About the Centre for Data and Information Services

Centre for Data and Information Services (DIS) provides IT resources to sustain and enhance the academic and administrative activities of the learners, teachers and support staff of Bishop Heber College. The teaching and working communities of the college augment their efficacy and productivity by accessing the resources available at DIS. The resources at DIS keep them informed and updated so as to carry out their assignments effectively.

Objectives and Scope

• As an ongoing process, DIS takes note of the rapid pace of technology growth, and takes necessary initiatives to adapt to the new changes.
• To provide all required IT resources to the stakeholder of Bishop Heber College to carry out their responsibilities.
• To introduce new technologies in-line with the academia.
• To create facility for upgradation of the products.
• To provide annual maintenance to maximum the longevity of the products.
• To ensure that the products are catered to the needs of the stakeholders 24x7.

Guiding Principles for Centre for Information and Data Support

The Centre for Information and Data Support is guided by the following principles:

• To provide seamless access to teaching-learning activities.
• To reduce the operation cost and to improve the quality of teaching and learning activities.
• To maintain transparency for the students from the time of their admission to graduation.
• To provide individual privacy as per the law applicable.

Areas of application

a) Research

• To provide data capture, analysis and management tools for both qualitative and quantitative data.
• To ensure the credibility of research through use of appropriate tools to check plagiarism.
• To organise training and capacity building activities to help the researchers to use latest tools for research.
• To provide improved administrative support systems to the researchers to manage research grants and other funding resources.

b) Admissions

c)Human Resources

d)Teaching and Learning

e) Student Performance Evaluation

Equipment Usage Policy

1.Objective

The college supports the educational and community service efforts of its employees and recognizes the need to offer assistance in these endeavours through the use of college owned equipment. The Equipment Usage Policy is designed to facilitate the purchase and use of equipment with proper approval.

2.Equipment Purchase

The following equipment are purchased by the college with the help of DIS.

• Personal computing devices
• Computer peripherals
• Networking equipment

3.Inventory Management

The Centre for Information and Data Support is responsible for maintaining an accurate inventory of all technological assets, software and tangible equipment purchased by the college. The following information is to be maintained the above-mentioned assets in inventory sheet:

• Item
• Brand
• Serial number
• Basic configuration
• Physical location
• Date of purchase
• Purchase cost
• Current person in charge

IT security policy

IT security policy includes data security for managing data in a proper cascade manner to store and retrieve the necessary data, to process and to provide better service and to safeguard from the tampering of data, data theft and hacking of data. To protect the data from hackers and to provide security from unauthorized access or alteration of data and safely store and recovered. IT security policy is framed as per the hierarchy provider by the college management to access information accordingly.

General Instructions

• Control measures such as access policy, authentication, authorization and monitoring are provided to ensure data security in the institution.
• Hardware Firewalls Reuters and monitoring service are reviewed on a regular basis and by reviewing the accession log to protect from intruders.
• Event Logs by software and through the accession register are monitored continuously to ensure the safety of records.
• The data users and the network administrators are provided with the necessary training.

Data Classification

• High Risk:This data assert includes standard protocol for disclosure of information and will have information about financial penalties of students. For example, staff personal information, salary information, Student Mark List, or any other personal information and biometric data which are very personal,
• Medium Risk:This data includes statistical data and few confidential data which will not have any loss for the institution when it is disclosed but it is not publicly available. For example Statistical data, Work diary, Time Table, Unpublished reports, etc
• Low Risk:These data are publicly available for students as well as staff. The following data are available to the students: Students attendance report, Brochures, printed reports and E materials etc

Virus Prevention

Virus prevention is implemented in the server for the data security and to maintain the server protection. Separate servers are maintained for data and applications and each server is installed with the virus protection software. Antivirus software are up to date for the safety purpose.

Intrusion Detection

• A separate hardware firewall is installed to monitor all the transactions and hit off OPS available in the server
• A separate lease line has been set up through the gateway and with the help of hardware, Firewall and software firewall access and restrict few keywords and websites.
• For reviewing the access from every user IP has been logged into database as well as in the login register is maintained for further review.
• Every event log in the system as well as in the Firewall is maintained sequentially in a predominant time.

Internet policy

Internet usage policy provides a detailed guideline that how to use the Internet facility inside the college campus by student or staff members with various policies according to the usage especially the researchers will have a special access.

Internet usage is available for the betterment of the institution and to increase the productivity and efficiency.

General Guidelines

• Wireless network facility is available for staff members research scholars and students.
• It is a free facility which will be available for the registered users.
• Two separate connections from the service providers are established for the least downtime at the institution.
• Both are separated through the local area network and wireless local area network.
• Accessing the Internet is only through the hardware firewall followed by software so it will be secured and with the restriction of access.
• Network administrator will monitor all the access and the Internet facility is available 24 / 7 inside the campus.
• For external safety, antivirus program is installed for monitoring unauthorized or intrusive activity.

Internet login guidelines

• A separate Internet lab facility is provided inside the campus.
• All the online examinations are conducted as in the cabin bases and as per the government norms.
• The internet lab facilitates to conduct government exams inside the premises.
• Students, research scholars and staff members have to register their MAC address to access internet inside the institutional premises.
• Since it is a RARP method only the users registered users can access the Internet.
• Limitation of device is fixed for every user. Mostly students are encouraged to use their laptop, and the international students can access internet using their tablets or mobile phones.

ICT facilities

• To protect the data from hackers and to provide security from unauthorized access or alteration of data and safe storage and recovers, the server and storage facility is constantly upgraded.
  • Servers - IBM X 3650M3 Servers - 8 Nos.
  • Storage - IBM D3500 with hot-swappable controller and fiber
• To avoid access of unauthorized site and provide restricted access, WatchGuard Firebox M4600 & M5800 is installed.
• 108 Wifi devices were installed and whole campus is Wifi enabled. To avail the Internet connection, staff members and students have to register their Laptop/ Mobile phone in the office of CID.
• 208 CCTV surveillance cameras were installed in important places of all the blocks to ensure the safety and security of the stake holders. These CCTV data have been kept for certain periods for further process.
• Domain based authentication (xxxxx@bhc.edu.in) for staff and students ensures secure access to Google - GSuite for email communication like Mail, Calendar, Google Classroom, Drive with unlimited storage and Google meet for virtual meeting and sessions.
• Regular renewal of Microsoft and other Softwares.
• In the beginning of every semester, the Computer Laboratory for UG/PG programmes is scheduled as per the availability of 14 Computer Laboratories including Language Laboratories

BHC has indigenously developed an in-house ERP solution to meet the academic requirements involving teaching-learning, assessment and examination process. There is a dedicated team to support various IT infrastructures i.e., ERP, website and other portals.

• Academic Announcements, Time Table, Results, Study Material and so on.
• Administration, Purchase, Assessments, Transport and Admission related information.
• Online Fee Payment system, Admission Enquiries, Registration, NET Banking, Electronic Gate passes, Procurements and Payroll.
• Student and Staff Information Management.
• App for Student Attendance System and CIA Mark Entry system.
• Biometric System is also available for staff members and student attendance in office and hostels.
• All the academic and administrative processes are Online and fully automated.
• Online Admission Process was started from 2019-2020.

There is a dedicated team that compiles and prepares budgetary plans for future acquisitions and recommends the purchase of appropriate hardware and software. During the last five years, the budget of 920.85 Lakhs was allocated and 913.63 Lakhs was spent for updating the IT facilities.

• Due to the introduction of skill based courses, Two Computer Laboratories (Golden Jubilee building) were established in 2017 and another Computer Laboratory (Old Auditorium) in 2019.
• Computer Laboratory (Department of Mathematics) was upgraded by the DBT STAR College Scheme and another Lab (Department of Physics) was upgraded with 40 Computers.
• 767 Computers were newly purchased during the last five years (2017-2022).
• 14 Computer Laboratories with 900 number of computers are available for Practical classes, Browsing and conducting Online Examinations.
• 1279 Computers are available for students use and 52 computers are available for office use.
• The Bandwidth connection is upgraded from 125 Mbps to 200 Mbps.
• 100 Mbps with Optical Fibre Network BSNL leased line and 100 Mbps wireless network (AirTel) facility provided in the campus.
• e-Studio with control room, audio booth with all necessary gadgets was setup in January, 2020.
• The computer Lab and PCs are connected to online UPS backup in addition to individual generator back-up.
• BHC has campus agreements with major software vendors like Microsoft, Tally, Snetclass, Clarity English Success (LSRW), Author Plus-soft skills and Personality development, Study Skills Success-IELTS, Tense Buster-Grammar Exercises, and Databases like NIRMALS- ILMS, N- List and DELNET
• Software like YASARA Structure, Gaussian16, CUSTIC ver 3.2, MATLAB, Mathematica were procured for research purposes. In addition, we encourage open-source software usage for academic, research and administrative activities.

Organisational Structure / Team Members