Tag Archive for 'online edition'


LIRNEasia’s Mobile Benchmarks (South Asia and Southeast Asia) and Broadband Benchmarks Report for October 2008 has been released. Click HERE for more information.




LIRNEasia contributes to disaster risk-reduction discourse

by
Rohan Samarajiva
on December 27, 2007
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:::::DAILY MIRROR ONLINE EDITION:::::

Can there be a better occasion than the anniversary of South Asian tsunami just to ponder how far we have developed our systems to be ready for a similar event in future? What guarantee we have that a similar tsunami today would not result in a catastrophe of the same size?

This article by LIRNEasia’s Chanuka Wattegama was also featured in the Lankadeepa, the largest circulation Sinhala Daily and summarized in Earth Times. Also at : http://www.indianmuslims.info/news/2007/dec/25/communication_failure_contributed_tsunami_disaster.html

Footage from the video documentary “The Long Last Mile” was used in the Sirasa news on the 24th of December. An interview with the founder and president of Sarvodaya, Dr A.T. Ariyaratne and LIRNEasia’s Rohan Samarajiva will be aired on 28 December 2007 on MTV’s BizFirst InFocus…

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Review of tsunami warning/alert

by
Rohan Samarajiva
on September 19, 2007
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The Minister is to be commended for initiating the review of the alert process that went from alert to evacuation in minutes.

Sri Lanka News | Online edition of Daily News - Lakehouse Newspapers

Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, called for an immediate review of the tsunami alert process that was put into operation on September 12 to learn from the experience and refine procedures the Disaster Management and Human Rights Ministry in a release said.He stated that the successful exercise could prove a platform for future improvements to the early warning process making it more effective and efficient.

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Tsunami warning in 45 minutes

by
Rohan Samarajiva
on May 19, 2007
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It is good to have a confident Minister. Of course, we would sleep better if we were shown the results of some on-the-ground simulations, rather than given bland assurances. After all some of us remember his statements about the large number of warning towers that would be erected and operational by the second anniversary of the tsunami (and the actual outcome was . . . .One?):
Another noteworthy matter is that the Minister has increased the time get the warning out within the country to 30 mts from 23 mts.   More realistic?  Perhaps he will give us a corrected, realistic figure on warning towers as well?
Sri Lanka News | Online edition of Daily News - Lakehouse Newspapers

Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe assured Sri Lanka was now…

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Evaluating ICT policy in Indonesia: Interview with LIRNEasia researcher

by
Divakar Goswami
on January 26, 2007
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As part of a special review of ICT policy in Indonesia, e-Indonesia, the Indonesian ICT monthly magazine, interviewed a number of key stakeholders including the Minister Sofyan Djalil, Commissioners from BRTI, the regulatory body, civil society group, industry reps and ICT experts.

LIRNEasia researcher, Divakar Goswami, was also interviewed. The interview is featured in the online edition here. The interview is in bahasa. The English text of the interview is below:
1. How’s the growth of ICT in Indonesia for along 2006 (as we see from regulations, infrastructure development (hardware and software), human being, ICT industry etc)?

Information and Communication Technology sector (ICT) in Indonesia is one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy contributing most to GDP growth rate (around 16%) than any other sector. The ICT…

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We wish to believe

by
Rohan Samarajiva
on December 25, 2006
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According to the Independent, Sri Lanka is the best prepared to communicate tsunami warnings to at-risk populations on the coast. We wish to believe this. But unlike the highly-trained journalist from the Independent, we have taken the trouble to ask a few questions:

1. Does Sri Lanka have a single national multi-hazard warning center?
NO.
2. Do the existing patchwork of centers (in the case of tsunamis, both the Geological Survey and the Met Department have responsibility) have a congestion proof communication system to convey the warning to the police stations?
NO. But there is a pilot project that involves 4 SMS based early warning devices placed in police stations.
3. Do the police stations have plans to disseminate the information to the affected communities?
NOT KNOWN.
4. Is there a mechanism…

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Anti-reform article

by
Rohan Samarajiva
on December 31, 2004
.

All this seems irrelevant now, but 2 weeks ago, the government’s Sunday newspaper ran a rambling article about telecom reforms, that was in part a personal attack on Rohan Samarajiva, but mostly an assault on the reform process itself. The tables that were central to the article had been produced by Mr K.K. Gunawardene, former Director of the Department of Telecommunications (state-owned integrated monopoly until 1991), more recently with the ITU’s Bangkok office. These tables are unfortunately not reproduced in the online edition of the newspaper. The attached response was submitted to the editor of the government newspaper, but was not published.

Observer Response

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