e-Swabhimani Awards 2017 celebrates leading digital social innovators

The e-Swabhimani Awards 2017 was held recently with much pageantry to recognise and champion the nation’s digital social innovators.

Organised by the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), the apex ICT Institution together with the Ministry of Telecommunications and Digital Infrastructure, the e-Swabhimani Awards 2017 honoured outstanding digital social innovators whose technologies have impacted society.

The e-Swabhimani 2017 grand jury comprising of eminent experts drawn from various fields recognised 20 winners from nine categories, 15 Merit awards and eight Certificates of Appreciation. This year’s event organised for the seventh consecutive year attracted more than 200 submissions.

The colourful event was graced by Telecommunication and Digital InfrastructureMinisterHarin Fernandoand a distinguished gathering of dignitaries, including senior government officials, industry leaders, digital entrepreneurs and the media.

Addressing the audience, MinisterHarin Fernando said: “The ministry was created with digital infrastructure as a road for you all to build your success upon. I am proud to note that the Sri Lankan government has taken many initiatives and amazing things are happening. With all the initiatives taking place, very soon Sri Lanka will be a digital island by 2025. You are the key pillars who will drive this project and I hope that you will not give up and strive harder and drive Sri Lanka to the greatest place that Sri Lanka deserves to go.”

e-Swabhimani also serves as a stepping stone to the World Summit Award (WSA), a global initiative implemented within the framework of the United Nations’ World Summit on Information Society (WSIS). As ICTA is the National Expert for WSA in Sri Lanka, the Jury selected from among the winners, eight nominations for submission to the WSA.

Impressively at the WSA 2017, six of Sri Lanka’s eight nominations made it to the final round with Sri Lanka second only to Germany which had seven entries. Of the six nominations three entries - chargeNET, Sciocardio and Yathra were included in the final round and chargeNET won in the Smart Settlement and Urbanisation category. The applicant, chargeNET (Pvt.) Ltd is a subsidiary of Codegen (Pvt.) Ltd.

ICTA Sri Lanka Chairperson Chitranganie Mubarakwelcoming the gathering remarked: “With digital transformation sweeping across industries and markets and for a country that is stepping forward towards a digital economy, inclusive growth is a pre-requisite with every person in every walk of life participating. Over the years we have witnessed the e-Swabhimani Awards growing vertically and horizontally – leveraging on digital technologies and a lot of effort put into the applications to benefit society.”