e-Swabhimani 2012 winners to be announced tonight

The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka will be hosting the e-Swabhimani Award Gala 2012 today (10) at the Cinnamon Grand under the patronage of Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, Minister of Telecommunication and Information Technology. Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga will be 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 will also 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: e-Government and Institutions – 31, e-Health and Environment – 9, e-Learning and Education – 31, e-Entertainment and Games – 24, e-Culture and Heritage – 6, e-Science and Technology – 18, e-Business and Commerce – 55, e-Inclusion and Participation – 18, and 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 the 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.