Daily News

Research aspirations in Sri Lankan universities could not be realized due to 30 years of terrorism and war. You all belong to that generation. The generation-long conflict in our country deprived you of enjoying the generation's benefits, said Professor Rohan Gunaratna of University of Ruhuna addressing the General Convocation recently.

Prime Grameen hopes to raise around Rs 500 million within a year with the launch of “Sip Saviya” Minor’s Account which is aimed to help power a Childs’ University Education.

The winner of the ‘Institution of Engineers’, Sri Lanka (IESL) Junior Inventor of the Year (JIY) competition 2012, Master Pubudu Kapuge, has done Mother Lanka proud by winning several top awards at the ‘2013 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), in Phoenix, Arizona recently.

Sri Lanka Telecom, the national telecommunication services provider successfully connected the country’s first and largest Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) surveillance system through its advanced Fibre optic based Metro Ethernet Network (MEN) infrastructure to improve road safety and national security by providing facilities to authorities of the Sri Lanka Police Department to carry out real-time video monitoring, control cameras remotely, record, store and playback.

The South Eastern University of Sri Lanka will be opening an Engineering Faculty shortly. Eng. Tilak De Silva, the President of the Institute of Engineers of Sri Lanka, recently visited the University to hold discussions on establishing standards with the Vice Chancellor of the Eastern University Prof. S.M.Mohomed Ismail, the Provincial Centre of the IESL, some Engineers and other University officials.

ESOFT Computer Studies, with best results islandwide from the years 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 in the Colombo University BIT Degree examination, have begun recruiting new students for the BIT Degree which is a high quality ICT degree of national and international acceptance.

Virtusa Corporation (NASDAQ: VRTU), a global business consulting and IT outsourcing company that combines innovation, technology leadership and industry solutions to transform the customer experience, today reported consolidated financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2013, ended March 31, 2013.

Blue Chip Technical Services (Pvt) Ltd., a total IT solutions provider, announces its expanded partnership with Infor (Software principal for Blue Chip) to sell Infor M3 in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Blue Chip boasts a decade-long partnership with Infor to sell, implement and provide support services for Infor System21 ERP.

Sri Lanka Telecom PLC (SLT) released financial performance of its Group and Company for the first quarter 2013.

McAfee and South Asian Technologies recently hosted its successful Intelligent Security Event in Colombo with the participation of over one hundred CIOs, CSOs and IT managers from Sri Lanka. This event was aimed at educating audiences on utilising situational awareness technologies to get real time actionable insight out of their security systems, thereby enabling organisations to make proactive and intelligent security decisions.

The Education Ministry will introduce a new Advanced Level stream as the fifth stream from this year as a collaborative measure of three Ministries, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said.

For the first time in Sri Lanka, The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited (ANCL/Lake House) secured a landmark deal with the three leading mobile service providers, Dialog, Mobitel and Eitsalat to facilitate its subscribers to send their classified advertisements to the Sunday Observer and Silumina newspapers through their mobiles.

eCybersec, a leading web application/network penetration testing company, tied hands with Resolvo Systems Singapore in order to introduce yet another groundbreaking service to the IT Security market in Sri Lanka.

The Knowledge Conglomerate (TKC) has decided to repeat the executive-education program on ‘Conducting Job Interviews – To select the best-fit candidate’, due to many requests from those who missed the initial programme and very positive feedback from the first program held last week. The programme will be directed by Lasantha Salgado and scheduled to be held on June 3rd 2013, from 8.30 am to 5.00 pm at the Hotel Galadari.

Dialog Axiata PLC announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Dialog Broadband Networks (Private) Limited (“DBN”), had entered in to a Share Purchase Agreement (“SPA”) with the shareholders of Sky Television and Radio Network (Private) Limited (“Sky”) for the acquisition of 100% of the ordinary shares in issue of Sky at a consideration of Rs 800 million.

The mobile phone has almost replaced the alarm clock and the calculator, similarly it would eliminate the computer in the future,” said CEO, Etisalat, Robert Lee.

A document tabled by Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake in Parliament yesterday, stated there were opportunities for nearly 1,292 foreign students to study in local universities.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Project Management Institute (PMI) Sri Lanka chapter paving the way for CA Sri Lanka to conduct globally renowned project management programmes at its Colombo 7 premises.

A batch of nearly 500 university dons who proceeded to foreign countries for further education including post graduate degrees have breached their bond agreements by not returning to serve the country after completing their assignments. As such the University Grants Commission will take steps to recover the financial assistance granted to them under these scholarships. The UGC has already advised the respective universities to take necessary actions for the recovery of these monies for failure on the part of these dons to honour the bond agreement on their part, UGC Chairman Kshanika Hirimburegama said.

The tenth convocation of the University of Colombo BIT Degree was held at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) recently along with the Diploma and Higher Diploma awards ceremonies. The convocation was presided over by the Chancellor of the Colombo University his Lordship Dr. Oswald Gomis.

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), takes a keen interest in the development of the Nation’s Human Resources with a view to enhancing Sri Lanka’s overall competitiveness and narrowing the market gap for Human Resources in the Private Sector, in particular.

The National Transport Commission (NTC) launched a pilot project to monitor driving capabilities of inter- provincial private buses (long distance) using the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Looking through the weekend papers' education supplements, one would be quick to realize there is no dearth of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Sri Lanka.

Venora International Projects (Pvt) Ltd was recently awarded with the Best Enterprise at the Business Leaders Summit held recently in British Institute of Directors, London, United Kingdom.

Since the beginning of 2011 the Sri Lanka Customs department has been gradually introducing automation to various divisions of its services. The first was to work online with Motor Traffic department, followed by mandatory Direct Trade Input system (DTI), online payments of customs charges. The manifesting process is also being implemented with ship agents, SLPA and logistics companies.