By: N. Rahul
Telangana State Public Service Commission will deploy for the first time Cloud computing to prevent malpractices in the exam it will conduct for recruitment of Assistant Executive Engineers on September 20.
In a major Information Technology initiative by any public service commission in the country, the Telangana commission has made arrangements for Cloud-enabled answer scripts on screen for about 30,000 candidates in the exam. The commission proposed to conduct conventional exam by OMR sheets if the number of applicants exceeded 30,000 because that many workstations might not be available at the educational institutions that will be rented for the exam to be held in Hyderabad, Warangal, Karimnagar and Khammam.
The commission Chairman Ghanta Chakrapanai said in an interview to The Hindu that only question papers will be downloaded with the aid of broadband which will be defused when the candidates begin writing answers. The encrypted questions will be transferred to a different console while the candidates feed in the answers on personalised sheets.
Mr. Chakrapani also said there will be two to three levels of sanitisation of examination centres to make them foolproof. The candidates will be screened by biometric devices and supplied customised question papers on broadband. The question papers will not match from candidate to candidate. The whole effort was to reduce the duration of recruitment to less than 40 days as against four months in the past.
Answering questions on the format of exams for Group I to IV services, Mr. Chakrapani said one of the subjects in Group I and II exams will focus exclusively on Telangana movement starting from 1948 till its culmination into formation of the State. A topic in the syllabus will also be devoted to TRS president and Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.
The candidates will be tested in general studies, six subjects and a qualifying exam in English of tenth standard. About 120 academics were involved in the preparation of the syllabus. He denied criticism that study material on Telangana was not available and said it was precisely keeping this in view that the commission decided to release the syllabus by the month end. There were at least 50 books on Telangana, he added.
He also said there was no bias towards Telangana because Group I and II services in combined Andhra Pradesh also had a subject on the State.
Source: The Hindu