Daily News

Sri Lanka earned Rs 150 million revenue from the recently introduced on line visa payment system for January. The online visa system was introduced last month and response from the international travellers has been good for this initiative. The UK travellers rank top in the list of making the highest online visa payments for the same period, followed by travellers from Germany, France , India and Sweden, Immigration and Emigration Controller Chulananda Perera said.

The World Bank has approved a US $ 11 million concessional credit to Sri Lanka in the form of additional finance to assist Sri Lanka enhance its ICT services that would help gain a considerable competitive advantage in the region post becoming a Middle Income Country, the World Bank said in press release.

Applications are invited for the 2013 intake of the Australian Development Awards. Development Awards include Australian Development Scholarships and Australian Leadership Award Scholarships.

By Prasanna PERERA- Marketing Consultant

Everyone is talking about Social Media. Organizations of all shapes and sizes are getting involved with it. Individuals too are crazy about it. What really is Social Media? In simple terms, social media enables you to socialize through the internet ;Internet is the "medium" through which this socializing is accomplished. Further, social media is an interactive way to communicate.

IDM Nations Campus (Pvt) Ltd proudly announces its March intake of two highly rated M.Sc programmes; M.Sc in Strategic IT Management (SITM) and M.Sc in IT Management (ITM) offered by University of Wolverhampton - UK (UOW-UK). Several batches of these programmes have been successfully completed and ideally suited for managers who require Postgraduate qualifications. According to Chairman Dr. Bandu Ranasinghe these are pro-grammes with unique features which facilitate both Teaching and Learning.

Considering the ever- increasing demand in the job market, the Education Ministry will take measures to increase the number of students who follow commerce and science streams at the Advanced Levels by 40 percent, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said.

Queens College of City University in New York will partner with Sri Lankan universities to develop an educational relationship. City University Student Affairs Vice President Dr Joe Bertolino on a recent visit to three Sri Lankan universities said that he met Vice Chancellors of Peradeniya, Colombo and Moratuwa to discuss creating global partners and cultural exchanges. He hoped to engage the three universities in scholarship, research and information exchanges, the college hopes to create a series of student and visiting faculty exchanges in the near future.

30-Jan-2012

By Shirajiv SIRIMANE

Sri Lanka’s telecommunication sector received a record US $ 69 million investment last year. The industry received this boost from five leading operators, Sri Lanka Telecom, Dialog Axiata, Etisalat, Bharathi Airtel and Mobitel. The biggest investment to the sector was made by Bharti Airtel Lanka, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, one of the world’s largest telecom service providers, which was the fifth player in the local mobile market. The company invested US $ 49.9 last year.

Sri Lanka's largest mobile service provider Dialog Axiata PLC is offering Technology scholarships to 54 students, who scored top marks in the field of mathematics at the (General Certificate of Education) A/L (Advance Level) examinations held in 2009 and 2010.

With the successful completion of the largest ever education and careers exhibition in Colombo last weekend, EDEX Expo will be coming to Kandy today and tomorrow at the Kandy City Centre.

Mir Technologies Limited Bangladesh has signed partnership agreement with IFS to resell and support IFS Applications in the territory of Bangladesh. Mir Technologies (MirTech) the ICT wing of the most renowned group of companies Mir Group in Bangladesh currently provides Enterprise Resource Planning.

The Human Capital Development Finance Act would be introduced to facilitate legal provisions to enable undergraduates to obtain bank loans on a minute surety bond, Higher Education Minister S. B. Dissanayake said.

MillenniumIT, a leading technology solutions provider and a part of London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), announced the Group's plan for further investment in MillenniumIT. LSEG will invest in the construction of a new state-of-the-art software complex to accommodate the company's growing specialised international software and services business.

Sri Lanka Customs implementing electronic submission of Cusdec and manifest in February.

The Sri Lankan mobile market has witnessed an upsurge since winning the war against terrorism and Nokia’s growth for 2011 is 20%, said Nokia EA Limited Sales and Business Development Manager Sri Lanka, Shiblee Shakik Ahmed, speaking to Daily News Business at the Nokia South Asia launch of the Asha range of feature phones at the Hotel Westin, on Saturday.

TNS recently announced the results of its first Employer Branding Study in Sri Lanka. This year’s study ranks Unilever Sri Lanka as the most preferred employer of choice followed by John Keels, Brandix , MAS and Virtusa in the top five.

EDEX Expo 2012, Sri Lanka’s largest education and careers exhibition commenced last Friday at the BMICH. There were over 250 stalls from various institutions. Edex expo is the only twin mega exhibition in the country, the next will be held at the Kandy City Centre from January 27 - 28.

By Chrishan FERNANDO, Country General Manager IBM Sri Lanka

Recent economic disruptions have forced companies of all sizes to rethink the fundamental role of information technology. This is particularly the case for the banking industry where there is a real hunger to use technology to improve efficiencies, drive client centricity and gain increased visibility into risk exposures.

EDEX 2012 the National Higher Education and Careers Expo will be unveiled for the 9th consecutive year today at BMICH, Colombo and at Kandy City Centre, Kandy on January 27 and 28.

Suren Goonewardene

Bharti Airtel, a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa, announced the appointment of Suren Goonewardene as CEO of its operations in Sri Lanka.

Indian External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna yesterday said a substantial expansion will take place in the scholarships offered by the Indian government to meritorious Sri Lankan students. Under this initiative, the number of scholarships and Self-Finance slots for Undergraduate/Masters/Phd Courses is being increased from the existing 113 slots to 270 per year. In addition, scholarship support to deserving students pursuing their GCE 'A' level and University degrees in Sri Lanka is being expanded to cover about 500 students annually.

Cardiff Metropolitan University MBA at ICBT Campus is the only MBA offered in Sri Lanka as an Internal MBA with same University syllabus. The Cardiff Met MBA is an internationally recognized and respected qualification for executives, busy managers, senior management.

The Mass Media and Information Ministry has introduced a code of ethics for newscasting websites. A printed handout of the code ethics will be issued to registered websites along with their licence.

Mobitel Lanka is to open a call centre in Hambantota next month. MP Namal Rajapaksa said that this is expected to be located in the proposed IT Park in Hambantota. He said that a local real estate company has come forward to build a 3,000-room apartment complex near the proposed IT Park.

Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel, Sri Lanka’s National Mobile Service Provider recently announced the reappointment of Lalith de Silva as the company’s Chief Executive Officer. No stranger to the mobile telecommunications industry in Sri Lanka, De Silva was also Mobitel’s first CEO to assume duty following the acquisition of the company by Sri Lanka Telecom in 2002 and was instrumental in laying the foundation for the company’s rapid technological and market growth.