Technology

Nenasa connects rural schools in Anuradhapura

NCP Chief Minister, Berty Premalal Dissanayake (centre) hands over a television set to a Principal from a rural school in the province.

Thirty five rural schools in the North Central Province were connected to the Nenasa distance education network, at a ceremony held in Anuradhapura recently. Close to 350 rural schools islandwide were connected to the Nenasa network, while 65 more schools in the North Central Province would be connected by end 2010.

Nenasa is a satellite-based distance learning bridge funded and facilitated by Dialog Telekom together with the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education.

The channel beams the ordinary level school curriculum to underserved schools in rural areas, with the objective of bridging the education gap among students. The company aims to connect 1,000 schools and 500,000 students through this programme by the end of the year.

Speaking at the event, Berty Premalal Dissanayake, Chief Minister of the North Central Province thanked Dialog and education officials for extending this facility to the students of the province, and urged them to look into the technology requirements of students in the area.

He added that the North Central Province was severely impacted by the effects of war over the past three decades, and efforts such as these would augment the rapid development initiatives undertaken in the area.

Aepona named by European Tech Tour as top 30 High Growth Company

Aepona Sri Lanka (www.aepona.com) announced yesterday that its parent company, Aepona Ltd (Belfast) has been chosen by the European Tech Tour Aepona as one of the 30 selected companies of the 2010 UK and Ireland Tech Tour.

This news was revealed at the organisation's function held in London on April 27, the finalists represent the region's most promising, high-growth, early- and expansion-stage technology companies.

Aepona Sri Lanka's GM, Kolitha Ratwatte `This is excellent news for the company, and in particular would imply further growth in Aepona's Sri Lankan operation'.

Aepona was chosen from a pool of 250 applications and selected based on detailed reviews by the UK and Ireland Tech Tour's Selection Committee, comprised senior global venture capital and technology industry leaders.

The reviews assessed the uniqueness of the applicants' technology, strength of their business model, vision, capability to execute on the business plan and the quality of management team and track record.

"It was a big challenge to identify the UK and Ireland Tech Tour finalists given the strength of this year's entrants, but we are satisfied we've selected the companies with the greatest business and commercial potential," said Victor Basta, president of the UK and Ireland Tech Tour. "These are not just companies that will make an impact locally; they are companies with the potential to assist in Europe's broader economic recovery."

Aepona Sri Lanka is a leading Java centric software Company dedicated to serve corporate(Aepona Ltd) software development requirements.

Aepona Sri Lanka has seen significant growth, increasing its employee numbers by 100% within the last six months and building on the success of its parent company is expected to grow further in the coming months.

Sri Lanka IT/BPO capabilities showcased in London

The International Outsourcing Forum (IOF) is the premier annual event in the international outsourcing events calendar in London. IOF attracts leading buyers and supplier of IT/BPO services around the world.

Dinesh Saparamadu Chairman SLASSCOM

The conference is represented by all major IT/BPO service providers from many countries including Sri Lanka, Egypt, India, Mauritius, South Africa and countries from the Eastern European block and Latin America.

Lead by SLASSCOM and ICTA, Sri Lanka was the lead sponsor of the 2010 IOF event attracting the spot light as a fast emerging sourcing destination for IT/BPO in focused niche verticals.

2010 is Sri Lanka's third consecutive showcasing at the IOF event.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) which acquired Sri Lanka's Millennium Information Technology late last year, delivered the keynote address on LSEs journey to Sri Lanka which created significant interest from many potential buyers. SLASSCOM and ICTA showcased Sri Lanka capabilities at the event.

To promote business, at the heels of the conference, SLASSCOM also organised matchmaking meetings for participating Sri Lankan companies including Eureka, Eurocenter, Hellocorp, hSenid, JKCS, Orion, Talliance, and Virtusa, with key decision makers from buyer organisations.

Speaking at the event in London, ICTA COO, Reshan Dewapura said that 'Sri Lanka is a unique and competitive destination for specialised and SME sourcing. We see an increasing interest from European SMEs who are looking to extend their organisations globally for access to quality and cost effective talent's.

The event was supported under the Industry Capacity Building Program by ICTA.

Sri Lanka presence at the IOF was a part of the SLASSCOM initiated aggressive promotional campaign to promote Sri Lankan IT/BPO capabilities in the UK and Europe.

'We are focusing on UK and Europe as one of our strategic markets to promote the Sri Lanka IT/BPO industry'.

UK has been a long standing trade partner of Sri Lanka and we aim to extend this to the emerging IT/BPO industry' said Ashique M Ali, Director and Global Trade Forum Leader of SLASSCOM.

Speaking on the success of the UK industry promotion program, Dinesh Saparamadu Chairman of SLASSCOM said, Sri Lanka is ranked among the Top 50 Global Outsourcing destinations by AT Kearney and ranked among Top 20 Emerging Cities by Global Services Magazine.

The opportunity for Sri Lanka is significant and this is the time for us to accelerate our National focus.

We must focus on market development and capacity enhancement as priority actions.'

Cybersecurity meet ends with calls for global cooperation

DALLAS, Texas: Government and business leaders wrapped up a cybersecurity conference on Wednesday agreeing that only global cooperation can protect a vulnerable Internet and interconnected world.

"When it comes to our readiness to protect ourselves from cyberattacks we are not prepared, we are not even close to ready," said Tom Ridge, who headed the US Department of Homeland Security under former president George W. Bush.

Cyberspace has emerged in the 21st century as a new domain along with land, sea, air and space, Ridge told the 400 participants from 40 countries attending the first Worldwide Cybersecurity Summit hosted by the EastWest Institute.

"It's time, one might argue past time, to build the trust and establish the laws, treaties and agreements for the cyberspace domain in this 21st century," he said. "Collective action is and must be our goal."

During three days of talks here, government officials, business leaders and cybersecurity experts discussed how to cope with the myriad threats to computer networks - from criminal hackers seeking financial gain to cyber terrorists out to wreak havoc to nations equipped with cyber warfare capabilities.

While warning that the dangers can never be eliminated entirely, they said a number of steps could be taken to protect power grids, financial markets, rail and air transportation, communications systems and other critical sectors.

"We need to exchange - and there are certain conditions of course - information about vulnerabilities, threats, attacks," said Patrick Pailloux, director general of France's Network and Information Security Agency.

"We should conduct joint cyber defense exercises," he said.

China, which has been accused of waging cyberattacks on Google and heavily censors the Web, joined calls for international efforts to secure cyberspace while at the same time urging respect for "Internet sovereignty."

"International cooperation is very much needed," said Liu Zhengrong, the deputy director general of the State Council Information Office's Internet Affairs Bureau.

But the "Internet sovereignty of each country needs to be respected" and "different national and cultural conditions" taken into account, Liu said.

Both government and business representatives stressed the need for the public and private sectors to forge a partnership.

"Each government has to enlist the support of its private sector for cybersecurity," said Kamlesh Bajaj, chief executive of the Data Security Council of India. "No government can fight cyber crime in isolation." Bajaj warned that while much can be done to protect digital infrastructure against electronic attacks, "vulnerabilities will continue to exist.

"Cybersecurity is not a technology problem that can be solved," he said. "It is a risk to be managed."

Protecting user privacy and educating policy-makers and the public to the seriousness of the threats in cyberspace were cited as other major challenges.

"When you mention cybersecurity to most members of Congress their eyes just glaze over," said Michael McCaul, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives from Texas. "Yet it's one of the most serious issues that we face in this century."

Speaking of cyber espionage, McCaul said "if we caught agents of a foreign power breaking into the Pentagon, stealing physical files, file cabinets, you can imagine the response from the media.

"And yet that's happening in the virtual world every day," he said.

Enhanced cooperation among law enforcement and a greater ability to track down and punish perpetrators of cyber crime were also identified as pressing needs.

"We have an enormous number of bad actors who are able to be completely anonymous," said Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive of Texas-based computer giant Dell. "Can you think of any secure system where people can operate anonymously?"

Retired US Air Force Lieutenant General Harry Raduege, former director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, pointedly reminded participants that reaching a consensus on cybersecurity issues will not be easy.

"When I think of the rules of the road, some people drive on the left side of the street and some people on the right so that can cause some healthy collisions," Raduege said.

(AFP)

Lifetime Achievement Award for Etisalat Chairman

The jury of Business Leaders Summit selected Mohammed Omran, Chairman of Etisalat, as Personality of the Year 2010 for being an excellent role model for other business leaders.

The award comes also to recognise his great efforts in developing the telecom sector across the Middle East, Africa and Asia and for his leadership of Etisalat.

The awards took place during the Middle East Business Leaders Summit Ceremony that took place in Dubai, The awards aims to recognize the personalities, companies, as well as local and regional leading organisations that contributed to the development and excellence of the economy.

Mohammed Omran dedicated the award to Etisalat's management and employees. `The achievements accomplished by Etisalat would not have been possible without a synchronized and experienced team possessing the ability to implement general strategies and policies applied by the management.

This has reflected positively on our international expansion so that we are now able to extend our services to more than 2 billion people.

Today, we are delighted that we have over 107 million customers across our 18 markets,' Omran said. Omran has worked for Etisalat over three decades and served in many different positions until he became the Chairman of Etisalat in 2005.

From his current position he has overseen many of the company's major achievements and today is considered as one of the key decision makers in the telecommunications sector in the region.

Sampath Bank in fund transfer facilitation agreement with HDFC Bank

Sampath Bank created another first in the banking and financial services industry recently by becoming the first private commercial bank to facilitate fund transfers between customers of other banks.

Sampath Bank and HDFC Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding to effect fund transfers of HDFC customers to other banks through Sri Lanka Inter Bank Payment System (SLIPS) recently.

Harris Premaratne, CEO Sampath Bank exchanging the MoU with Suresh Amarasekera, CEO-HDFC Bank.

Beside them (left to right) are : Nimal Tillekeratne - DGM Operations and Commercial Credit and Aravinda Perera Chief Operations Officer of Sampath Bank with S. Dissanayake DGM Finance, W.M.A. Bandara AGM (IT) and Ms. D de Silva Board Secretary of HDFC Bank.

Nissan recalls 134,000 cars over airbag flaw

WASHINGTON: Japanese carmaker Nissan on Tuesday recalled more than 134,000 US cars sold under its luxury brand Infiniti amid fears that the vehicles' airbags may not deploy in a crash.

The company said it was recalling Infiniti G35 model sedans and coupes because of a wiring flaw that could cause the airbag to shut off.

"This issue came to our attention through an internal investigation. We are not aware of any incidents or injuries," Colin Price, a company spokesman told AFP. The problem affects US-sold G35 sedans made from 2005 to 2006 and coupes from 2005 to 2007.

The cars are also sold in Canada, Puerto Rico, Guam, South Korea, Taiwan and the Middle East.

"On a small percentage of the potentially affected vehicles, a harness connector issue could cause the passenger airbag to shut off," the company said in a statement.

"Infiniti will inspect and repair the passenger air bag harness to address this issue." But Nissan USA hinted that more recalls could be on the way: "Infiniti will also address this issue in each individual market where these vehicles have been distributed."

It is just the latest in a string of recalls to hit the US auto market. Nissan's fellow Japanese firm Toyota has been hardest hit. Toyota has been forced to recall around 10 million vehicles worldwide.

"Infiniti is committed to a high level of safety, customer service and satisfaction and is working with its dealers to promptly address this issue," the company said in a statement.

AFP

China leads Asia's push into green technology: UN

China is leading a push by Asia-Pacific nations into green technology, which could be their ticket to sustained growth and reduced reliance on Western markets, the United Nations said Thursday. It said environmentally friendly industries could provide export-dependent regional economies with new sources of growth to help make up for weakened demand in crisis-hit United States and Europe.

"The impact of the crisis has revealed the vulnerability of the region to external shocks," the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific said in its annual economic and social survey of the region.

"Asian and Pacific countries therefore need to find new sources of domestic and regional demand ... to help sustain their dynamism and allow for a gradual unwinding of global imbalances."

The UN praised efforts by China and South Korea for their "significant initiatives" to promote green technology as well as shift domestic consumption and production patterns to a more "environmentally sustainable path".

Government-backed investment in "energy and material-saving innovations" could see "greener" industries and businesses become drivers of growth as well as provide more affordable products for the poor, the report said.

But it was essential developed countries share their green expertise with poorer nations who cannot afford the technology, Aynul Hasan, head of macroeconomic policy and development, told a news conference."That technology should be shared," Hasan told reporters.

"This is where regional cooperation as well as the support of developed countries will be very, very important."

China invested 34.6 billion dollars in clean energy in 2009, up more than 50 percent on the previous year - making it the world's biggest investor in energy-efficient technology, it said.

South Korea plans to inject 84 billion dollars in environmentally friendly industries over the next five years, the report said.

"China is playing an important role ... in terms of promoting green technology dealing with the environmental issues," said Hasan.

AFP

Indian school children take part in the launch of the "Connected Classroom solution in India" during a press Conference in New Delhi on May 5. Combining innovative technology, products, services, siftware and training, the Dell Connected Classroom makes learning in the digital age a reality. AFP