According to EIU, the survey is for ‘human resources line managers and expatriate executives to compare the cost of living in 140 cities in 93 countries and calculate fair compensation policies for relocating employees.’ Companies can then apply this index to an executive’s spendable income to reach a fair cost of living allowance. The purpose of a cost of living allowance is to reimburse employees for excess living costs resulting from a foreign assignment.

In other words, according to Chairman and CEO of LIRNEasia, Rohan Samarajiva, the purpose is for mobile professionals and companies operating in multiple locations to base an anchor and figure out what to pay its employees.

So what does this really mean?

According to Samarajiva, this has an influence on companies placing in Sri Lanka. He also said this means that the Government should take this number seriously as Mumbai, Delhi and Dhaka are cheaper than Colombo.

“While we are cheaper than Singapore, we are expensive compared to India and Dhaka,” he said, adding that even though Singapore is more expensive, the value for money in Singapore is higher, as well as the facilities such as reliable transport and electricity.
“This suggests that we don’t even have a cost advantage,” he said. Samarajiva added that if Colombo had a cost advantage, companies would invest despite the facilities, if the living cost is low. But in this case, Dhaka has the advantage as potential competitor despite the transport issues, as it has a lower cost of living. India being cheaper that Colombo, he says, is surprising and a matter of concern.

LIRNEasia‘s recently completed pilot project on the use of mobile phones for early detection of communicable diseases, led by Nuwan Waidyantha, was showcased at a press conference yesterday at Cinnamon Lakeside, Colombo. Below is an excerpt of an article appearing in Lanka Business Online.

The ‘real-time bio-surveillance programme’ enables the rapid detection and notification of potential health outbreaks through mobile phones, software applications and a Web interface, said LIRNEasia, a regional information communications technology think tank.

…

The system was useful because of recent outbreaks of communicable diseases, with health authorities only aware of an outbreak when the media reported the death of several people.

With the new system, data on patients and symptoms of illnesses are sent through mobile phones in real-time from hospital wards to the epidemiological centre.

This enables quick analysis of data and detection of patterns of disease that could provide early warning of potential outbreaks enabling health authorities to act.

The new paradigm, called eHealth, is being adapted widely, from primary to tertiary health care in many countries. However, looking at the current literature on the subject, the reviews have been mixed. For every successful and sustainable initiative that has been adopted several have fallen on the wayside. This lecture will look into the experiences of eHealth in Asia. Especially, using more appropriate and relevant technologies, such as mobile technologies in telehealth and health informatics.

Dr. Angelo Ramos, Project Mentor of the PANACeA e-health project under IDRC, will deliver the lecture; Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne, General Secretary of the Lanka Jatika Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya, Sri Lanka, Dr. Gordon Gow, Associate Professor in Communication and Technology at the University of Alberta, Canada, and Dr. Jayantha Weerasinghe, affiliated with the Faculty of Dental Sciences, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, will serve as discussants.

More details of the event can be found here.

Download presentation slides, here.

The conference intends to become an annual international event of bringing together a technology community to exchange knowledge, vision, and share best practices and success stories. Under the title, “Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Cloud Computing: Blueprint for the Future Enterprise”, this year’s conference will focus on the implications and opportunities unleashed by the convergence of SOA and Cloud computing.

WSO2 exemplifies what Sri Lankans can do when they dream big and follow through. When we were planning eSri Lanka, Sanjiva Weerawarana talked about Sri Lanka becoming a leader in open source software. That was the dream; Lanka Software Foundation was the follow through. We now are a significant force in open source. He then talked about a Sri Lanka based firm that would provide services in the open source middleware space. At close to 100 employees and on a rapid growth path WSO2 is the second dream realised. I am waiting for Sanjiva’s third dream,” said Prof. Rohan Samarajiva.

The Daily Mirror, 6 September 2010

Click here for the full article. Click here for registrations.

The incident that triggered this move was the suicide of a fourteen year old girl of a leading school in Colombo, whose mobile phone, with personal information, has been confiscated by the prefects. We are bit confused why no ban on school ties – what the girl used to hang herself in the wash room. Please note: No international conspiracies to tarnish the image of the country have not been indicated so far.

We would have shown no interest if a Colombo school did this, but when Navodhya School, Pitakumbura, Bibile (300 km off from Colombo, in the border of a post conflict area) launches a mobile web portal we take note. (Kottu.org readers might remember some blogs from this far off place.)

www.m.technovillage.org looks more a prototype, but a trendsetter. An ideal way for the rural schools to break the biggest barrier they had so far: Connectivity issues. Now in a no-fixed-broadband land the students and parents are given the option to access the schools web site.

His latest holler, as reported by ‘The Catalyst’ – the newsletter of the Information and Communication Agency of Sri Lanka (ICTA), the apex body of ICTs that spearhead the e-Sri Lanka program, funded by the World Bank, goes as follows:

“At a time when the ‘world funding bodies’ proposed the setting of Internet cafes in cities of Sri Lanka in a manner that would only cater only to the rich elite, President Mahinda Rajapaksa decided that Nenasalas or wisdom outlets should be setup instead island-wide to cater to the poor rural folk.”

We are certain the World Bank’s ability to speak for itself, but feel the need to set the record straight especially for the benefit of those who are unaware of the history of e-Sri Lanka program.

Firstly, Mr. Minister, Cyber cafes are not for rich elite, who now have their own laptops with HSPA connections. Cyber cafes are for the poor, who cannot afford their own PCs, and right now serve millions in countries like Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. In most of the Asian societies cyber cafes – surely not the donor supported telecenters – are the key means of Internet access by the poor.

Secondly Mr. Minister, World Bank or any other Development Agency for that matter, has never promoted the idea of net access for the rich. No matter what the flaws in the approach, their priority has always been rural areas typically not served by the market. If you care to check the original e-Sri Lanka document, you will find there have never been any suggestions to setup telecenters for rich Colombo elite. On the contrary, the Nenasalas within center Colombo, was introduced only after 2004.

Thirdly, Mr. Minister, the idea of having Vishva Gnana Kendras (VGKs) – as the forerunner was known – was to have more financially viable tele-centers, which could stand on their own feet, instead creating a donor funded unsustainable model. The fallacy of Nenasala model is yet to be discovered at the point of the end of donor funding. For example, according to Niranjan Meegammana, a consultant to ICTA, sixteen Nenasalas in Uva province (Girandurukotte, Balagolla, Talakumbura, Kabillegama, Parahettiya, Hali Ela, Maspanna, Divurumpola, Wekumbura, Badalkumbura, Therulla, Siyambalanduwa, Ethimale, Suriya-ara and Kiri Vehera) earns less than USD 50 per month – too little to cover even their operating costs. How these Nenasalas will continue without donor funding is a question awaiting an answer.

Fourthly, Mr. Minister, not all Nenasalas cater to the poor. Having visited them personally we can name few Nenasala’s which never opens their door to the poor but used only by the rich incumbent priests of the temples – against the wishes of the donors.

The truth can be very different from what the voters wants to hear.

What did we learn?

1. Broadband users in Colombo should not complain. They do have excellent choices. In terms of actual speed they are better off than counterparts in Dhaka, Chennai and New Delhi. Hold on, there is a hitch. They rarely get what is being promised; operators seem to over promise and under deliver.
2. Indian operators, as seen from test results from Chennai and New Delhi, while not promising sun and moon, deliver what they do and sometimes even more. That is what we call ‘Ethical Advertising’. Indian Telecom Regulator’s intervention can hardly be overlooked. In January 2008 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) directed the operators to specify the minimum speeds and to keep that promise. Looks like it is working.
3. Dhaka: Prices seems to have dropped but so does the quality. So after all it is not such great news.

That is not all, there is an interesting piece of information useful for any mobile broadband user in Colombo, but we leave the readers to find it themselves. The full report is here.

Infosys Technologies chairman and chief mentor N.R. Narayana Murthy has declined to be the IT advisor to the Sri Lankan government, the IT bellwether said Wednesday.

In a letter to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Murthy said he had decided to withdraw from being the advisor due to personal reasons.

“I thank you for the courtesy shown to me during my recent visit to Sri Lanka. I have decided to withdraw from being the advisor to your government due to personal reasons,” the company quoted Murthy’s letter to Rajapaksa.

Murthy was appointed Feb 13 as Rajapaksa’s international advisor on IT after he was invited to be the chief guest at the launch of “2009 – Year of English and Information Technology” at the presidential secretariat in Colombo.

The Sri Lanka government launched the IT initiative to meet the demands of the 21st century in skills and capacities, mainly in the rural sector.

Incidentally, Murthy told IANS Tuesday that the role of an advisor was to keep his mouth shut and open it only when asked for his views based on experience.

“I am advisor to president of South Korea, prime minister of Malaysia and have been made advisor to Rajapaksa,” Murthy said on the sidelines of a function at the Infosys campus in the electronics city, about 30 km from here.

A day later, Murthy declined the offer.

Read the full story here.

Murthy talked for 40 minutes, and delivered the gems, for anybody to pick. Develop infrastructure; Build HR or import if not enough; Encourage foreign investment; Avoid fat government; Give confidence to private sector; Nurture venture capitalists: Change labour laws; Provide equal opportunities for both genders; Ensure peace, political stability and correct fiscal environment because they are the key to the growth of IT and ITES industries and don’t be scared to innovate. That was the txt ver.

For most IT professionals in the audience, the speech might have sounded strangely familiar. No surprise. It was the same wisdom the speaker shared with almost the same crowd in 2003, as IT advisor to then Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe – who unfortunately wasn’t there in the audience today to confirm. (We are told Murthy was appointed, or rather re-appointed, IT advisor yesterday, this time to President Mahinda Rajapakse.)

Will it be too blunt to ask whether Sri Lankan software industry needs the very guidance, six years later?

Perhaps it does, like that naughty boy who never listen to his teachers. SLASSCOM Chairman Ranjit Fernando repeatedly reminded, in global terms, Sri Lanka’s IT industry is still at its infancy. Not sure what Central Bank would say. In 2003, combined IT and ITES industry in Sri Lanka was USD 80 million. For 2007, Central Bank didn’t give a figure. Industry estimates it between USD 100 -150 million. Some development but might not be as impressive as the ‘Hindu rate of growth’ across Palk Strait. According to Murthy, the USD 60 billion Indian IT/ITES industry now provides 250,000 direct and 300,000 indirect employment opportunities. Fernando wants to increase the 11,000 IT jobs in Sri Lanka today to 100,000 within three years, by following the Indian example. Extremely ambitious plan, in a time of global recession.

Peter De Almeida, of N-Able has different views. We tried, he says, but missed the bus. Why try repeating the same? Why not try differently? Perhaps he has a point. It was Einstein who reportedly defined insanity as repeating the same experiment and expecting different results.

Mr Narayana Murthy of Infosys has always been a straight-talker and a clear thinker. The Sri Lanka President deserves congratulations on picking him as his advisor. He will give good advice. We hope the President will take the advice.

Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Friday appointed N R Narayana Murthy, chairman of India’s Infosys Technologies, as his international advisor on information technology, the president’s office said.

Rajapaksa made the appointment after inviting Narayana Murthy as the chief guest to the ceremonial launch of ’2009-Year of English and Information Technology’ at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo on Friday.

See full report.

(Photo from dailynews.lk)

How far onshore rural BPOs cater to the needs of their clients? It might not exactly be toy manufacturing outsourced to rural China, but close. The connectivity issues still exist, and capacity building too remains a challenge. The good news is in spite of all that things do happen.

Isura Seneviratne, 22, runs OnTime Technologies at Mahavilachchiya – the first rural BPO in Sri Lanka, born as a joint effort of Horizon Lanka Academy and FARO (Foundation for Advancing Rural Opportunities). Isuru and its first manager Nirosh did the business plan. Trained in Laos and India for BPO work, Isuru knows the nuts and bolts of the game. The operation is still lean, only 8 seats against 25 – the expect target within the first year of operation. Cannot blame because the business had to face the hard challenge of not only building capacity but also pulling legs by different parties. Fortunately the internal politics is now over with the bold step by Lovina Charles, a key donor of the Horizon project at Mahavilachchiya expressing her full backing for the BPO.

At OnTime technologies an operator earns Rs. 8,000 (USD 72) minimum per month, while the highflyers take something like Rs. 13,000 (USD 120) home. Assuming a reasonable PPP ratio this is equivalent to earning USD 240 – 300 in Colombo.

OnTime Technologies offer data entry, data verification, data Indexing, scanning, web designing and graphic designing services. Isuru is proud to mention his clients, John Keells Holdings and Dialog Telekom, two conglomerates. His next goal is a project too ambitious. From Mahavilachchiya Isuru and his team is going to handle the daily issues for a hotel network.

Isuru is not alone in the game.

Jayantha Wickramaratne of Panamura Nenasala, Embilipitita (a telecenter setup under the World Bank funded e-Sri Lanka program) provides e-commerce services using the e-Bay model through the site http://www.ecseva.lk. Advertisements placed by service providers are made available to the large base of site’s users. Anyone who has a job too can place an advertisement which will be then offered to a bidder through a competitive bidding process.

Selvaratnam Sri Kanthan of Koslanda Nenasala too runs a rural BPO service for local and international clients. Partnered with NLingua Services of New Delhi, a voice transcription and translation service, his Nanasala employs Koslanda residents to translate and transcribe audio files from Tamil or Sinhala into English, or vice versa. Web Design is another service he offers.

This does not mean everything runs perfectly. There are so many issues to be addressed. (For example Isuru can do a better job with a link of higher capacity than his present 256 kbps one) Still these courageous and innovative young men and women bring us hope – in difficult times.

The further you travel from Colombo, the more you wonder whether Sri Lanka too had been an ex-communist state. The roads get narrower and mucky – sometimes even 20 kmph is high speed – and mobiles work intermittently – only when you reach within a cell town. Still you have electricity – almost anywhere. Even at Pitakumbura Navodya School, where we are told some students bring an extra set of clothes to school, during the rainy season – they have to swim across a stream daily.

What about broadband? Yes, it is available, but only in pockets.

WiMax is available in both Bibile (13 km from Pitakumbura) and Ampara (65 km). ADSL is available only in Ampara. Pitakumbura in the middle, is covered by neither.

The solution? Build a 25 meter tower to host a micro-wave antenna at a cost of US$ 2,000 (right, above). This is not something an individual can afford – most of them are farmers. Fortunately for the student of Pitakumbura Navodya School, the monthly bill is currently being footed by the Ministry of Education under an ADB funded project. The day project funds run out, the school will be delinked. The students then might have to travel 13 km to Bibile for an entry point to the web.

This example illustrates Sri Lanka’s efforts of ‘taking ICTs to rural areas’. Broadband is available only in selected towns with some demand. Outside this, a handful of point to point links caters to a limited group of users – with a donor paying the bill. Such mechanism will survive temporarily, but may not withstand the financial pressures of a global recession.

The ideal long term solution will be broadband everywhere – at an affordable cost – just like electricity. It is in Colombo and may be in few other provincial towns, but under present circumstances it will only be a long dream for rural folk.

Ambuluwawa, about 1,100 m above sea level, is probably the highest point in the vicinity of Gampola. Not surprisingly, all telecom operators exploit the geography. Transmission stations/towers encircle the summit. (See above) That is what one calls infrastructure.

Just 10 km away, Sirimalwatte Ananda thero, a young and energetic Buddhist monk, runs a Nenasala, a telecenter established under the World Bank funded e-Sri Lanka program. He is not content with the Internet facilities. He pays Rs. 11,250 (about USD 100) per month for a 128 kbps link of inconsistent speed. This is twice more what a user in Colombo pay for her, not 128 k but 2 Mbps link – from the same operator.

Use simple maths. Ananda thero pays THIRTY TWO (32) times more per kbps than a user in Colombo. Why such a large gap? Don’t tell me lack of infrastructure is the culprit.