1.

4 Big Data – Big Insights

ICE BREAKERS
 Give business suggestions to the respective industry/company for the following
situation. One is done for you.
You have received data that -
(a) Many passengers prefer morning flights between 7 am and 9 am from Mumbai
to Delhi.
Suggestion: Increase the number of flights between 7 am and 9 am.
(b) Many students are opting for UPSC/MPSC Exams.
Suggestion:
(c) Many people go for morning walk to Kamla Nehru Park.
Suggestion:
(d) Many people buy clothes from [Link], an online shopping site.
Suggestion:
(e) The viewership on television is more between 8 pm and 10 pm.
Suggestion:
 People get information from various sources: Can you name a few?

Facebook

Sources of
information

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 Big Data – Big Insights
What is Big Data?
There is a revolution in the life style of people which
has been affected by Big Data. Our food habits, our
health care, our travelling, our scientific pursuits, you
name it and everything has changed 360 degrees. The
massive data available with us can really work wonders.
Friends, do you know what happens when we like a post
on Facebook or share a post on WhatsApp, visit any
website, make online purchases, or watch videos? Yes,
whatever activity we do online is recorded, monitored
petabytes : units of and analysed. So a huge amount of data is collected. Let
information equal to one me give you an idea of how huge the data might be. Big
thousand million Data can be petabytes or exabytes of data consisting of
exabytes : units of
information equal to one
billions to trillions of records of millions of people- all
quintillion from different sources, for example web, sales, customer
contact centre, social media, mobile data and so on. The
Discuss how Big Data data available to industries and companies is enormously
is increasing in volume,
increasing in volume, variation, velocity, veracity and
variation, velocity, veracity
and value. value. Such a Big Data is easy to obtain but so massive
that it challenges the current computing technologies
and hence Big Data analytics is used to give insights that
were previously incomprehensible. Big Data analytics
is the complex process of examining large and varied
data sets or Big Data to uncover information- such as
hidden patterns, unknown correlations, market trends and
customer preferences. With such a huge data available
with the industries they can have innumerable advantages
hence all the industries are trying to reap the maximum
benefit from it. Many industries have advanced by miles
from their competitors. It’s not the amount of data that is
important but what the organizations do with the data is
what matters.
Uses of Big Data
• How can you check the
condition of the goods? 1. Location Tracking : Big Data has been useful
in identifying and tracking the exact location of a place.
• How can you reduce risk Your GPS and Google Maps make use of Big Data. With
in transport? geographic positioning and radio frequency identification
sensors we get the real-time data about traffic, congestion
on a particular route, information if the route is closed or if
it is a one-way route, understanding accident prone areas

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etc. You can plan your own route according to the travel
time and the transportation of goods. If you have ordered
something online you can track the location of your goods
in transit, you can also track the condition of the goods.
This has immensely helped the logistics companies to
reduce risks in transport, improve speed and reliability in
delivery.
2. Understanding the Weather Patterns : There are
weather sensors and satellites set-up all around the globe.
Huge amount of data is continuously being received from
them. They help us to understand the weather and help in impending : about to
happen
weather forecasting. Weather patterns give us warnings of calamities : great and
the impending natural calamities like floods, earthquakes, often sudden damages or
tsunami etc. Necessary preparations to combat them can distresses
be made well in advance. We can study global warming,
predict availability of natural resources like water.
3. Health Care Industry : Today, we see that people
have become health conscious. The smart watches, other
wearable, health apps in our phone keep on collecting
data. We can say that they are our own mini biomedical
research devices. They detect our heart rate, monitor the
patient’s sleep pattern, keep a record of his exercise, the
distance walked etc. The analysis of this data collected can
give new insights and provide a personalized, individual
feedback to each and every person. Nowadays we have
gadgets to monitor blood sugar, blood pressure etc. at
home; 24 x 7 monitoring can be provided to patients in
hospitals too. With the help of Big Data the doctors can
now have better diagnosis of any ailment, the effect of
any drug etc. Unnecessary guesswork can be significantly
reduced. Past records of the patients can be maintained
and better analysis of the health can be obtained. Big
Do you think Big Data has
Data helps in monitoring the outbreaks of epidemics and
improved the quality of
diseases. Just when you post your message, ‘I’m down life? How?
with flu’ on WhatsApp or Facebook it will be monitored
and the areas affected by ‘flu’ can be easily located and
necessary precautions can be taken. Pharmaceutical
companies would pay huge amount to receive the health
data of people to promote research in the particular area.
With the help of the data gathered, individuals are often
given suggestions and solutions for the problems they are
encountering.
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 4. Banking, Finance and Trading : With the Big
Data analytics, the investment patterns of the people can
be studied. New insights have enabled the banks and
finance companies to come with suitable plans. Big Data
has enabled smooth functioning of these agencies and
institutions.
Banking and finance sector is using Big Data to predict
and prevent cyber crimes, card fraud detection, archival
of audit trails, etc. By analyzing the past data of their
brute force attacks : a customers and the data on previous brute force attacks
cyber attack that relies
on guessing all possible banks can predict future attempts. Big Data not only helps
combinations of a targeted in predicting cyber crimes, but it also helps in handling
password untill the right issues related to mised-transactions and failures in net
one is found banking. It can even predict possible spikes on servers so
mised-transactions: wrong
that banks can manage transactions accordingly.
transactions
transaction : an exchange The Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) is using
or transfer of funds Big Data to monitor financial markets for possible illegal
trades and suspicious activities. The SEC is using network
Can we understand the analytics and natural language processors to identify
economy of the country by possible frauds in the financial markets.
the data on Banking and
Finance?
High-Frequency Trading (HFT) is an area where Big
Data finds a lot of use today. Here, Big Data algorithms
are used to make trading decisions. Today, the majority
of equity trading now takes place via data algorithms
that increasingly take into account signals from social
algorithm : a process of set
of rules to be followed in
media networks and news websites to make, buy and sell
calculations especially by a decisions in split seconds.
computer 5. Sports : When watching a cricket match, we
are shown so many permutations and combinations of
statistical analysis. A gigantic data has been created over
a period of time from the recording of matches, training
sessions and workouts. The data enables a sportsperson
to study his performance as well as of the other players
worldwide. It has tremendously helped in improving
individual as well as team performance. The sensors
embedded in the sports equipment help us to understand
our game from close quarters. The sensors help us to
understand the field conditions, the weather, individual
performance etc. Video analytics help us to see each and
every performance minutely.

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 6. Advertising : Advertisers are one of the biggest
players in Big Data. Be it Facebook, Google, Twitter
or any other online giant, all keep a track of the user
behaviour and transactions. These internet giants provide
a great deal of data about people to the advertisers so
that they can run targeted campaigns. Take Facebook,
for example, here you can target people based on buying
intent, website visits, interests, job roles, demographics demographics: statistical
and what not. All this data is collected by Facebook data relating to the given
population and particular
algorithms using Big Data analysis techniques. The
groups within it
same goes for Google, when you target people based on
clicks you will get different results and when you create a Do you think people click
campaign for leads then you will get different results. All consciously on Facebook ?
this is made possible using Big Data. Discuss.

7. Entertainment and Media : In the field of

entertainment and media, Big Data focuses on targeting
people with the right content at the right time. Based
on your past views and your behaviour online you will
be shown different recommendations. This technique
is popularly used by Netflix and Youtube to increase
engagement and drive more revenues.
Now, even television broadcasters are looking to
segment their viewer’s database and show different
advertisements and shows accordingly. This will allow
better revenue from ads and will provide a more engaging
user experience.
8. Education Industry : Big Data has inundated
the education industry. It has transformed it in leaps and
bounds. Now we have information about the students, Do you think Big Data will
their study patterns, and we can now prepare customized help to bring improvement
and dynamic learning programmes according to the need in students?
of an individual student. Every student’s comprehension
level is different. The course material can now be designed
catering to different requirements of the students. Big
Data makes it convenient to understand their choices,
their difficulties, information regarding various courses
and their specialties; we also have an access to the results.
From the results we can gauge the progress of the students,
understand his strengths and weaknesses. This will also
help in guiding the student regarding the best career for
him based on his mental make-up and abilities. An in-

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 depth study of all this would definitely give new insights
into the education industry and help in improving the
operational effectiveness and working of educational
institutes. This would in general, enhance progress of all
Discuss a solution
students. Big Data has provided a solution to one of the
provided by Big Data.
biggest pitfalls in the education industry, that is one –
size- fits- all.
We have innumerable uses of Big Data. It is helpful
in scientific researches, understanding geographical
phenomena, helping in the smooth working of the
government machinery etc. It is a genie in our hands. It
lies in our hands to make the optimum use of it for the
benefit of mankind.
***

BRAINSTORMING

(A1) Youtube has many videos on various things. Listen to the uses and health
benefits of ‘Lemon’ and share them with your friends.
(A2) (i) Make pointwise notes from the lesson regarding the uses of Big Data in
the following application. Do not write complete sentences.
(a) Location Tracking -
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(b) Health Care Industry -
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(c) Education Industry -
(1)
(2)

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 (3)
(4)
(ii) When you are asked for personal details on social media, what precautions
will you take? Discuss in pairs and write down.
(iii) Do you think all the data we receive is used for positive things? If ‘No’,
make a list of the negative things which can be done with the help of Big
Data.
(A3) Guess the meaning of the following idioms and phrases and use them in
sentences of your own. One is done for you.
One-size-fits-all – suitable for or used in all circumstances
The wrist watches have adjustable belts, so one- size- fits- all
(a) ‘Once in a blue moon’
(b) ‘One man army’
(c) ‘Once bitten twice shy’
(d) ‘One up on’
(A4) (i) Do as directed.
(a) Advertisers are one of the biggest players in Big Data.
(1) Begin the sentence with ‘Very few ………….’
(2) Use ‘bigger than’ and rewrite the sentence.
(b) No other diagnosis is as good as the diagnosis done with the help of Big
Data.
(1) Use ‘best’ and rewrite the sentence.
(2) Use ‘better than’ and rewrite the sentence.
(c) These internet giants provide the greatest data about people.
(1) Begin the sentence with ‘No other……..’
(2) Use ‘greater than’ and rewrite the sentence.
(ii) Read the sentence from the text.
New insights have enabled the banks and finance companies to come up with
suitable plans.
This sentence can be rewritten as ‘New insights have enabled the banks as
well as finance companies to come up with suitable plans’.
Remember, ‘as well as’ serves the same purpose as that of co-ordinating the
conjunction ‘and’ in the sentence. When one of them is inserted in the sentence,
other should be removed.

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 Use ‘as well as’, ‘either ...... or’ in the following sentences.

(a) Whatever activity we do online is recorded, monitored and analysed.

(b) Big Data has been useful in identifying and tracking the exact
location of a place.
(c) Weather sensors and satellites help us to understand the weather and
help in weather forecasting.
(d) Big Data helps in monitoring the outbreaks of epidemics and
diseases.
(e) New insights have enabled the banks and finance companies to come
up with suitable plans.
(A5) (i) Interview the students of your class regarding the career they would like
to pursue and the reason for selecting that particular career. Collect the
data of your class and analyse the information you have collected.
(ii) To listen well is as powerful a means of influence as to talk well and is
essential to all true conversations. Form a group and have a group
discussion on the topic.
(a) Social Media - Curse or Boon
(b) Women Empowerment and Equality
(c) Climate Change
(A6) Find out job opportunities in the following areas and the skills required
for them.
(a) Clinical Data Management (d) Data Operations and Research
(b) Network Operations (e) Data Entry Operation
(c) Data Processing
qqq

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