Sri
Lankan PHR version 1.0 was won the certificate of appreciation under Health
& Environment category in the e- swabhimani 2012.
The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka had been hosting the e-Swabhimani Award Gala
2012 10th of January 2013 at the Cinnamon Grand under the patronage
of Hon. Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, Minister of Telecommunication and Information
Technology. Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga was the Guest of Honour at
this event aimed at recognising the creativity and innovation of the country’s
developers of digital content and applications.
World Bank Financial Sector Specialist Henry Bagazonzya , Daily FT editor
Nisthar Cassim, Sri Lanka Telecom CEO Greg Young, University of Kelaniya
Fine Arts Department Senior Lecturer Rohana Beddage and Veteran Film Director
Asoka Handagama were grace the occasion as special guests of e-Swabhimani 2012.
Recognising the fact that the disparities in accessing information and
communication technologies that exist in our society today stem not only from
inadequate infrastructure but also from the lack of appropriate content, the
ICTA initiated the e-Swabhimani Award in 2009. The aim of this
Award is to encourage and incentivise local developers to come up with innovative
applications and digital content that will impact on society as a whole.
The design and development of good quality content and applications require
creative imagination, engineering know-how as well as financial resources.
Moreover creation of content and applications for societal use is often not
addressed by commercial software developers since it does not generate much
profit. It is therefore recognised that there is a need to incentivise
and facilitate content creation.
From its inception the eSwabhimani Award has evinced great interest and
this year’s applications totalled 220, the highest in the Award’s history and
70 more than last year’s 150. The e-Swabhimani project has also become
widened in its popularity, with nominations coming from 16 districts this time.
This year too ICTA had invited developers to spruce up their digital
creations, develop innovative products and applications under the categories of
their choice. The specified categories and the number of applications
received under them were as follows:- (1). e-Government and
Institutions – 31, (2). e-Health and Environment – 9, (3). e-Learning and
Education – 31, (4). e-Entertainment and Games – 24, (5). e-Culture
and Heritage – 6, (6) e-Science and Technology – 18, (7) e-Business and
Commerce – 55, (8). e-Inclusion and Participation – 18, (9). m-Content –
28.
As was expected the highest number of applications was from the e-Business
and Commerce category . Categories e-Government and Institutions and
e-Learning and Education equally attracted the second largest
applications.. Judging from numbers of applications submitted, m-Content,
e-Entertainment and Games, e-Science and Technology, e-Inclusion and
Participation and e-Health and Environment and e-Culture and Environment were the
next preferred categories in that order.
e-Swabhimani 2012 will also be a stepping stone to regional and
international awards. The products which excel this year will constitute the
pool from which the country’s best will be selected to the upcoming world
Summit Awards 2013. An eminent group of experts from a variety of
disciplines constituted the grand jury that selected the winning entries
through a stringent selection process.
The objective of ‘e-Swabhimani’ National Award is to give due
recognition to local content, software and applications which will contribute
to making people’s lives more comfortable. This will in turn contribute to
realising some of the challenges of the Mahinda Chinthana Vision for the
Future, including the challenge of making the best benefits of ICT reach every
citizen.
