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Top panel to evaluate e-Swabhimani 2014(Daily Financial Times (Sri Lanka) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Subsequent to the end of nominations for e-Swabhimani 2014 steps are being taken to have the entries evaluated by high-profile experts, says the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA). About 250 nominations were received for e-Swabhimani 2014 - the national award for the best e-content and innovative ICT applications, says the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA). Registering an increase each year from the 137 entries at the first e-Swabhimani in 2009, the 2014 nominations mark the highest number during the five years, say ICTA sources. The panel of experts drawn from various ICT sectors comprises the following distinguished personalities both local and foreign. For want of space only a skeletal view is presented here, although even the succinct summaries of the jury members' brilliant expertise and highly rich exposures indicate top professionalism. Osama Manzar - (1) Moderator Founder and Director: Digital Empowerment Foundation; (2) Chairman: The Manthan Award - Best e-Content for Development; (3) Curator: mBillionth Award for Innovative Mobile Content and Application for Masses; (4) Publisher and Editor: d-Content [enabling development through digital content]; (5) Member of Grand Jury and Board: World Summit Award, UN G@ID Flagship Initiative; Process and Anchor: Dataquest e-Gov Champion Award; Bahrain eContent Award; Sri Lanka eContent Award, Member: Task Force on Growth of IT, ITES and Electronics HW Manufacturing Industry, Ministry of Communication and IT, India. Dr. Basheerhamad Shadrach, Asia Coordinator - World Wide Web Foundation. Consults - Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Global Libraries Program. Bash-eerhamad Shadrach is the Asia Coordinator for the World Wide Web Foundation for its Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) program. In this capacity, Shadrach helps to build coalitions of private, public and civil society organisations to advance the shared aim of affordable access to both mobile and fixed-line internet in Asia. Shadrach also consults for the Global Libraries Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in their program in India. Eng. Manar AlHashash. Advisor to the Minister, Kuwait Council of Ministries. Member of Board of Directors, World Summit Award (WSA). Manar AlHashash is a Computer Engineer from Kuwait, holding a master degree (MBA) with focus on Management of Information Technology. Based on that academic technical background, Manar works in two parallel lines, technical and social with an experience of 15 years in Kuwait, the region and worldwide. She is the co-founder of DotDesign, a software development company which developed the first mobile game application in Kuwait market in 2004, followed by many projects with the latest "Merzaam" and "Alzebda", a smart aggregator for popular news. Prof. Vijaya Kumar, President, National Academy of Science of Sri Lanka and, Science Council of Asia. Prof. Vijaya Kumar is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Peradeniya and is presently the President, National Academy of Science of Sri Lanka and, Science Council of Asia. He is also serving as a member of UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development (UNCSTD) having previously been its Chairman and vice Chairman. He is also a Member of the Board of Directors of the Information Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka. He has held several senior positions which include the position of Dean, Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya and Member, UN Millennium Development Project Task Force 10 on Science, Technology and Innovation, Advisor, International Foundation for Science and Board Member of several organisations. Dinesha de Silva, Country Representative, Sri Lanka Asia Foundation. Dinesha de Silva is currently The Asia Foundation's country representative in Sri Lanka. Previously, she served as team leader for The Foundation's Sri Lanka Local Economic Governance programme (2010-2012), as assistant director in the Foundation's Washington D.C.office, (2008 - 2010), and was formerly assistant representative in the Foundation's Sri Lanka office. She has two decades of experience in the field of international development, with special interest and experience in economic governance, rule of law, access to justice, and conflict resolution. Indika De Zoysa, Country Business Manager - Sri Lanka, INTEL EM Ltd. Indika De Zoysa is the Country Business Manager for Intel Sri Lanka. In this role Indika is responsible for achieving qualitative and quantitative business objectives in Sri Lanka. Indika works closely with distributors in Sri Lanka for appropriate product availability and addresses technical and commercial issues. He manages Intel Reseller Channel Organisation (RCO) membership programme elements to drive sales of Intel products and ramp new technologies. He also leverages cross functional resources to build and drive visibility for the Intel brand in Sri Lanka in IT ecosystem. Manori Unambuwe, Head of EPM/BI-SAGE West, Oracle Corporation. Manori headed a Public Quoted light engineering company prior to her joining the ICT industry in 2003 where she commenced her career as Head of Business Development and went on to be the Head Sales and Marketing of the Banking and Government Sectors at Just In Time Holdings (Pvt) Ltd., A leading Sri Lankan System's Integrator. Thereafter she joined IBM Sri Lanka as Head of Marketing and was promoted to Deputy General Manager Territory Sales. She recently joined Oracle Corporation to lead the EPM/Business Intelligence business for South Asia Growth Economies. She possesses a strong understanding of ICT Solutions and domain knowledge of key industry verticals and has experience in all aspects of sales and Marketing/Communications in the ICT industry. Ruwan Amarasekera, Senior Program Man-age, Global Business Services, IBM World Trade Corporation. With over 22 years of far ranging experience in ICT management, planning, systems design, development and implementation, general management and institutional development, he is highly proficient in ICT general management, project management, implementation and maintenance of ICT systems in varying types of computer networks using industry standard hardware and software platforms. Lohitha Karun-asekera, Economist, World Bank Sri Lanka office. Lohita Karunasekera is an Economist cum applied researcher by profession and has over 14 years experience in working for the private sector and donor funded development projects and programmes in various sectors and fields with specialisation in ICT for Development. Starting his carrier as a marketing researcher, his corporate sector experience has been in marketing/market research, strategic planning, service/product development, corporate communications, industrial production, field surveys and logistics. Fayaz Hudha, Program Head, Private Sector Development Program, ICTA. Fayaz Hudhah's role at ICTA includes providing leadership in implementing The ICT Capacity Building Programme (ICBP). Strategising, facilitating, consensus building on initiatives for the ICT industry growth relating to policy, capacity and in forming strategic alliances. Advising government on IT-BPO industry development and areas of bilateral interest providing strategic input through various national level committees. Fayaz is a graduate from the University of London. Chandima Wickrama-singhe, Senior Assistant Secretary to the President, Presidential Secretariat. Chandima Wickramasinghe is a career Public Service Officer from the Sri Lanka Administrative Service serving as a Senior Assistant Secretary to the President of Sri Lanka. She holds over 14 years of experience in public service, including more than 03 years in land administration and management. Chandima graduated from the University of Colombo having secured a Special Degree in Zoology and then proceeded to complete her Masters in Public Administration at the Postgraduate Institute of Management, University of Sri Jayewardenepura. She is currently preparing for her thesis in Master in Economics at the University of Colombo. Samantha Mathara Ara-chchi, Lecturer, (ADMTC), University of Colombo School of Computing. B.Sc, Pg.Dip (Com.Tech.), Pg.Dip. (IM), M.Sc.(IM), PhD(Reading), MCS(SL), MACM, MIEEE. Samantha Mathara Arachchi is a Lecturer at the Department of Communication and Media Technology (CMT), University of Colombo School of Computing (UCSC), Sri Lanka, who obtained his degree in Bachelor of Science (General-1999) from the Open University of Sri Lanka. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Technology (2002) from the University of Colombo and a Postgraduate Diploma in Information Management (2007) from Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, and also holds a Masters in Information Management (2008) with merit pass. He is reading for PhD in Malaysia. Eng. Roshan Chandrag-uptha Senior Information Security Engineer. Roshan obtained a B. Sc. Eng (Hon-ors) Degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering and M. Sc. in Telecommunications from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. Roshan is a CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate), CCSP (Cisco Certified Security Professional), CEH (Certified Ethical Hacker), CHFI (Computer Hacking forensics Investigator) and CISSP (Certified Information System Security Professional). He has been involved in handling many security incidents and conducting network assessments and digital forensics investigations for both government and private sector. He is working in Sri Lanka CERT|CC since 2008. Before joining Sri Lanka CERT he worked as a Systems Engineer/Lecturer at Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) from 2003 to 2008. Roshan is an associate member of Institute of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL), member of Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL), member of Australian Computer Society (ACS), a member of International Information Systems Security Certifi-cation Consortium (ISC2) and member of ISC2 Colombo Chapter Sri Lanka. The fifth annual presentation of e-Swabhimani awards will be held in November (2014). Further information could be obtained from www.eswabhimani.lk. |