Civils marathon-32 Hurry up for final goal

The Gallup race for the final goal of mains examination has started for all the Civils mains aspirants. They have already spent a lot of sleepless nights in preparation. They have consulted seniors who have already attempted twice or thrice. They have abundant material available with them. Still they worry about the pattern of questions which may appear in the examination. Several civils pundits made guesswork during the last few weeks. Siri Praturi Potayya Sarma who is consultant for Civils for the last 20 years has made some guess work which will be of use for the aspirants to think over on these topics and mentally get prepared.

Cloud nine

Cloud nine is a recent concept in the software industry. The following variations of a single topic can appear in the general essay paper.

l I am on cloud nine

l "If clouds are blocking the sun, there will always be a silver lining that reminds me to keep on trying " (Mathew Quick)

l "Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud." ( Maya Angelou)

l "There is a bright spot in every dark cloud." (Bruce Beresford)

l Cloud computing.

l "The Sun always shines above the clouds" (Paul F Davis)

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is the on -demand delivery of IT resources over the internet with pay –as -you- go pricing. Instead of buying, owning, and maintaining physical data centres and servers, you can access technology services, such as computing power, storage, and databases, on an as-needed basis from cloud providers like Amazon Web services.

Organizations of every type, size and industry are using the cloud for a wide variety of use cases, such as data backup, disaster recovery email, virtual desktops, software development and testing, big data analytics, and customer facing web applications. For example, healthcare companies are using the cloud to develop more personalized treatments for patients. Financial services companies are using the cloud to power real-time fraud detection and prevention.

Video game makers are using the cloud to deliver online games to millions of players around the world.

Benefits

Agility: The cloud gives you easy access to a broad range of technologies so that you can innovate faster and build nearly anything that you can imagine. You can quickly signup resources as you need them from infrastructure services, such as compute, storage, and databases to internet of things, machine learning, data leaks and analytics and much more. You can deploy technology services in a matter of minutes and get from idea to implementation several orders of magnitude faster than before. This gives you the freedom to experiment, test new ideas to differentiate customer experiences and transform your business.

Elasticity: With cloud computing, you don't have to over-provision resources upfront to handle peak levels of business activity in the future. Instead you provision the amount of resources that you actually need. You can scale these resources up or down to instantly grow and shrink capacity as your business needs change.

Cost savings

The cloud allows you to trade fixer expenses such as data centres and physical servers for wearable expenses and only pay for IT as you consume it. Plus, the variable expenses are much lower than what you would pay to do it yourself because of the economies of scale.

Deploy globally in minutes:

With the cloud you can expand to new geographic regions and deploy globally in minutes. For example, one company has infrastructure all over the world, so you can deploy your application in multiple physical locations with just a few clicks. Putting applications in close proximity to end users reduces latency and improves their experience.

Types of cloud computing:

The three main types of cloud computing include infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, and software as a service. Each type of cloud computing provides different levels of control, flexibility and management so that you can select the right set of services for your needs.

Based on this information the candidate has to build his own story.

Quotations will help in answering in a structured manner.

Other topics suggested

l Gig economy in India – India's booming Gig and platform economy: Perspectives and recommendations on future of work.

l Reverse migration is boon in disguise

l Poor are blessed. Poverty is not a curse.

l Role of Panchayati Raj in the elimination of poverty in India

l Healthcare for all is not a distant dream.

l "Vignan sarvatra pujyate"

(Recently the Prime minister of India has re-coined the word vidwan sarvatra pujyate to vignan sarvatra pujyate. Science and technology developments in India are being recognized worldwide. The candidate has to mould the structure of the essay accordingly. )

l Character is the highest virtue

l India's bio economy

l Covid-19 and it's variants or

l Impact of Covid-19 on Indian agriculture or

l Impact of Covid-19 on world economy – Indian economy in general.

l Oxygen produced in steel factories saved human lives during COVID-19 second wave.

l Indian Army from british empire to Independent India in 21st century or

l Modernisation of the Indian army is the need of the hour.

l The future is in climate smart agriculture/ digital agriculture

l The future of India lies in village

These above subjects will help the candidate to tune his mind set up and prepare well to answer in a systematic and prompt way.

We have already discussed the proper presentation of the essay. Cultivate the habit of writing frequently during these few days. It will help in writing faster.

(Author is a retired Additional Director general, Doordarshan, Delhi)