Sri Lanka gets Indian expertise in telemedicine, e-learning

ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka will get access to Indian digital expertise and infrastructure under a deal between the two countries covering electronic public services delivery like e-learning, tele-medicine and office work and linking universities in a high speed network.

The High Commission of India said the agreement to expand information technology cooperation was signed during a visit to the island by Ravi Shankar Prasad, Indian Minister of Law & Justice and Electronics & Information Technology.

Prasad, visiting Sri Lanka from 14-17 January 2018, signed the deal for co-operation in IT and electronics with Harin Fernando, Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure of Sri Lanka, a statement said.

“The scope of MoU inter alia includes e-Governance, m-Governance, e-Public Services Delivery including e-learning, tele-medicine, and cyber security,” it said.

A pilot programme on E-Office, an electronic platform developed by National Informatics Centre of India (NIC), which enables conduct of office procedures electronically was launched in Sri Lanka.

The E-office platform is widely used in government offices in India and has transformed the government functioning to a more efficient and transparent mode, removing the need for processing/storage of conventional paper files, the High Commission said.

A knowledge partnership between National Knowledge Network (NKN) of India and Lanka Education And Research Network (LEARN) of Sri Lanka was also launched.

“This would enable secure and reliable connectivity between educational institutions of India and Sri Lanka under a Ultra High Bandwidth network,” the statement said.

“In one of its kind, several Universities in India and Sri Lanka were linked through a Digital Video Conference during the launch. Sri Lankan Universities would now be able to connect with Educational Institutions in Europe also through the network.

“Top educational institutions in India & Sri Lanka are now connected through NKN such as IIT, Delhi, IISC, Bengaluru, JIPMER, Puducherry, MSU & MKU from India & Open University, Universities of Jayawardenapura, Ruhuna, Jaffna, Moratawa, Rajarata and Eastern University from Sri Lanka.”

The High Commission of India said Prasad called on President Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickremesinghe, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.

“Prasad noted India’s commitment to share the fruits of the ambitious Digital India programme with Government of Sri Lanka. He underlined the importance of digital inclusion, the need to use IT to uplift the people at the grassroot level, and the need for benefits of IT to percolate to the most needy.”

The High Commission said India remains committed to offer all assistance to Sri Lanka, based on Sri Lanka’s priorities and requirements.