ICTA sets up fully fledged Nenasala’ lab at ‘Deyata Kirula’

Parallel to  Deyata Kirula 2013 (March 23-29), ICT facilities in areas close to where  the event is held are being  improved, says the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA) .

Beginning this endeavour an ICTA initiated  Nenasala Laboratory will be set up on 25th instant at the Hardy Advanced Technology Institute, Amapara, the venue of Deyata Kirula this year.  The Hardy Advanced Technology Institute, Ampara is   proposed to be upgraded as the Ampara Hardy Technology University. The Nenasala Laboratory set up at the at the centre of learning in South East Sri Lanka will be equipped with modern ICT facilities including Wi-Fi. The 20-computer Nenasala laboratory scheduled to be inaugurated by Telecommunications and Information Technology  Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya and Youth Affairs and Skills Development Minister Dullas Alahapperuma will  cater  specially  to professionals. 

ICTA-initiated  Nenasala laboratories of this genre are scheduled to be set up in the Ampara, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa and Batticaloa districts. 

Singer Sri Lanka, together with Intel  supports this ICTA initiative.

As  further components  of the series of development activities parallel to the Deayata Kirula, multiple events are on the cards.  It is in this backdrop that the Nenasala Computer Laboratory at the Hardy Advanced Technology Institute in Ampara  is being launched.  The Nenasala laboratory at the Hardy Advanced Technology Institute will be a permanent  facility;  the ICTA  facilities at the stall at the Deyata Kirula in the premises of the said institute will be temporary, i.e., from 23rd to 29th instant. While the Nenasala laboratory  will cater to professionals,  the ICTA stall will be public-oriented with items like video games  attractive to school children and basic training in using ICT facilities.

By now  more than 100 Nenasala’s have been set up in the Ampara, Trincomalee,  Polonnaruwa and Batticaloa districts, says ICTA.   In addition to the  Nenasala’s  existent in the North,  ICTA is currently  engaged in preparatory work for setting up 40 more Nenasala’s in the North. Currently there are 694 ‘Nenasala’s (‘Arivaham’s’)  spread island-wide under the  Nenasala project,

Referring to the setting up of Nenasala laboratories ICTA CEO Reshan Dewapura says: “Setting up Nenasala laboratories further accentuates Government’s endeavour to take the dividends of ICT to the village. It is hoped that the first such Nenasala laboratory set up at the Hardy Advanced Technology Institute in Ampara will be a forerunner of island-wide transformation of rural Sri Lanka.  We are grateful to the support provided by those concerned in setting up the first Nenasala laboratory complete with the most advanced facilities including Wi-Fi.  The Nenasla laboratory concept goes a long way in taking the dividends of ICT to the village, articulated by the Nenasala project, the brainchild of His Excellency President Mahinda Rajapaksa.  The upsurge of the Nenasala laboratory concept coincides with the current focus on version 2.0 of the Development Agenda as ‘Smart Sri Lanka’. Under  this new phase we are now moving above and beyond pure technology and focusing more on innovation, transformation, entrepreneurship and inclusion. Benefitting though, from the latest advances in technology, more intelligence and smartness can be induced to the country, in all activities in all sectors. The setting up of the first Nenasala laboratory in the precincts of the    Hardy Advanced Technology Institute in Ampara augurs well for a perfect mix of this advanced technology and intelligence that Smart Sri Lanka calls for.” 

This article is carried in Daily FT of 23rd March 2013 and and Daily News of 25th March 2013.
http://www.ft.lk/2013/03/23/icta-sets-up-fully-fledged-nenasala-lab-at-deyata-kirula/
http://www.dailynews.lk/2013/03/25/bus04.asp