ID :
24327
Tue, 10/14/2008 - 14:47
Auther :

Lankan software to provide bomb alerts to vie for Indian award

Colombo, Oct 13 (PTI) A software developed in Sri Lanka, which can alert security men to bomb threats and other emergencies, is among the entries nominated for this year’s Manthan Awards to be held in New Delhi from October 16-18.

The Manthan Awards, an initiative of Digital Empowerment Foundation from India, was aimed at bridging the digital divide between India and worldwide.

The Light Emitting Diode (L.E.D.) for providing emergency alerts as well as 17 other nominations from Sri Lanka would contend for the awards.

As many as 15 South Asian countries and 28 states and Union Territories (U.T.s) from India have sent their entries for these awards in 13 categories.

Explaining the F.M.-enabled L.E.D. screens for distribution of up-date and reliable information, a senior I.T. official Chitranganie Mubarak said this would enable police stations and hospitals to receive and provide bomb alerts that could save many lives.

"This software for the gadget developed by the
government-run Information and Communications Technology
Agency of Sri Lanka (I.C.T.A.) will be handy for alerting on
any bomb explosions or bomb alerts by installting the L.E.D.
in sensitive places," Mubarak said.

She said the technology could even be used by India
since the L.E.D.s are light and easy to be installed anywhere.

The software and the gadgets are expected to sell for
less than USD 100 each with the option of developing large
L.E.D. boards suitable for community centres.

The L.E.D. screens can tune in radio frequency and
display the radio text receiving in English, Sinhala and
Tamil, Mubarak explained.

Mubarak, who is the Programme Head of I.C.T.A. said the
softwares developed by her organisation have received 13 of
the 18 nominations from Sri Lanka.

Another technology that has received acclaim here and
has been nominated for the award highlights the ways and means
to educate women on dealing with violence against them.

An e-Society grant was awarded by I.C.T.A. to document
violence against women in Tamil dominated Northern Sri Lanka
through a database, Personal Digital Assistant combination for
data collection.

This was aimed at educating the women on their legal
rights and ways of escaping such violence through local
language workshops and web portals and empower them with a
basic level of I.T. literacy, Mubarak said.

A software by I.C.T.A. to enable the visually impaired
to read has also been short-listed for the awards, she said
adding the organisation provided an e-Society grant to create
local language format digital talking books for education.

This included textbooks for grade 6-11 and for the
specific textbooks used in university courses for the visually
impaired, she said.

The head of I.C.T.A. Reshan Dewapura said the fact that
so many nominations had found favour from the institute spoke
of the quality and innovation of the projects that came from
Sri Lanka.

The I.C.T.A. is an agency under the Presidential
Secretariat.

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