Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka

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.” .

Nominations open for e-Swabhimani 2010

Monday, 26 July 2010 06:30

Nominations are open for e-Swabhimani 2010 aimed at recognizing excellence in digital content creation. The Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) has invited nominations from individuals and organisations that have developed creative content and practices using ICT making the benefits of ICT accrue to the people. The nominations which were open from mid-July is scheduled close on August 15th.
A top benefit from e-Swabhimani the award organised by the e-Society Programme of ICTA for best creative content and practices using ICT in 11 categories is that it will give international, regional and local recognition. It will constitute the natural pre-selection for the World Summit Awards and all nominations for e-Swabhimani 2010 will be automatically considered for the WSA 2011. All shortlisted nominations will be submitted to the Manthan Award South Asia and other regional awards. It will provide opportunities for networking and creating business alliances and collaborations. It will also be a platform for benchmarking products and services. It will also provide exposure to investment opportunities and investors.
The e-Swabhimani winners will receive the e-Swabhimani trophy, publicity in the national media, exclusive rights for using the award logo on personal stationery and products. Their products will also be showcased at all local and regional events, promoted offline and online and featured in the e-Swabhimani booklet.

'Updated databases make lives simple'

Friday, 16 July 2010 15:13

Properly maintained databases make people's lives simple, comfortable and enjoyable said Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga

He was speaking at the National Conference ICT Policy for Government held at the Ceylon Continental Hotel in Colombo last Saturday.

Around 70 top officials comprising secretaries, additional secretaries of Ministries and their Chief Innovation Officers participated at the event.

The Secretary said that the foreign countries, including ICT giants like India were in high praise of Sri Lanka 's ICT achievements, the world awards won and Sri Lanka 's flagship project, namely the Government Information Centre (1919).

Some of these countries even want to learn from some of our projects and adopt them in their countries, including the GIC and LGN which consists in linking all Government institutions.

Weeratunga said that in one instance the great success of 1919 saved him from embarrassment.

One leader had told him that when he accessed a Sri Lankan Government institution website, he found that it had not been updated.

However the service provided by 1919 was able to compensate for some of the flaws of the websites of some Government institutions.

The Secretary said that the excellence of one project was no excuse for imperfection in other projects and he would request Secretaries of all Ministries to ensure that the websites of their Ministries were updated as soon as possible.