Information and Communication Technology Agency | Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka

Honouring local contributions to ICT possible due to President: Lalith Weeratunga

Friday, 19 November 2010 15:12

Sri Lanka is now able to see, evaluate, appreciate and enjoy local contributions to ICT, thanks to the leadership of the President, says President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga.

Mr. Weeratunga said so while participating at the e-Swabhimani 2010 award presentation for best e-content developers held at Chinnamon Grand Colombo recently (09) under the patronage of Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa as the Chief Guest.

Delivering his address as the guest of honour the President’s Secretary said that if the President had not eradicated terrorism and restored peace by his determination and wise guidance Sri Lankans would not be having the opportunity to recognise local talents and appreciate their contribution to ICT today even at an event like e-Swabhimani 2010.
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Speaking further on the occasion Mr. Weeratunga said that e-Swabhimani 2010 was another instant where ideas in the Mahinda Chintana Vision for the Future’ were put into action. This was under the e-Sri Lanka initiative.
“The country is now reaping the benefits of the e-Sri Lanka initiative put on track in 2004 by President Mahinda Rajapaksa then as Prime Minister and revamped from 2005 as President”, the Presidential Secretary said. Relating e-Swabhimani 2010 to the President’s foresight the President’s Secretary stated: “The development of talents in e-content through e-Swabhimani 2010 testified to the value of the guidance given by the President for leading the country to win the war of socio-economic development”. Paying a tribute to Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, who had graced the occasion as the Chief Guest, Mr. Weeratunga said that the country was fortunate that Minister Basil Rajapaksa was available to spearhead the support to the President in reaching development benchmarked by a number of achievements including 75% ICT literacy by 2016.

e-Swabhimani 2010 winners to be announced tonight

Tuesday, 09 November 2010 16:55

The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka will be hosting the e-Swabhimani Award Gala 2010 today (9) at the Cinnamon Grand under the patronage of Hon. Basil Rajapaksa, Minister of Economic Development. Mr. Lalith Weeratunga Secretary to HE the President will be the Guest of Honour at this event aimed at recognising the creativity and innovation of the country’s developers of digital content and applications.
Recognising the fact that the disparities in accessing information and communication technologies that exist in our society today stem not only from inadequate infrastructure but also from the lack of appropriate content, the ICTA initiated the e-Swabhimani Award in 2009. The aim of this Award is to encourage and incentivise local developers to come up with innovative applications and digital content that will impact on society as a whole. The design and development of good quality content and applications require creative imagination, engineering know-how as well as financial resources. Moreover creation of content and applications for societal use is often not addressed by commercial software developers since it does not generate much profit. It is therefore recognised that there is a need to incentivise and facilitate content creation.
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) recognised this need as far back as 2003 and introduced the World Summit Award (WSA), a global initiative to select the world’s best e-content and innovative ICT applications. The WSA encourages member countries to organise national awards and the ICTA, as the apex body responsible for setting ICT policy direction in the Country and implementing the e-Sri Lanka Initiative, came to the fore with the e-Swabhimani Award, the National Award for the country’s best digital creations.
The e-Swabhimani is conducted along the lines of the WSA which ensures transparency and fairplay. All applications are reviewed by a Grand Jury comprising eminent experts chosen from different subject areas. The Knowledge Partner for e-Swabhimani Grand Jury 2010 was the Digital Empowerment Foundation of India, the organisers of the Manthan Award South Asia. The two-day Jury process was supported by a special evaluation and ranking software which is used in international contests of this nature. The Jury evaluated a range of online, offline, mobile and satellite content/systems. Final decisions were made after intensive deliberation and were based on a majority vote.

ICTA initiated project gives free and open access to ICASL course materials

Monday, 02 August 2010 09:27

Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) has taken steps to make even globally acclaimed courses, till recently the prerogative of a few, available to all.

An example of this is ICTA’s recent partnering with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka in a pilot project now being replicated island-wide. Under this ICTA initiated project ICASL has given free and open access to its web-site www.icasl-online.com with effect from 27th instant. This good news was disclosed at the first ever awareness meeting held in the country in this regard at Devanayagam Hall in Batticaloa yesterday [recently] (27 July). About 400 eager GCE AL students who participated in the meeting were overjoyed and impatient to try the web-site that will enable them, or any person, for that matter, to browse and perform online studies in Financial Accounting, Management Business Economics and Business Mathematics and Statistics

Speaking on the occasion of the inauguration of the campaign to create awareness of this facility ICTA e-Society Senior Programme Head Chitranganie Mubarak said, “While there is no denying the fact that face-to-face teaching plays an essential role in a student’s path towards his/professional goal the new opportunity that business studies students in particular and students of all categories and for that matter the people in general will have as a result of this project to pursue their studies is remarkable.” .