Daily Mirror

Amid protests against the admission of foreign students to local universities, Cabinet yesterday approved a memorandum submitted by the Ministry of Higher Education to expand the scholarship scheme to such students from ten more countries, Daily Mirror learns.

Popular Sri Lankan ICT exposition INFOTEL will be opening its 2013 edition to the public for three days from 24 to 27 October at the Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convention Centre according to organisers the Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka (FITIS).

Sri Lanka's leading mobile services provider, Dialog Axiata PLC has posted a net profit of Rs.1.59 billion for the first quarter of FY13 against a net loss of Rs.531 million in the same quarter of the previous year, helped by reduced financial costs and tax refunds, the interim financial accounts released to the Colombo Stock Exchange showed.

Dialog Axiata PLC (Dialog), Sri Lanka’s largest mobile services operator has entered into an agreement with the Bay of Bengal Gateway (BBG) consortium to land a high capacity submarine cable at a Cable Landing Station (CLS) to be located in Colombo, a statement by the company said.

In response to sexually derogatory, defamatory and racially spiteful speech circulated on social media, the Attorney General’s Department urged affected parties to lodge a complaint at the nearest police station.

The number of mobile phones used by 20.8 million Sri Lankans hit over 20.3 million for the fist time at the end of December 31, 2012, Central Bank data showed.

In a move to further liberalize country’s foreign exchange controls, the Central Bank has granted permission to Dialog Axiata PLC (Dialog) to facilitate inward remittances via mobile phone technology, according to the Exchange Controller.

Despite recent efforts to tackle software piracy, Mirror Business learns that the unauthorized use of software by Sri Lankans has been shockingly high at 84 percent in 2012, implying that 84 out of 100 Lankans ran their computers on pirated software.

Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team | Coordination Centre (Sri Lanka CERT|CC) said they were not able to take any effective action against the administrators of the Facebook page ‘schoolgirls’ that had featured unauthorised images of young girls in an offensive context, as the privacy policies of social media sites prevented them from obtaining the personal details of the offenders.

CIMA ’s President, Gulzari Babber who is on an official tour to all CIMA markets in the region makes his visit to Sri Lanka this week.

The Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team – Coordination Centre (Sri Lanka CERT—CC) said that they had received “4 to 5 complaints of hacking from state institutions.”

Sri Lanka must find its own balance between free education and fee-based education, particularly in the field of tertiary education in order to bring maximum benefit to the wider economy, according to Global President of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), Sir Paul Judge.

The Police have warned the general public to beware of bogus lotteries or lottery scams that are operated through SMS services.

Rusiru Gambheeraarachchi and Kasun Lakmal from the Rajapaksa Central College, Weeraketiya have topped the island in GCE Advanced Level examination 2012 Maths and Biology streams respectively.

The government will revamp the university and school education structure with a view to bringing down the age for university admission from the present 20 years to 16 and age for school admission to four years, Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake said. 

A hacker on Tuesday breached the Web site of Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA), and also attacked and leaked the Web sites of two Sri Lankan TV channels and the Bureau of Foreign Employment over the last weekend.

Fourteen suspects who were allegedly involved in a massive financial fraud by withdrawing money from foreign credit card holders through an e-commerce application service provided by a State bank in Sri Lanka had been arrested and detained under the custody of Criminal Investigations Department (CID).

The Prison Reforms and Rehabilitation Ministry is to undertake a project to interconnect all prisons and detention centres in Sri Lanka, to improve efficiency and share vital information.

The telecommunication levy on internet and broadband services in Sri Lanka will be reduced by fifty per cent with effect from January 2013, the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) said.

The Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Response Team (SLCERT) said that no concrete action could be taken against those who spread religious and racial hatred on Facebook despite efforts being taken to liaise with Facebook and curb posts conveying religious and racial hatred.

In its continuous mission to lead Sri Lanka’s ICT transformation across the island, the National Mobile Service Provider, Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel opened its second regional contact centre in Mullaitivu recently.

Sri Lanka must break its colonial chains of being a follower and facilitate an environment where innovation and invention can lead the economy out of ‘Third World’ status’, Senior Minister of Scientific Affairs Prof. Tissa Vitarana stated at the Ray Awards ceremony held on Wednesday.

The government today said it has decided to reduce the registration fee of news websites by 75 percent, and the renewal fee by 80 percent.

The Economic Development Ministry of Basil Rajapaksa has been assigned as the ‘implementing agency’ of construction projects related to the development of 5000 primary schools in the country, a Minister said yesterday.

Sri Lankan voters will get the opportunity to surf the web to check their name in the electoral register after August 15, Elections Commissioner General Mahinda Deshapriya said today.