Daily Mirror

The Education Ministry has decided to introduce an oral test for the English language at the G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination from next year, Minister Bandula Gunawardane said today.

India has promised Sri Lanka an increase in educational assistance amounting to LKR2.5 billion in grant to deserving students.Indian Minister of External Affairs S.M. Krishna who was in Lanka on a four-day visit announced that this was a substantial expansion in the scholarships currently being offered by India to the Lankan students.

The Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) is to construct a state-of-the-art telecom tower to provide multi-functional telecommunication and entertainment facilities under one roof, a senior official of the TRCSL said yesterday.

The Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SLCERT) has received 1,800 Facebook complaints during the year 2011, Senior Information Security Engineer Rohana Palliyaguru said.

The high ranking of Sri Lanka on AT Kearney’s financial attractiveness scale indicates its relative affordability as an outsourcing destination, a recent survey on the ICT sector concluded.

Accounting Forum 2011 marked its successful ending as the eighth consecutive forum, leaving many appreciations and congratulations from those who witnessed it on December 8, 2011 evening at the Ceylon Continental Colombo. The success of the event gave immense happiness and left a sense of pride in the minds of the organisers, the members of the Accountancy Students’ Association- University of Kelaniya (ASAK), who gave their fullest might and commitment in going through the challenge of coming up with an annual event in a grand style with a difference.

The Minister of Higher Education S.B. Dissanayake said that the external degrees awarded by Sri Lankan universities were worthless certificates that would not benefit its holder or the country in any manner. Addressing a gathering at the inaugural ceremony of the Open and Distant Education Centre affiliated to the Aesthetic University, he said external degrees had recognition during election campaigns when political appointment were made.

Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa, announced that the speed test results of the periodical survey conducted by the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRC) for the month of November 2011 has concluded Airtel as the leader in the category of 3G Mobile Broadband. This survey is regularly conducted by the TRC and is a detailed analysis that compares the performance of all operators in Sri Lanka across several categories.

The Commonwealth Youth Programme Asia Centre, Commonwealth Secretariat in collaboration with The Young Indians of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) organised a two-day Envisioning Workshop in New Delhi recently, at the end of which the CommonwealthAsia Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs (CAAYE) was launched. The initiative followed the mandate given by the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings in 2009 and again in 2011 to Commonwealth Secretariat and member governments to put in place policies and mechanisms to foster youth enterprise development as a means to mitigate the problem of unemployment among young people in the Commonwealth.

It was not so long ago that Anything.lk celebrated reaching the 50,000 fans milestone on Facebook. Scarcely two months after that, Anything.lk has reached a staggering 100,000 fans. This is no mean feat when you consider that there is only one other Sri Lankan company on Facebook that has more fans (incidentally a partner of Anything.lk as well) and that this was achieved in under six months of being in operation.  Anything.lk is the Fastest ever Sri Lankan commercial company to reach 100,000 Facebook Fans and at the same time 300,000 unique visitors.

Dialog Axiata PLC announced yesterday the secondment of its Group Chief Marketing Officer Nushad Perera to take up a regional role at the Head Quarters of the Axiata Group Berhad in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Perera’s new role will be in the capacity of a Senior Vice President within the Group Strategy function of the Axiata Group, and will commence in January 2012.

IBM recently published the inaugural Global Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) study, entitled ‘ From Stretched to Strengthened’.

www.colombotop500.com (CT500) is a unique, online-platform that allows the consumer access to an ‘easy-to-use’ portal, connecting them to a wide range of products and services.

Rajeev Singh-molares, President-alcatelLucent’s Asia Pacific region and a member of the management committee will be in Sri Lanka on a brief visit.

Police have sought the assistance of the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) and the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) to obtain details of people who operate pornographic websites, which allegedly feature local men and women, the Children and Women’s Bureau told Court yesterday.

The university system runs short of 1200 teachers, and urgent steps are needed to fill these vacancies as soon as possible, officials said today.

Long-standing affiliates SLIIT and Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) UK teamed up to provide students with an opportunity to receive a globally recognised MBA in Sri Lanka.

Millennium Information Technologies (Millenniumit), a leading technology solutions provider and a member of the London Stock Exchange Group, announced that it has signed a contract with the Delhi Stock Exchange (‘DSE’) to provide the Indian Exchange with trading technology. The deal will see Millenniumit provide solutions for equity, derivatives and FX trading as well as clearing technology.

The Google Android forum which was the first of its kind in the country, entitled ‘What can Android do for you?’ was carried out with the objective of spreading awareness about the benefits to users of such technology.

The German Development Cooperation (GIZ- former GTZ) recently launched a mobile computer training unit targeting Eastern youth. It is part of the larger Peace-building through Vocational Training (PB-VT) project implemented by the GIZ in cooperation with the Chamber of Construction Industry Sri Lanka, which delivers construction industry related vocational training in Batticaloa.

Only about 100 foreign students have applied to study at local universities though the Higher Education Ministry provided opportunities for more than 1,000 students to do so, officials said today.

After reading the last three Paradigm Shift columns published in this newspaper, some might well think that this writer has something against social media. This however, is not the case. The last three articles dealt with the essential difference between citizen and mainstream journalists, and why one could not lump them together as they did not have the same standards be it in terms of ethics, style or objectivity.