ICTA ready for crowd-drawing ICT stall at ‘Deyata Kirula 2012’

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 4 to 10 February.

Elaborating on the main projects due to be put on display at the national exhibition, ICTA Chairman Professor P. W. Epasinghe said that among the projects to be highlighted at the ICTA stall at ‘Deyata Kirula 2012’ would be Lanka Gate, Telemedicine, Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), ‘eDiriya’ (the national IT literacy initiative) and Career Guidance (IT-BPO).

Lanka Gate comes in handy for electronic payment. Electronic payment is a pivotal facility that contributes to making the optimum benefits of ICT accrue to the people. Lanka Gate is thus used for example when making electronic payment for obtaining of vehicle revenue licence from home, so to say, or obtaining online visa by foreign passport holders.

Telemedicine makes medical treatment easier and less costly, less wearisome and less time-consuming for the patient and his/her relatives and friends. At the same time it makes more time available for the medical staff to serve more patients.

For the very first time in Sri Lanka, doctors in Government hospitals will be able view a patient’s comprehensive medical records on their computer screen, thanks to the newly developed Hospital Health Information Management System (HHIMS).

The HHIMS is a joint collaborative effort between the ICT agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) and the Ministry of Health. The initiative stemmed from the Government’s thrust to significantly improve service delivery to the citizens by using ICT.

The relevant software has been tested in five hospitals – Karavanella, Mawanella, Endegoda, Kitugala, and Deriyanagala – in the Kegalle District for over six months. At present, it is now ready to be installed in other Government hospitals island-wide.

ICTA has planned to conduct three seminar sessions at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. from 5 to 10 February at the ‘Deyata Kirula’ ICTA stall themed mainly on three topics – ‘eDiriya,’ FOSS and IT-BPO career guidance with two days for each theme.

The seminar sessions on 5 and 6 February will be based on the ICTA ‘eDiriya’ project launched recently to improve the ICT Literacy level of the country, a senior ICTA officer said. Elaborating on the seminars, the ICTA spokesperson said: “These seminars will be targeted especially for school children and they will be given awareness about the value of being ICT literate. In addition there will be opportunities for students to get hands on training on basic ICT skills as the stall will be equipped with computers and internet connectivity.”

According to ICTA sources the seminar sessions on 7 and 8 February at the ICTA stall will be on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) with a one-hour workshop by the Computer Society of Sri Lanka. The FOSS seminars on these two days will cover five subjects such as Introduction to FOSS, Education and FOSS, Hanthana Linux OS, FOSS and ICTA and How to contribute to FOSS community.

A special feature at the ICTA stall of Deyata Kirula on 7 and 8 February will be a workshop by the Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) called ‘Deyata IT’ ICT awareness programme aimed at giving some awareness about IT, IT education, IT higher education road map, and ICT career road map to the students and parents. This CSSL workshop at the ICTA stall will be a one-hour workshop on both 7 and 8 February beginning at about 11 a.m.

The seminar sessions of the last two days, 9 and 10 February, at the ICTA stall will be devoted for career guidance (IT-BPO). This will focus in particular on school leavers and students in the OL and AL classes. ICTA sources said that prior free-of-charge online registration would be useful in organising the seminar (IT-BPO) sessions more effectively. Register via (www.futureisit.lk) www.futureisit.lk /index.php./en/register].