Daily News

17-Mar-2010

Using the English language as a livelihood tool for the youth of the country has been recognized by the Special Presidential Task Force, President's Secretary Lalith Weeratunga said.

English Speech had to be given priority for the practical needs of the youth and writing was also to be developed but as English was a foreign language it had to be taught according to the local conditions and demands.

17-Mar-2010

By Chaminda PERERA

President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday opened the Kalutara branch of the Open University.

The Kalutara branch of the university was housed at the Kalutara Technical college premises earlier.

16-Mar-2010

The Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka [IPMSL} exchanged papers and signed an MOU with Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK which is represented locally by Business Management School (BMS) as the Regional Centre for Sri Lanka and Maldives.

This will provide an opportunity for candidates who have obtained IPM qualifications to complete an international degree with one year of study in UK. However, there is an option to complete the Leadership and Management honours degree program in Sri Lanka too.

16-Mar-2010

By Charumini de Silva

Trading at the Colombo (CSE) and the London Stock Exchanges (LSE) has been excellent. The London Stock Exchange is confident about future activities in Sri Lanka. London Stock Exchange Information and Technology Director David Lester told Daily News Business this year is equally important for Sri Lanka and the UK as the entire world is recovering from the global economic meltdown.

15-Mar-2010

Suntel hosted a panel discussion on 'How to trim IT CAPEX through SaaS,' which was attended by 100 CEO's from different industries.

Suntel drew panel members from different spheres and discussed the concept of SaaS, Software As A service and how this would benefit Sri Lankan companies.

15-Mar-2010

The Young Members Forum (YMF) of the Institute of Personnel Management Sri Lanka (IPM) will conduct ‘Young HR Mind Awards 2010’ for the third consecutive year to encourage young HR professionals to share their knowledge and experience within a broad learning platform.

15-Mar-2010

The Communicative English Training Program for English teachers in Colombo schools will get under way at Royal College Colombo today.

This program aimed at improving the Communicative English as a life skill among the Sri Lankans will be handled by the Sri Lankan village teachers trained in Hyderabad English and Foreign Language University, India. This islandwide program to train nearly 22,000 teachers under the Mahinda Chinthanaya will be inaugurated at the Royal College, Colombo today.

15-Mar-2010

By Sandasen Marasinghe

Commissioner of Sri Lanka Inventors Commission Professor Mahinda Pathegama yesterday stated that new inventors would be given loans at a low interest rate as a form of assistance for commercializing their inventions thus enabling the nation to obtain the maximum benefits from them.

12-Mar-2010

By Shirley WIJESINGHE

The Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA) has launched several projects to implement the Mahinda Chintana Idiri Dekma.

According to ICTA sources, National e-Literacy Project is aiming to bring out 100,000 citizens in the rural community to ICT literate within 18 months.

This is one of the projects tasked to run for Instant Global Village envisaged in the Mahinda Chintana Idiri Dekma ensuring 75 percent island-wide ICT literacy by 2017.

11-Mar-2010

Novell India Partner Academy, a training program for Novell's partners in selling, distributing and supporting Novell's suite of enterprise IT solutions, held for the first time in Colombo, was a major success.

11-Mar-2010

By Rafik JALALDEEN

Cellular phone usage in Sri Lanka has shown a dramatic rise. A total of over 14 million registered SIM card holders are reported to be using mobile phones, a Telecommunication Regulatory Commission spokesman said.

Over 14 million registered SIM card holders use mobile phones as a means of communication in Sri Lanka. As a developing country, it is a high figure compared with many other developing nations.

Nearly 16.8 percent use fixed land line phones. He said mobile phone users are growing in the country.

10-Mar-2010

Sri Lanka Telecom entered into a partnership with the Moratuwa University to conduct the Bachelor of Information Technology (BIT) external degree program at its established Training Centre at Welisara.

The agreement was signed at the Sri Lanka Telecom premises on Monday.

Sri Lanka Telecom Chairperson Leisha De Silva Chandrasena and the Moratuwa University Vice Chancellor Prof. Malik Ranasinghe signed the agreement.

9-Mar-2010

Nimesha Priyadarshani of Katawela Kanishta Vidyalaya was offered a scholarship to study at the Infosys Institute, Hyderabad by Infosys Institute, Founder and Chairman Nayana Moorthy.

She was one of the students sponsored by the Rotary Club of Colombo West, to follow the Toast Masters ‘speech’ Program.

The Chart Foundation, formed under the auspices of the Rotary Club of Colombo West, plans to take the next step by making the Katawela village an integral part of the global village.

8-Mar-2010

By Ramani Kangaraarachchi

UK and Sri Lanka are prioritizing their investments in developing graduate entrepreneurship and enterprise education.

New businesses can lift nations out of recession through job creation which is economic policy’s top priority. British Council Sri Lanka Country Director, Gill Westway said.

8-Mar-2010

Sri Lanka-India Centre for English Language Training (SLICELT) enables every child in Sri Lanka to learn English and access equal opportunities, Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said.

She was speaking at the inauguration of the SLICELT at the National College of Education in Peradeniya yesterday.

This promotes English language learning to bring about a better life, Rao said.

English as a life skill, which reacts in fostering our relationship in every angle.

5-Mar-2010

By K. Davidraj(Commerce and Management Faculty Eastern University of Sri Lanka)

An entrepreneur is an individual who owns a firm, business, or venture, and is responsible for its development.

Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting a new business or reviving an existing business, in order to capitalize on new found opportunities.

5-Mar-2010

By Harshini PERERA

While banks are moving into latest technologies with internet and mobile banking, they should also be concerned about the risk factor it carries, Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said.

“In a time where people are concerned of the greater potential with less inputs in any industry, savings banks too have introduced fast moving technology into banking transactions”, Cabraal said at the World Savings Banks Institute (WSBI)’s Cross Regional Conference 2010 held at Colombo Hilton yesterday. There are more than 4000 branches and outlets of savings banks in Sri Lanka.

5-Mar-2010

By Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

Sri Lanka and India have immense growth potential for collaborations in the telecommunication industry.

UT Starcom’s Managing Director for South Asia Vijay Yadav said Sri Lanka has a well adopted technology in telecommunications and geographically Lanka is well placed.

4-Mar-2010

SaaS or Software as a service, is computer based applications and services that are provided via remote delivery to end users rather than as a packaged product to be purchased and installed by the end user.

Here an interview with the Suntel’s Head of Corporate Solutions, Ranjith Fernando on SaaS.

Q: How would SaaS transform software investments in future?

The beauty of the solution is that you can use it based on the requirement without spending initial capital expenditure to obtain services.

With the current global economic turmoil calls CEO’s of almost all companies to do business in smarter ways. Ways where earlier we have not even dreamt of. Software as a Service refers to one such way of doing business as an when you would want it.This opens a whole new world of opportunities for commercial establishments plus software vendors.

4-Mar-2010

The Information Technology Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) program organised by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) created huge interest among the student population of the North.

This was shown by more than 4000 students who participated in the three-day IT-BPO career guidance program ICTA held at the Jaffna Vembady Girls' High School the last three days of last month.

Out of the 4000 odd students from grade 9 to 12 who participated in the program the girls slightly outnumbered the boys.

2-Mar-2010

Singapore Informatics is having their project management-training program, the Advanced Project Management Training Program, leading to Project Management Professional Certification (PMP), the world’s most recognized project management credential for the fifth consecutive year.

1-Mar-2010

'The emergence of finance as a key to business transformation in light of the global downturn’ is the theme for discussion at the CIMA CFO forum held in collaboration with LBR-LBO on March 4, at Ceylon Continental Hotel.

CIMA Global President Aubrey Joachim will be the keynote speaker of the forum.

The forum will conclude with a Question and Answer session enabling an opportunity for the audience to actively interact with the speaker.

25-Feb-2010

Freedom from being constrained due to terrorism and counter terrorism acts now gives all Sri Lankans, especially in the North and the East, the prospect of gaining variety of higher education qualifications.

25-Feb-2010

Runeware Integrated together with BE Expositions India will bring to Sri Lanka the Sri Lanka Telecom Summit 2010.

This forum will gather industry leaders to discuss solutions, best practices and technology advancements in the telecommunications industry.

25-Feb-2010

By Ramani Kangaraarachchi

The ICT, BPO Industry will achieve USD 2 billion in export revenue becoming the top revenue earner of the country within the next 10 years. A report from the Export Development Board (EDB) said it will also provide 100,000 direct employment opportunities within the next five years. The report said Sri Lanka is quickly emerging as destination of choice for the ICT and BPO market and it has moved from 29th to 16 in A.T Kearney’s Global Services Location Index in the last 12 months (GSLI 2009).