD

Figure 7.3 Types of Hacking

Network Hacking is the process of gathering information about a domain using tools or process like
Telnet, Ping, Tracert, NS lookup, Netstat, etc.
Email Hacking is the process of accessing or manipulating an email account and mail
correspondence without the knowledge of its authorised user.
Password Hacking is usually accomplished by recovering secret passwords from data that has been
stored in or transmitted by a computer system.
Computer Hacking is the process of unauthorized intrusion into a computer system for stealing ID
and password by applying hacking methods and getting the access to a computer system.
Website Hacking means that a stranger gains control over a web server and its associated software
such as databases and other interfaces.

89
E- Learning and MOOC

7.7 Big Data


The advent of the ICT tools resulted in the huge growth of data. Today the governments and
industries face a problem of analysing huge volume of data in order to make wise decisions. The
word “big data” denotes the large volume of several kinds of data that changes in a rapid manner.
There are three Vs viz. Volume, Velocity and Variety, associated with the big data.

Volume
Today the data arrives from a variety of sources, including business transactions, social
media and information from sensor or machine-to-machine data.

Velocity
In the recent period the data changes rapidly as it is captured from electronic sources such
as Radio Frequency Identifier (RFID) tags, sensors and smart meters.

Variety
Data comes in all types of formats such as numeric, text, email, video, audio and financial
transactions.

Table 7.1 Data Processed Per Day

Name of Organisation Data Size

e-Bay 100 peta byte

Google 100 peta byte

Facebook 600 terra byte

NSA 29 peta byte

Twitter 100 terra byte

The data stored by the organisation ranges from peta bytes to exo bytes. The data,
processed by the leading organizations per day are shown in the table 7.1 (ref.
http://www.followthedata.wordpress.com)

7.7.1 Data Analytics: In the recent period, huge amount of data are generated from several
sources. Ninety percent of the today’s data in the world has been created in the last two years
alone. This data comes from several electronic sensors, posts to social media sites, digital pictures
and videos, purchase transaction records, cell phone GPS signals, etc. Data analytics refers to the
process of extracting useful knowledge from the huge amount of data using the following method:
• Testing
• Analysis of variance
• Probabilistic methods
• Classification
• Association analysis
90
E- Learning and MOOC

• Clustering
• Prediction
• Outlier analysis
• Natural Language Processing
• Machine learning
• Artificial Intelligence
• Multivariate analysis

7.8 Introduction to IT Act


During the initial stage of computerisation there was no law available in India to regulate the
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). The Indian Government felt the need for such act during the late
90s and came with the Information Technology (IT) Act 2000 on 9 th June 2000. IT Act provide legal
recognition for transactions carried out by means of electronic data interchange and other means of
electronic communication, commonly referred to as "electronic commerce". E – Commerce involves
the use of paperless communication and electronic storage, to file documents with the Government
agencies. The relevant amendment has been made in the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence
Act, 1872, the Bankers' Books Evidence Act, 1891 and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 and for
matters connected therewith. Some of the salient features of IT Act 2000 are as follows:

1. Legal Recognition of Electronic Record


2. Legal Recognition of Digital Signature
3. Legal Recognition of Electronic Receipt
4. Recognition of Foreign certifying authorities
5. Establishment of Cyber Appellate Tribunal
6. Penalty for fraudulent transaction
The definitions related to some of the EDI activities are given below:
• "Data" means a representation of information, knowledge, facts, concepts or instructions
which are being prepared or have been prepared in a formalised manner, and is intended to
91
E- Learning and MOOC

be processed, is being processed or has been processed in a computer system or computer


network, and may be in any form (including computer printouts magnetic or optical storage
media, punched cards, punched tapes) or stored internally in the memory of the computer;

• "Digital Signature" means authentication of any electronic record by a subscriber by means


of an electronic method or procedure in accordance with the provisions of section 3;

• "Digital Signature Certificate" means a Digital Signature Certificate issued under subsection
(4) of section 35 of IT Act;

• "Electronic Form" with reference to information means any information generated, sent,
received or stored in media, magnetic, optical, computer memory, micro film, computer
generated micro fiche or similar device;

• "Electronic Record" means data, record or data generated; image or sound stored, received
or sent in an electronic form or micro film.

Some of the important aspects of the IT Act are furnished below:

Chapter XI of IT Act 2000 deals with the offences related to tampering, hacking, publishing of
electronic information.

7.8.1 Publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form: Whoever


publishes or transmits or causes to be published in the electronic form, any material which is
lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt
persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter
contained or embodied in it, shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either
description for a term which may extend to five years and with fine which may extend to one lakh
rupees and in the event of a second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either
description for a term which may extend to ten years and also with fine which may extend to two
lakh rupees.

7.8.2 Penalty for misrepresentation: Whoever makes any misrepresentation to, or


suppresses any material fact from, the Controller or the Certifying Authority for obtaining any
licence or Digital Signature Certificate, as the case may be. Shall be punished with imprisonment for
a term which may extend to two years, or with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees, or with
both.

7.8.3 Publication for fraudulent purpose: Whoever knowingly creates, publishes or


otherwise makes available a Digital Signature Certificate for any fraudulent or unlawful purpose shall
be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine which may
extend to one lakh rupees, or with both.

92
E- Learning and MOOC

7.9 Social Networks


Social networks are the systems that use the computer networks and World Wide Web
(WWW) for human interactions and for building relationships. Some of the examples for the social
networks are Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, MySpace, Ning, Tagged, MyYearbook, Meetup,
Bebo, etc,. In general, a social network is defined as a network of individuals or organization via
some medium in order to share thoughts, interests and activities.

7.9.1 Social Network Analysis: Social Network Analysis (SNA) is the process of mapping
social relationships in terms of nodes and connections (links). The nodes may represent the people,
groups, organizations, computers, URLs, etc., within the network and connections represent
relationships between the nodes. Unlike statistical analysis which focuses only on individual for
justifying their inherent quality, the SNA aims to analyze the relationships among nodes. In general,
SNA is a tool to examine the human relationship with respect to visual and mathematical analysis.
The SNA when it comes to management is called Organizational Network Analysis [ONA]. The
relationship in SNA is measured using the measures like Degree, Density, Reach, Centrality,
Betweenness, etc.

7.9.2 Government Initiatives on Social Media: The growth in the social media poses
major challenges in terms of national security. Social Media refers to a set of web-based services
that rely on user generated content. Recently, the government set up National Media Analytics
Centre (NMAC) to monitor blogs, media channels, news outlets and social media platforms. The
tracking software used by NMAC will generate tags to classify post and comments on social media
into negative, positive and neutral categories, paying special attention to “belligerent” comments,
and also look at the past patterns of posts.

In the year 2014, the government launched a scheme named “MyGov.in” under the Digital
India Mission. It is a citizen engagement platform to promote the active participation of Indian
citizens in their country’s governance and to get ideas from citizens. The platform provides services
such as survey polls, activities, discussions, blogs and communication with the Prime Minister.

NETRA (Network Traffic Analysis) is another scheme developed by the Center for Artificial
Intelligence & Robotics (CAIR) laboratory under the Defence Research and would be installed at the
ISP (Internet service provider) level at more than 1000 locations across India Each location will be
called as “Node”, with 300GB of storage space.” 7 The basic idea behind this project is to enable
real-time detection of suspicious “keywords” and “key-phrases” in social media, emails, blogs,
tweets, instant messaging services, and in other types of Internet content. NETRA will essentially be
a surveillance system designed specifically to monitor the nation’s internet networks including voice
traffic. The overall summary on the schemes of Indian Government is furnished in the table 7.2.

93
E- Learning and MOOC

Table 7.2 Government Initiatives on Social Media

No. Name of scheme Nature of information to be Purpose of monitoring


monitored

1 NETRA (Network All Internet traffic including To detect suspicious activity for national
Traffic Analysis) social media, emails, blogs, security purposes
tweets, instant messaging
services, and voice over IP

2 NMAC (National Social Media content, blogs, Sentiment analysis of posts for security
Media Analytics news and media channels purposes and big data analysis for
Centre) detection of pattern of posting. Both
domestic law enforcement and national
security purpose

3 Social Media Labs Social Media platforms To detect suspicious activity, and track
mobilisation using social media for
protests, and support domestic law
enforcement.

4 CCTNS Crime data, geo location data, One of the stated goals of CCTNS is
call data records, social media predictive policing using among other
data etc. things, real time tracking of internet data
including social media data, for domestic
law enforcement.

5 MyGov.in Crowd sourced data on the While the main purpose is to serve as a
platform, social media content platform from citizen engagement, it has
and blogs. been reported that data mining and
analysis techniques will be used to follow
public discourse and discussion on social
media platforms and blogs

7.10 Sentiment Analysis


Sentiment analysis refers to the class of computational and natural language processing
study of people’s opinions, appraisals, and emotions toward events, institutions or other subject
matter in order to extract subjective information, such as opinions, expressed in a given piece of
text. The main purpose of sentiment analysis is to classify attitudes towards various topics into
positive, negative or neutral categories.

94
E- Learning and MOOC

7.11 Predictive Policing


Predictive Policing is the application of Big Data analytical techniques to prevent crimes
through police intervention or use of statistical predictions to solve crimes. Predictive Policing
techniques typically look at various sources of data and one of the key sources has been social media
data. The Crime and Criminal Network Tracking System (CCTNS) is an e-governance project under
the Digital India mission which connects approximately 14000 police stations across the country and
facilitate investigation, detection and prevention of crime.

95
Bibliography:

1. UGC (Credit Framework for Online Learning Courses through SWAYAM) Regulation,
Gazette of India, No. 295, New Delhi, 2016.
2. Amber Sinha, Social Media Monitoring, The centre for internet and society. (https://cis-
india.org/internet-governance/blog/social-media-monitoring)
3. National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), Proceeding of the compendium on mission mode
projects under NeGP, Jan 2011
4. Digital India, News Letter on Activities and Achievements, 2016.
(http://digitalindia.gov.in/content/newsletter)
5. Press Information Bureau, National Library, November 2016
(http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=133639)
6. Digi Locker, News Bulletin, National E-Governance Division, Department of Electronics &
Information Technology, 2016.
7. Kiran Yadav and Sanatan Tiwari, E-Governance in India: Opportunities and Challenges,
Advance in Electronic and Electric Engineering, Volume 4, Number 6, pp. 675-680, 2014.
8. Guidelines for Adoption of Electronic Payments and Receipts (EPR), Document No: EPR:
1, Version 1.0 of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Nov 2016.
9. E.Iniya Nehru, E-Governance Activities in Tamil Nadu, in proc. of Conference, Tamil
Internet 2011, pp. 241-247, 2011.
10. IT Act 2000, Central Government Gazette No. 27, 9th Jun 2000.
11. Behrouz A. Forouzan and Debdeep Mukhopadhyay, Cryptography and Network Security,
2nd Edition, Tata Mc Graw Hill, 2010.

96

You might also like