President Ranil Wickramasinghe has made new appointments for two positions.
Accordingly, Mahinda Sanath Weerasuriya has been appointed as the Chief Secretary of Sabaragamuwa Province and Pradeep Yasaratne has been appointed as the Chief Secretary of Western Province.
The appointments are effective from January 01.
Dialog Axiata PLC has announced plans to shut down its 3G data network in 2023 to free up spectrum and increase the capacity of its 4G Broadband network.
“This decision comes as part of Dialog Axiata’s ongoing efforts to provide the best possible mobile experience for its customers and is part of its continued efforts to introduce best-in-class, next-gen technologies to Sri Lankan consumers,” the company said in a statement.
It said usage of the 3G network accounts for less than 1% of Dialog’s data traffic and re-farming/allocation the 3G spectrum to support 4G broadband will provide a much higher bandwidth and thereby a better experience to Dialog 4G mobile broadband customers.
This announcement follows the company’s decision in June 2022, to suspended issuance of new 3G connections as part of the 3G network shutdown initiative.
Dialog requested its 3G network users to switch to the 4G network as well as enable 4G data services on existing 4G devices to access mobile broadband services.
To support the current 3G network users with the transition to 4G, Dialog offers a wide range of best-in-value 4G smartphones, “Dialog Lesi Pay” instalment plans and free-of-charge 4G SIM upgrades which can be availed through its service network.
Dialog will continue to maintain its 2G GSM network that would support the growing demand for voice services in addition to voice over LTE offered through the 4G network.
Dialog Axiata, having invested over $ 3 billion to date, is committed to investing in the latest technology and infrastructure to ensure that its customers have access to the best possible mobile experience.
“We apologize for any inconvenience that may be caused due to the shutdown of our 3G network, and we thank our customers for their patience and understanding as we re-farm 3G spectrum to further improve our 4G mobile broadband network,” Dialog Axiata said in its statement.
According to the Association of Government Family Health Service Officers, there is a risk of collapse of maternal and child health services from next January.
Devika Kodithuvakku, the president of the association, said that the situation has arisen due to the retirement of officers who have reached the age of 60 at a time when there is an acute shortage of family health service officers.
Kodituvakku mentions that due to the increase in the number of female officers retiring from service on the 31st of this month compared to other years, they will have to face various issues in the future in providing child, infant and maternity services.
In addition to the family health workers who will turn 60 this year, the family health service officers who have completed the age of 61, 62, 63, 64 are also scheduled to retire on December 31.
Accordingly, Kodituvakku states that the retirement this year may have a negative effect on the work of the people who retire in one year in other years.
She says that there is a risk of collapse of the maternal and child health service due to that situation.
She further says that the government has not made any program to make new recruitments to replace the retiring family health officers and the Ministry of Health has no plan to prevent service breakdown if there is one
Following our introduction to ‘DP Coding School,’ which is an innovative platform unravelling future career opportunities by learning computer languages, today’s write up elaborates the benefits of learning computer programming.
Those who learn coding and acquire basic knowledge will be eligible for applying for careers with a higher pay rate in a number of positions, including Web Developer, Full-stack Web Developer, Software Application Developer, Computer Programmer and Data Scientist.
Parents often find it problematic as to what would be the benefits of learning coding for their children, apart from being able to apply for a job. To provide a sound answer, below are some of the most key benefits of learning coding for school students;
That being said, learning to code will positively impact your child’s day-to-day schooling activities, whilst making it the foundation to receiving a high-paying, dollar-earning job in the future.
Refer your child to dpcode.lk website today to follow a free and international level coding course in Sinhala language.
The Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) has approved power cuts of 2 hours and 20 minutes this week.
The PUCSL said the power cuts will be enforced from Wednesday, 27th December to Friday, 30th December.
The power cuts will be implemented for groups A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, and W during this period.
Several spells of showers will occur in Northern, North-Central and Eastern provinces.
Showers or thundershowers will occur in few places in Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-Western provinces during the afternoon or night.
General public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by temporary localized strong winds and lightning during thundershowers.
The world finds priority in economic diplomacy rather than traditional diplomacy, said Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, speaking at a meeting held between him and the newly appointed Sri Lankan Ambassadors and High Commissioners to other states at Temple Trees today (26).
The Prime Ministers instructed the Ambassadors and High Commissioners to uplift the image of Sri Lanka, which is a friendly, unbound and neutral state, by resorting to attracting investment opportunities and promoting exports and the tourism industry, and urged them to extend their maximum support to the committees appointed by President Ranil Wickremesinghe for investment and export promotion.
Commenting on the economic crisis befallen the island nation and the move of restructuring debts, Gunawardena emphasised that all Ambassadors and High Commissioners should work towards investments, joint ventures and bilateral partnerships to enable production, export and rapid development rather than relying on aid and credit.
The expatriates and their associations should be closely cooperated with for receiving more investments, career opportunities and development aid, he went on, stressing that friendly states can work together with Sri Lanka towards its efforts to develop the fields of Agriculture, Industries, Information Technology and Tourism for making the Island Nation self-sufficient with food.
The event was attended by 16 newly appointed Sri Lankan Ambassadors and High Commissioners, including Chithrangani Wageeswara (Australia), Admiral Prof. Jayanath Kolambage (Indonesia), Maneesha Gunasekara (France), H.M.G.R.R.K. Mendi (Bahrein), Dr. A.S.U. Mendis (Viet Nam), Waruni Muthukumarana (Germany), Kapila Jayaweera (Lebanon), M.H.M.N. Bandara (Israel), K.K. Theshantha Kumarasiri (Ethiopia), Dr. Chanaka H. Thalpahewa (Philippines), Priyangika Wijegunasekara (Jordan), B. Kandeepan (Kuwait), Himali Arunathilaka (Geneva), Udaya Indraratna (United Arab Emirates) and Sandy Emirates Samarasinghe (Consular General – Melbourne).
The Government is set to extend the Small Tea and Rubber Estate Restoration Project designed to assist the targeted smallholders to improve their food security with the assistance of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
The Cabinet of Ministers at its meeting on Monday approved extending the period of the ‘Rural Financing Program’ till 30 June 2023.
The Government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development entered into an agreement in 2016 for implementing this project.
The ‘Rural Financing Program’ is implemented under that project and is scheduled to be wound up from 31 December and Rs. 172.35 million from the allocated sum for the said program is to be released to the beneficiaries as loans.
The total project cost over six years is estimated at Rs 8,502 million (US$ 65.4 million) including contingencies (USD 3.8 million).
The Project costs are organized into: (i) tea smallholder’s development (69% of total base costs); (ii) rubber smallholder’s development (22%); (iii) inclusive rural financing (6%); and (iv) project management (4%).
The Project area was in seven neighbouring districts in central and southern Sri Lanka, including Galle (tea), Matara (tea), Ratnapura (tea and rubber processing), Badulla (tea),Kandy (tea), Monaragala (rubber) and Ampara (rubber).
These districts have been selected based on their poverty incidence, production of tea and potential for rubber. A total of 144,000 people, or 32,000 households, would benefit from the Project
The Ministry of Plantation Industry Is the lead project agency with the private sector playing an active role in the project through business models to strengthen technical assistance and capacity building efforts that the public agencies are providing.
The Bank of Ceylon and the People’ Bank are also partnered with the project to provide smallholder access to their existing financial products for tea and rubber.
A project management unit was established at MPI, the existing structures within the Tea Small Holding Authority (TSHDA) and the Rubber Development Department (RDD) are being used to implement the Project.
Where required, the extension staff were supported by use of technical assistance, implementation support and recruitment of Animators. Services of an experienced service provider would be competitively recruited to assist in mobilizing smallholders.
The Liberal Democratic Party says it will take legal action against social media activist Rasika Jayakodi.
This is due to a recent announcement that the Liberal Democratic Party has been withdrawn from the Liberal Democratic Movement. Rasika Jayakodi was the convener of the Liberal Democratic Movement.
But the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) says that the Liberal Democratic Movement (LDM) is only an affiliated organization of its party and that Rasika Jayakodi acted only as its social media manager.
Accordingly, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) says that Rasika Jayakodi and his group have misused the Liberal Democratic Movement (LDM) for their personal interests and legal action has been taken against him.
Sources in the party further said that Rasika Jayakodi has also received a monthly salary of 250,000 rupees from the party for the post of social media manager.
