Email
Print
ShareSri Lanka
Country: Sri Lanka
Created By: Z_Everson on 5-Dec-2007 12:00 AM
This country profile needs more information. You can help the telecentre movement by expanding it. To do so, just select Edit from the menu at the top of this entry. To see an example of a country profile, visit the Morocco page. Country profile ICTA’s 1000 Nenasala (Knowledge Centre) Project Project: Kothmale Community Radio and Multimedia Centre
Select this link to view all of the entries in the Telecentre Knowledge Network that contain information about telecentre initiatives in Sri Lanka.
Full name: Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Population: 20,222,240
Capital: Colombo
Area: 65,610 sq km
Languages: Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil (national language) 18%, other 8%
Religions: Buddhist 69.1%, Muslim 7.6%, Hindu 7.1%, Christian 6.2%, unspecified 10%
Monetary unit: Sri Lankan rupee
Main exports: textiles and apparel, tea and spices; diamonds, emeralds, rubies; coconut products, rubber manufactures, fish
GDP per capita: $4,600 (2006 est.)
Literacy rate: 92.3%
Life expectancy: 73.41 years
ICT Profile
Phone subscribers per 100 inhabitants: 12.17
Telephones (main lines in use): 1.51 million (2006)
Telephones (mobile cellular): 4.284 million (2006)
Computers: 325,000
Internet hosts: 6,526 (2006)
Internet users: 280,000 (2005)
Internet subscribers: 85,500
International bandwidth (Mbs): 93
Radio households: 3,000,000
TV households: 1,013,000
VSAT providers:
Nenasala (Knowledge Centre) Project
e-Sri Lanka Initiative
The e-Sri Lanka Initiative initiated by the Government of Sri Lanka aims to provide access to “diverse and unrestricted sources of information and means of communication” to all the citizens.
The Government of Sri Lanka in recognizing the great potentials that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can play in:
The Nenasala Project is one of the projects implemented under the e-Sri Lanka Initiative. Formally known as the “Vishva Gnana Kendra Project (Nenasala)”, and are being established in all parts of Sri-Lanka to spread ICT services to the rural and semi-urban population.
The Project will aim to meet the infrastructure requirements in order to address the information and communication needs of rural areas in all parts of the country through the establishment of Nenasalas, and the provision of ICT based services.
As the diffusion and the use of ICTs in rural areas is limited, it is recognized that the most effective and efficient way to provide access to ICTs for rural areas will be through the establishment of Nenasalas. The main objectives of a Nenasala is to assist communities in:
Description: Kothmale community radio station is located in the central hill region of Sri Lanka, the surrounding countryside is green and mountainous and is primarily a rural region scattered with small farms, rice paddies and tea plantations. Beginning in 1998 the station served as a pilot for the UNESCO supported Community Multmedia Centre (CMC) initiative. The station created "radiobrowsing" where presenters accompanied by specialists (e.g. the local doctor) webbrowse on behalf of listeners and comment on site contents in response to listeners' queries.
The facilities have recently been upgraded with support from the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA). In 2006, Kothmale began operating a mobile telecentre. The mobile unit or e-tuktuk offers a full array of telecentre services and radio production and broadcasting equipment housed within a three-wheeled motorcycle. The unit acts as an extension to an existing fixed-telecentre, utilising its wireless internet connection, loudspeakers and multimedia projector, trained intermediaries visit villages in the surrounding locale providing knowledge dissemination and participatory programming to the community.
For more information, please visit http://www.kothmale.org or http://www.etuktuk.net
References
608 people have read this article
