e-Swabhimani Awards 2017 celebrates digital social innovators

The e-Swabhimani Awards 2017 was held recently with much pageantry to recognise and champion the nation’s digital social innovators.

Organised by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), the apex ICT Institution together with the Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, the e-Swabhimani Awards 2017 honoured outstanding digital social innovators whose technologies have impacted society.

Established as one of the most prestigious national events, the e-Swabhimani Awards presented awards to those who made a definite high social impact, solving the real needs of local communities using digital technologies.

The e-Swabhimani 2017 Grand Jurycomprising of eminent experts drawn from various fieldsrecognised 20 winners from nine categories, 15 Merit Awards and eight Certificates of Appreciation. This year’s event organised for the seventh consecutive year attracted more than 200 submissions.

The colourful event was attended by Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Harin Fernando and a distinguished gathering of dignitaries, including senior Government officials, industry leaders, digital entrepreneurs and the media.

Addressing the audience, the Minister said: “The Ministry was created with digital infrastructure as a road for you all to build your success upon. I am proud to note that the Sri Lankan government has taken many initiatives and amazing things are happening. With all the initiatives taking place, very soon Sri Lanka will be a digital island by 2025. You are the key pillars who will drive this project and I hope that you will not give up and strive harder and drive Sri Lanka to the greatest place that Sri Lanka deserves to go.”

“Our opportunities in the future will be immense and with the workforce of digitally sound students that will emerge within the next five to ten years and I think this will be a brilliant place for that. I hope you will be the drivers of this economy, I hope we can all get together and make Sri Lanka a digitally powerful nation,” he added.

The e-Swabhimani also serves as a stepping stone to the World Summit Award (WSA), a global initiative implemented within the framework of the United Nations’ World Summit on Information Society (WSIS). As ICTA is the National Expert for WSA in Sri Lanka, the Jury selected from among the winners, eight nominations for submission to the WSA.  

Impressively at the WSA 2017, six of Sri Lanka’s eight nominations made it to the final round with Sri Lanka second only to Germany which had seven entries. Of the six nominations three entries – chargeNET, Sciocardio and Yathra – were included in the final round and chargeNET won in the Smart Settlement and Urbanisation category. The applicant, chargeNET Ltd. is a subsidiary of Codegen Ltd.

ICTA Sri Lanka Chairperson Chitranganie Mubarak welcoming the gathering remarked: “With digital transformation sweeping across industries and markets andfor a country that is stepping forward towards a digital economy, inclusive growth is a pre-requisite with every person in every walk of life participating.Over the years we have witnessed the e-Swabhimani Awards growing vertically and horizontally – leveraging on digital technologies and a lot of effort put into the applications to benefit society.”

The e-Swabhimani Awards 2017 are unique as they are not just about technological brilliance but brilliant innovation in technology that is impacting society and making lives of ordinary people much better. The e-Swabhimani event does not end here. It is a journey for all of you to take these products and solutions to the next stage of development and make them a reality by taking these products to society,” added Mubarak.

ICTA is the apex ICT institution of the Government of Sri Lanka and has been mandated to take all necessary measures to implement the Government’s Policy and Action Plan in relation to ICT by the Information and Communication Technology Act No.27 of 2003. ICTA, is a wholly owned institution by the Government of Sri Lanka overseen by Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure.

Pix by Sameera Wijesinghe