Local Industry News

The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) is getting ready  to display  several information technology projects at the Deyata Kirula 2012  Exhibition to be held at Oyamaduwa, Anuradhapura from 4th to 10th February. 

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.

SLIIT hosted the National Conference on Technology and Management (NCTM) on the 27th January at the institutes Malabe Campus. The event, considered to be the successor to the SLIIT Research Symposium which was held for the last six years consecutively, ventured into the spheres of Management and Technology, thus broadening the breadth and depth of research areas covered by this event.

More than 300 complaints against the posting of obscene and personal pictures of persons on Facebook – the social networking service - have been made to the Criminal Investigations Department.

CIMA, The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) officially launched the new designation-Chartered Global Management Accountant-CGMA in New York and London simultaneously for its members.

Hanthana Linux team, in collaboration with the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka, is to conduct an awareness camp on Free and Open Source Software and Hanthana Linux on 7th and 8th of February at “Deyata Kirula 2012″ Education and Trade exhibition which is held at Oyamaduwa, Anuradhapura in line with the 64th Independence Day.

FOSS User Magazine, a community driven, free content magazine, was released January 2012. The latest issue consists of 40 pages and could be downloaded from the web site (www.fossuser.lk) free of charge.

Virtusa Corporation (NASDAQ: VRTU), a global IT services company that offers a broad spectrum of business consulting and outsourcing services, today announced the appointment of Sameet Gupte as the company’s senior vice president (SVP) & managing director (MD) for Europe based out of London.

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.

A thought leader in Asia, eMarketingEye (www.emarketingeye.com) is an end-to-end online marketing solutions provider, primarily focused on the Travel and Hospitality industry.

Etisalat's second round of Android Forums, held on the 27th of January 2012, have been lauded by both veteran developers and Android amateurs alike. Etisalat, who pioneered the innovative idea of Android Forums in Sri Lanka with the first ever forum last November; hosted two separate forums on the 27th geared at developers and beginners respectively.

Code crammers come by the dozens from Asia. But building a distributed Agile team takes a lot more than good programmers. There are multiple barriers to be broken, such as time, communication, adapting business domain, and not the least - cultural and inter human relations.

It is indeed a rare occasion in Sri Lanka today that one can genuinely offer ‘Bouquets’ to anyone in authority, but it is with pleasure that I would like to offer my congratulations to the Government of Sri Lanka for the recent announcement that the Private Universities Bill is withdrawn, at least for the time being. I only hope that this is not a mere tactical withdrawal to divert attention, but is based on the realisation of the impropriety of the manner of its intended introduction.

Are you tired of calling and always waiting for your service personals? Or are you seeking a service person for your consumer needs in your day to day life? Is ‘fixing’ your daily chores becoming a hassle? Nishshanka De Silva launched Workforce.lk with his partner in July, 2011 to address this issue and to make your life simpler like never before.

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.

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.

One of Australia’s leading educational service providers IIBT (International Institute of Business and Technology) is further extending the 11 year agreement it has had with their Sri Lankan Representative MTI, by using Sri Lanka as the launch pad for some new services in regional markets.

The number of complaints regarding hacking of ‘Facebook’ accounts of Lankans has increased, Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Response Team (SLCERT) Senior Information Security Engineer, Rohana Palliyaguru said.

Twitter announced last week that it would begin restricting Tweets in specific countries, renewing questions about how the social media platform will handle issues of free speech as it rapidly expands its global user base.

The benchmark web solutions provider in Sri Lanka, Pyxle totally revamped the web presence of Great Wall Restaurants through a focused web strategy by establishing an online revenue channel for the longstanding premium quality Chinese food chain in Sri Lanka.

The Chamber of Young Lankan Entrepreneurs (COYLE) recently conducted yet another pioneering event, the Diplomatic Convergence, which will be an annual event of its calendar hereafter.

Smartphones and tablets have revolutionised the way people access information, and it is no surprise that they have also become popular amongst company employees, with many bringing them to the workplace or on the road. In Pakistan where over five million mobile phone customers have a smartphone or tablet and the number is gradually increasing with the introduction of newer and budget-oriented smartphones and tablets, the concept BYOD is gaining traction.