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Cargills presents gifts to farmers, entrepreneurs

Cargills Food City presented gifts worth over Rs. 5 million to farmers and entrepreneurs recently as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations.

The gifts were distributed at a ceremony at Cargills Food City, Maharagama. This followed the lucky draw held to pick the winners of the Doren Dorata competition.

"Listeners were asked to tune into Sirasa FM for live updates to find out when the Road Show is on its way to their village or town. Then they had to list the five lowest priced items at Cargills Food City, attach a bill from Food City worth Rs. 200 or more and hand it over to the Road Show team visiting their area. At the end of the Road Show a lucky dip was held to give away prizes valuable to our rural farming communities," said Marketing Manager - Retail, Cargills (Ceylon) PLC Charaka Perera.

The following winners won valuable gifts:

Dimo Batta vehicle: M. M. Ranjith from Bandarawela; Motor boat: M. G. Nadeema Tharangani from Elpitiya; Tafe tractor: R. M. Kularatne Bandara from Bandarawela; Threewheeler - R. A. Dayaratne from Chilaw; Land Master: M. Mafaz Muisadeen from Hambantota.

Twenty-five other lucky winners won power sprayers and hand sprayers.

Cargills Food City as part of its 25th anniversary celebrations gave away more than Rs. 38 million to consumers through discounts, instant prizes and draws.

With this Doren Dorata Road Show we looked to strengthen the relationship we have built with rural areas in Sri Lanka and its agricultural communities. We wanted them to be a part of the celebrations as well as gain value from their participation just as they have gained value from their partnership with Cargills.

Even in our celebrations we tried to create value for all partners of our business.

That is how Cargills Food City does business and that is how we celebrate our success," said Charaka Perera.

Asian Alliance Insurance opens distribution office in Nugegoda

Asian Alliance Insurance commenced the operations of the newest addition to its Regional Distribution Network in Nugegoda on January 23. Currently the AAI Regional Distribution Network consists of 20 branch offices located strategically islandwide.

CEO, Asian Alliance Insurance, Ramal G. Jasinghe was the Chief Guest on this occasion. The Executive committee members along with the management and regional distribution staff were present at the opening. Senior Regional Distribution Manager, Kottawa - Soma Hettiarachchi commenced the ceremonial opening of the new office. General Manager - Sales and Marketing Chula Hettiarachchi spoke on the strategy behind the timely expansion of the company amidst the prevailing economic and market trends. He also stressed the strength of the company to further expand its operations to provide innovative insurance solutions to the target customers.

Speaking at the inauguration of the new branch, CEO, Ramal Jasinghe emphasized that strengthening the company's value system through strengthening the various skills possessed by its staff will act as the backbone of the winning trend of AAI; driving the company towards achieving its objectives.

He further stressed that maintaining high standards of professionalism and integrity is of utmost importance.

The newest branch in Nugegoda is a landmark office geared to service both Life and Non Life businesses, using its successful formula of "professionalism". Adjacent to the city, AAI has resourced this unit with experienced staff and state-of-the-art ICT offering tailor-made insurance solutions to the residents in Nugegoda.

Having consolidated its strengths over the past years, the company rolled out its well scripted plans for expansion with the opening of this Distribution Office for year 2009.

Colombo Jewellery Stores at Colombo Fashion Week 2009

Colombo Jewellery Stores (CJS) will unveil its collection of 'Wearable Art' on the catwalks of the HSBC Colombo Fashion Week on February 21 at the Taj Samudra.

Commenting on the new collection, CEO Akram Cassim said, "It is a glamorous collection of 'one-of-a-kind' pieces of artistic jewellery that will jazz up your style. It's definitely jewellery worth splurging on."

Akram said, "It is a very colourful collection as we are using luscious red rubies, lovely green emeralds, deep blue sapphires, dazzling aquamarines, bright purple amethyst and golden yellow citrines, along with a beautiful array of diamonds and south sea pearls." The collection will feature an assortment of necklaces, chokers, long earrings, bracelets, bangles and rings."

Colombo Jewellery Stores is a co-sponsor of HSBC Colombo Fashion Week 2009 for the second consecutive year.

Second edition of Alevikaranaya launched

The second edition of the book of research named Alevikaranaya (Marketing) authored by Deputy General Manager (Retail Banking) of the People's Bank Dr. Nihal Ranjith Jayathilake has been published by Sarasavi Publications, Nugegoda.

The book was launched for the first time in 2007.

This text is a comprehensive review of the massive ongoing changes in the marketing sphere, which looks into the totality of marketing functions, principles and practices.

It analytically deals with various aspects, such as marketing principles, concepts, new trends in an open free market economy and of the indispensable advertising profits with its pros and cons.

This book has been widely accepted as essential reading for A/L students who follow courses on Business Studies, Commerce, Marketing, Marketing Management, Mass Communication and Mass Media.

InfoMate recommended for ISO 27001

InfoMate Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of John Keells Holdings PLC, was recommended for ISO/IEC 27001:2005 certification recently.

InfoMate is a business process Outsourcing company which provides accounting and payroll services. The recommendation for ISO 27001 was made after an audit conducted by TUV SUD, South Asia, one of the world's leading providers of services related to technical safety, reported to be the most stringent certifying body for ISO 27001.

InfoMate is the second BPO in Sri Lanka to be recommended for this certification. The project, which commenced in March 2008, encompassed the entire spectrum of the organisation and required every member of the company to be trained in information security.

The certification will provide existing and potential InfoMate clients with an international seal of process excellence and provide a guarantee of world class standards in information security, confidentiality and business continuity.

Surf Excel 'Let Them Learn as Kids' campaign

Unilever Sri Lanka launched its communication campaign for Surf Excel, 'Let Them Learn as Kids'. The campaign is geared at changing people's attitudes towards dirt, highlighting that allowing children the freedom of getting dirty is necessary for growth and development.

Child development experts agree that children's exploration and play promotes 'experiential learning'. This cultivates their flexible adaptation to the world they will meet, their ability to appraise risks and to balance proper independence with social understanding. Parenting experts agree that constructive play is an essential part of fostering an inquisitive and strong mind and playing outdoors and getting dirty is key to normal development.

Experts have found that such children grow into adulthood regretting not being allowed the opportunity of such exploratory play.

Surf Excel's platform of promoting play without the worry of dirt, is simply not a phrase but one that represents the core of the brand, supported by patent protected technology that gives children the freedom to get dirty, safe in the knowledge that Surf Excel will remove the most stubborn stains.

"Too many children here in Sri Lanka spend too much time indoors" said renowned child psychologist Shehan Perera who is supporting the campaign with Surf Excel. "The sedentary lifestyle is mainly due to overcautious parents worried about the child's safety, as well as academic pressures.

More and more children spend time at tuition classes when they should be playing outdoors," she said.

"This is the rationale for us to educate and create awareness to mothers and the thinking behind the 'Let Them Learn as Kids' campaign" said Unilever's Brand Manager for Surf Excel, Shalini Seneviratne.

"We hope that this campaign will empower mothers to allow their children more play time, the lack of which is now a great concern among child development experts.

The important message to get across is that a balance between academic and outdoor learning is key for the overall development of a child," she said.

The 'Let Them Learn as Kids' advertising campaign will be heavily supported by localized family events where children can enjoy playing freely with paint and sand pits and which will feature outdoor learning and fun.

Surf Excel will be host a variety of workshops and events across all regions this year to drive the 'Let them learn as kids' campaign and create awareness on the importance of experiential learning for children.
 

Flagship initiative for national Year of English and IT

Following President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visionary declaration of 2009 as the national Year of English and Information Technology in Sri Lanka, and the official launch that took place on Friday, February 13, Intel EM Limited joined hands with the Ministry of Education to lend its support to spur adoption of IT across the island, said Presidential Advisor Dr. Sunimal Fernando at the MoE and Intel event.

To this end, Minister of Education, Susil Premajayantha presented 425 Intel-powered Classmate PCs (CMPCs) to 19 schools across the island at Isurupaya, together with wireless connectivity provided by the Secondary Education Modernization Project (SEMP) of the Ministry.

Presidential Advisor, Dr.Sunimal Fernando said, “President Mahinda Rajapaksa launched the national Year of English and IT just three days ago; during that short time the Ministry of Education managed to organize an event of great significance - this is the first official event under the new flagship of the year of English and IT.” He complimented the SEMP and EKSP projects of the Education Ministry for the continuous support extended to the taskforce right from inception, “IT is a passion of a young mind,” said Dr. Fernando.

“What we are trying to do with the Presidential Task Force is to generate IT skills and technologies through our villages so that children from the villages will try all manner of innovations because IT enterprise does not require financial capital but knowledge capital. This is an opportunity for new innovations to blossom and we expect all types of enterprises from villages that will go on to create wealth and employment as English and IT skills are disseminated across the country”.

He also noted the presence of the ‘Father of IT’ in India Narayana Murthi Chairman, Infosys Technologies Limited. “We hope that with the efforts of the President many Narayana Murthis will emerge from among you or from others like you,” he said.

Commending the efforts of the pubic-private sector partnership, Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha said, “To respond to the challenges facing the country, the ministry with the support of the Asian Development Bank and world technological leaders such as Intel, has initiated several efforts that use technology to bridge the divide between urban and rural areas while generating continued economic and social progress across the country.”

Director, SEMP of the Ministry of Education Anura Dissanayake, said, “The e-Sri Lanka initiative began with a national commitment to empower 60 per cent of the nation’s population with e-literacy. He outlined Intel’s commitment and contribution towards reaching our milestones on the national ICT education roadmap, by providing 8,000 teacher training opportunities so far, and the support extended for promotion of much more than both MoE and Intel Planning to embark during the next two year period.”

M. Satchithananthan, Deputy Minister of Education, S. U. Wijeratne, Acting Secretary - Ministry of Education, W. Dharmadasa, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Education, Prof. Lal Perera, Director General, National Institute of Education, Reshan Devapura, Chief Operating Officer, ICT Agency and Indika de Zoysa, Country Manager, Intel EM Limited - Sri Lanka Liaison office were also present.

Cargills to provide more jobs

ANURADHA Kodagoda

Cargills Ceylon PLC, one of the main retailers in food and consumer goods in Sri Lanka is now engaged in their new project to provide employment opportunities for the rural community.

“Maximizing profit is not our key objective but to serve the society profitably in an ethical, socially responsible and sustainable manner is our philosophy” said Director HR, Youth Development and Rural Network of Cargills Ceylon PLC, Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawarathne.

“Our mission is based on three main principles, reducing the cost-of-living, enhancing youth skills and bridging regional disparities by enhancing local and global markets. Therefore, our highest priority when it comes to recruitment of staff is employing rural youth as we believe they are the most underprivileged community in our country,” he added. Today there are 6,000 employees in Cargills retail outlets and 75 per cent of them are from rural areas. “For these employees there are training programs and work shops are conducted under the World Bank project of Gami Diriya and also under the ‘ASAP’ program in selected seven districts.”

“The main objective of these workshops and training programs is to develop the youth to match the organizational environment. Therefore, it includes soft skills, communication and IT skills, language skills and also personal development trainings.”

“USAID has funded and supported these personal development projects, and today, 500 employees have been trained and we got positive responses from the participants,” he said.

“The Gami Diriya program, which is conducted by the World Bank, requested us to do a training session for 120 people and have selected Ratnapura and Badulla districts for their project.

We are planning to offer job opportunities for them as well in our organization and we are planning to expand these work shops and training programs to other districts as well except Western province,” said Dr. Nawarathne.

“Cargills’ relationships with 10,000 farmers around the country yield the highest quality of rice, milk, fruits and vegetables.

There are no intermediaries in between farmers and the organization as we are buying the food directly from the farmers.

Cargills now wants to take their business to the next level via its Green Business program as part of its larger corporate strategy.

SLT deploys IPv6 in ISP network

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), has successfully deployed the IPv6, the world’s latest Internet Protocol (IP) version in its Internet Service Provider (ISP) arm, SLTnet.

As a dominant player in the internet market, this is part of the company’s commitment to take the country to greater heights and broader and bigger dimensions in the ICT arena by bringing home the latest futuristic technologies that are at the cutting edge.

SLTnet is the first ISP in Sri Lanka to implement IPv6 services. This is a landmark event, which is in line with the company’s passion and commitment to cater to the internet users’ needs by providing fast access to information at anytime, anywhere and on any device via its Next Generation Network (NGN) architecture.

Currently all ISPs locally as well as globally provide services by address space for the IP version 4 (IPv4). Being the de-facto protocol for almost all the communication needs of today, the IPv4 address space is actually on the verge of being exhausted. The Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Asia Pacific forecasts 2011 to be the final day for making the last allocation.

As the internet technology is rapidly advancing in vast strides, SLT has taken this futuristic step in advance to provide a much better and streamlined internet experience to its users.

IPv6 is a new version of IP protocol on which the Internet is based. IP version 6 (IPv6) is proclaimed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to be the saviour of the network world and to accomplish this objective IPv6 has been in a state of constant evolution since 1995 to bear rich fruit. This was possible due to the “IP Next Generation (IPng)” breakthrough by IETF in the early 1990s.

The IPv6 address constitutes of 128 bits whereas IPv4 is only 32 bits. Compared to the 4.4 billion addresses in IPv4, IPv6 has 340 trillion addresses.

Industrial Clothing wins Gold Award

Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI

Industrial Clothing Limited won the Gold Award at the first ever Promotion of Eco -Efficient Productivity Project (PEP) organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel on Tuesday.

The Sliver and Bronze Awards were won by Sigiriya Hotel and Associated Motorways. Hunnas Falls Hotel, Heatherset Hotel, Lanka Polymax (Pvt) Ltd, Lanka Walltiles Meepe, Tiara Bakery (Pvt) Ltd, Samson International and Sashya (Pvt) Ltd were among the winners of seven merit awards. Out of one hundred companies fifty one were qualified and ten of them have performed excellently.

Appreciating the voluntary contribution of applicant companies, a member of the selection panel Dr Suren Wijekoon said that the response of the applicants was encouraging despite the fact that the awards were not pre anounced. The selection criteria mainly focused on commitment towards achieving green solutions, sustainability, corporate environmental policy, other environmental achievements, project completions, compliance of environmental standards, novelty and innovation, knowledge sharing and maintenance aspects, he said. Prof. Wijekoon said that a mechanism for monitoring benefits of these projects should be developed in the future.

Head of Mission, Royal Netherlands Embassy Ferdinand Lahnstein was the chief guest. The project was launched in 2006 by the Chamber of Commerce and funded by the Netherlands government.