ICTA’s mobile portal top e-Governance winner at Manthan Award 2012

ICT Agency of Sri Lanka’s ‘mobile portal’ at the Manthan Award 2012 stood tall among the winners under the e-Governance category. While the other three winners under this category pertained to a state, the ICTA Mobile Portal pertained to a whole country, namely Sri Lanka.

The other winners under e-Governance were the Department of Animal Husbandry and Fisheries in the Indian state of Jharkhand, Midday Meal Authority of Uttar Pradesh, India, and the Indian project of Patwari Online Assessment.

Unique features of ICTA Mobile Portal

The Sri Lankan e-Governance Manthan 2012 winner, ICTA Mobile Portal, shows all the mobile services offered by all Government departments and the services available on a mobile platform. Citizens can easily download Government mobile services applications to their phones or send ‘GovSMS’ (Government SMS) through the ICTA Mobile Portal and directly consume those services.

The ICTA Mobile Portal (www.mobile.icta.lk) has been designed as a one-stop shop for citizens to access Government services on the mobile phone. Citizens can easily download Government mobile service applications to their phones or send ‘GovSMS’ (Government SMS) through the ICTA Mobile Portal and directly consume those services.

Hence, the ICTA Mobile Portal application increased the usage of Government mobile services among smartphone and tablet users. It is an HTML5 based app which can be accessed from any internet enabled smartphone or a tablet PC.

Additionally, citizens are also able to find information about the Government organisations from the ICTA Mobile Portal. They can find contact information such as addresses, telephone numbers, fax numbers and even the name of the head of a relevant department and his/her image on the portal.

All Government organisation data available at the GIC (Government Information Centre) is synced with the mobile portal using a web service. There is an administration panel to add mobile application information on Government departments to the mobile portal for each platform. Developers could host their mobile applications in their application specific app store and link those applications to the ICTA Mobile Portal.

Sri Lankan winner under ‘Community Radio’ category

Along with ICTA Mobile Portal, another Sri Lankan project shone at Manthan Award 2012. It was bagged by Jayasiri Radio when it won an award under the category ‘Community Radio’.

A spokesperson from Jayasiri Radio stated, “Over 1.5 million Sri Lankan citizens working outside the country are often hooked on Jayasri Radio which has developed into a platform for Sinhala entertainment as well as cultural input. It shows how important it is for migrants living abroad to stay connected to their place of origin on a regular basis.”

Sri Lankan finalist under ‘e-Education and Learning’

Another Sri Lankan project which was recognised at Manthan Award 2012 was the ‘Web Patashala’ project organised by the Ministry of Education, State Trading Cooperation and Etisalat Ltd. This project became a finalist at the Manthan Award 2012 under the category ‘e-Education and Learning’.

Organised by the Digital Empowerment Foundation at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi for the ninth year, the Manthan Award 2012 honoured 33 winners and 11 special mentions. Out of 470 valid nominations across 16 categories, 74 finalists were selected through a four-level jury process.

The one-day event witnessed over 1,500 participants, ICT practitioners, NGOs, government, private sectors, academia and other stakeholders. The event was packed with four exclusive summits on digital minority, internet governance, unlicensed wireless band, digital NGOs, seven parallel sessions and three workshops and over 110 organisations participated at the Digital Expo. The Manthan Award 2012 brought together people from 25 Indian states and 20 countries.

The full winners’ list and other information related to the Manthan Award can be found on the website http://manthanaward.org