Sunday Observer

A Task Force comprising members of the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) and Information Communication and Technology Agency (ICTA) have been appointed to explore avenues of popularising broadband connections in Sri Lanka due to the low penetration of broadband connections, said Intel country Manager Indika De Soyza.

Science and Technology Minister Prof. Tissa Vitharana stressed the importance of developing the field of science in the country and added that modern equipment and trained personnel, are vital to reach world standards.

The Central Environment Authority (CEA) along with fourteen business organisations in home electronics, information technology, telecommunication industries and waste management service providers have launched an electronic waste management project to eradicate the growing e-waste crisis in Sri Lanka.

SriLankan Airlines has been recognised by UK's Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) for its ground breaking efforts in Business Intelligence, when it was chosen as one of the top five Global Breakthrough Business Intelligence Initiatives and shortlisted for the prestigious CIMA Global Awards.

Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen highlighted the major role played by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country's economic growth and said the Government would establish a university to improve skills development of entrepreneurs.

The Education Ministry yesterday assured that `Spoken English’ will be introduced to the school curriculum and also for the GCE (O/L) Examination commencing from year 2011.

According to Education Ministry statistics, the ability of spoken English of 80 percent children in public schools is not in sound position and therefore the `Spoken English’ subject must be introduced to the school curriculum.

Education Minister Bandula Gunaweardana told the Sunday Observer that President Mahinda Rajapaksa realised the importance of learning English along with Information Technology (IT) by students and named the year 2009 as the year of `IT and English’.

A large number of students who are capable of following higher studies do not have a proper educational system to continue their higher studies due to lack of opportunities for higher education. Deputy Minister of Higher Education Nandamithra Ekanayake said.

Chennai based Adrenalin eSystems (AeSys), a subsidiary of Polaris Software has appointed Advanced Business Solutions (Pvt) Ltd [ABS], as its authorised solutions partner for "Adrenalin" Human Capital Alignment (HCA) software solutions in Sri Lanka.

Outstanding performances of students of Gateway Colleges and the Gateway Kids School of Computing were the highlights of the Young Computer Scientist 2010 Awards Ceremony held recently at the HNB Auditorium in Colombo. Every year, the Sri Lanka Association for the Software Industry (SLASI) organises the Young Computer Scientist competition in association with the Ministry of Education. The competition is held in search of young talent islandwide andis open to all schools in Sri Lanka. This year's Awards ceremony was graced by The ambassador of Korea in Sri Lanka Choi Ki Chui, and Minister of Education Bandula Gunawardena.

Talented Sri Lankan IT professionals have been the innovators of many wonders-things that one would hardly dream of. AMoRA, a Text to Speech System (TTS) for the Sinhala Unicode which receives raw text as input and produces appropriate speech output is a marvel of our young IT professionals.

The Mahinda Chinthana Policy of the Government has identified certain sectors to be developed, for the country to become a knowledge and financial hub. To achieve this the budget will lay special emphasis on the IT BPO sector and the telecommunication sector, said a top official of the Ministry of Finance. The official said that another thrust area is agriculture and livestock, to be self-sufficient in food and liquid milk as well as other dairy products. The Government is encouraging people to have large farms.

CodeGen, provider of travel sector software globally celebrated its 10th anniversary last week.

CEO of CodeGen, Dr. Harsha Subasinghe said that Travel Box Technology is the advanced software solution suite built in a modular format enabling CodeGen to provide a highly versatile and user specific solution capable of supporting all sectors of the tourism industry. It offers a next generation innovative and revolutionary web service based technology and is used by airlines, tour operators, hotels and destination management companies around the world which include some of the well-known brands such as Virgin, Saga, Transat and Qantas.

Sri Lanka's first rural BPO, in the village of Mahavilachchiya functions as a service provider to InfoMate(Pvt) Ltd - a subsidiary of John Keells Holdings PLC. Its able staff, notably all youth from the village carry out transaction processing as an extension of InfoMate's role of captive finance and accounting service provider for the John Keells Group.

The Higher Education Ministry has sought the assistance of Indian professors and senior lecturers to work in Sri Lankan universities during their sabbatical leave period.

This follows a discussion the Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake had with Indian Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal during his recent visit to India.

There is huge potential for trade and investment between Sri Lanka and USA due to the cordial relations between the two countries, said President, American Chamber of Commerce (AMCHAM) in Sri Lanka, Vijaya M.B. Ratnayake.

The 7th South Asian Economics Students' Meet (SAESM) will be held from November 29 to December 4 in Colombo with the participation of undergraduate economics students from universities in the South Asia region, said the coordinator of the event Senior Lecturer of the University of Colombo Dr. Sirimal Aberathne.

The College of Business and Economics at the University of Canterbury will offer one full undergraduate scholarship annually to a Gateway College student for three years of full-time study.

Sri Lanka's largest Higher Education and Careers Expo, the EDEX-2011 educational exhibition will be held at the BMICH on January 22 - 24.

Infotel 2010, the tenth edition of Sri Lanka’s premiere ICT exhibition and conference, will be from September 30 to October 4. Intel has once again partnered this path breaking ICT Expo and conference with the belief that it is the way to enhance the availability of technology and awareness throughout the island.

The Sri Lankan Entrepreneur of the Year Awards was launched by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) on Monday.

The IDM affiliated University College Trust has launched six degree programs, in affiliation with the University of Wolverhampton UK last week.

The Director Studies, IDM Computer Studies (Pvt) Ltd., Lionel Perera said that for the first time IDM will have a flying faculty where lecturers from the University will deliver lectures.

Sri Lanka needs to make our Intellectual Property (IP) system truly development oriented and to reach all the strata of society with the message of innovation, said the Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishard Bathiudeen at the Assemblies of Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organisation held in Geneva last week.

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) was recently awarded ISO 9001:2008 certification by the Sri Lanka Standards Institute (SLSI) for its Quality Management System established in its Call and Customer Service Centres.

The "Techno 2010" National Engineering and Technology Exhibition organised by the Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) for the 25th consecutive year will be held at BMICH from October 08 to 10.