By P.K.Balachandran Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, May 23: The Sri Lankan cabinet, which met here on Monday, discussed a draft 21 st. Amendment of the constitution meant to reduce the powers of the Executive President and increase the powers of the parliament on the pattern of the repealed 19 th.Amendment. The Prime Minister’s office said in […]

By Nadira Gunatilleke Courtesy Daily News Colombo, May 23 (Daily News): The entire country watched live what had happened on May 9th and thereafter here in Sri Lanka. Since the entire country watched and listened to the main incident and its aftermath, it will be worthwhile analyzing the incidents. In the past one and half […]

Courtesy Mint An IMF bailout would depend on the country fixing its economy. High school teacher S. Jeeva spent two days in the hot sun lining up for cooking gas in Sri Lanka’s capital. He’s been standing with thousands of others waiting for a delivery that so far hasn’t come. Many of his students have […]

Courtesy CNA COLOMBO/LONDON: Sri Lanka has hired heavyweight financial and legal advisers Lazard and Clifford Chance as it prepares for the difficult task of renegotiating its debts, a trio of sources told Reuters on Monday (May 23). The move is the latest development in Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948 […]

Courtesy Pakistan Observer President SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry Iftikhar Ali Malik Sunday urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to work out timely bail out package to put defaulting Sri Lanka, a financially crumbled country, on track. Talking to a delegation of women entrepreneurs led by Noreen Asim Siyal-an emerging youtuber, he said that […]

Courtesy MailOnLine +1View gallery A woman sits beside liquefied petroleum gas cylinders on a street in Colombo. Fuel is in short supply across Sri Lanka Sri Lanka’s inflation hit a seventh consecutive record high in April as a petrol shortage worsened and food prices rose sharply, official data showed Monday. The National Consumer Price Index […]

Courtesy India Today Sri Lanka’s contentious 21st Amendment to the Constitution was denied Cabinet approval after the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) objected to it. In a major blow to Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the proposal for the 21st Amendment to the Constitution to curb the unfettered powers of President Gotabaya […]

By N. Sathiya Moorthy Courtesy Ceylon Today Ironic but true. At the end of Act II, Scene II (if that is what it is), the villain has turned hero, and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, against whom the whole world seemed to have turned, has proved that he has Parliament on his side. The 119-68 headcount on […]

By Shirani ranasinghe Courtesy Ceylon Today There is a strong opinion in Sri Lanka that we need educated people in Parliament. The conclusion of many is that our politicians are not professional and that is the bane of the country. Heeding that call, a number of top professionals entered the political arena at the last […]

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island SLPP MP Rear Admiral (retd.) Sarath Weerasekera says Prime Minster Mahinda Rajapaksa had not decided to resign on 09 May 09 although the SLPP MPs had been asked to bring supporters to Temple Trees for a meeting.Weerasekera said so when The Island asked him why he had skipped the Temple Trees […]

Courtesy Adaderana Proposals for the 21st Amendment to the Constitution have been presented to the Cabinet of Ministers today (May 23). Accordingly, the Cabinet has decided to forward the draft proposals to the party leaders for their comments by Friday (27).  The first meeting of the new Cabinet was held today under the patronage of […]

Courtesy Adaderana Minister of Mass Media, Transport and Highways Bandula Gunawardene has been appointed as the new Cabinet Spokesperson. Meanwhile ministers Mahinda Amaraweera, Manusha Nanayakkara and Kanchana Wijesekara have been appointed as Co-Cabinet Spokespersons, the Govt. Information Department said. 

Courtesy Adaderana The Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) in charge of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has reportedly been transferred.  It is reported that the Minister of Public Security has accepted the request for a transfer made by the DIG of the CID W. Thilakaratne. The request had been made around two weeks ago […]

Courtesy Adaderana The appointing of eight more Cabinet Ministers of the All-Party Government took place before President Gotabaya Rajapaksa this morning (23). The new ministers were sworn in at the President’s House in Fort, the PMD reported.  Mahinda Amaraweera has been sworn in as the Minister of Agriculture, Forest Resources and Wildlife while Roshan Ranasinghe […]

Shenali D Waduge Everyone is parroting system change but everyone is reluctant to point out where to start the change. The present parliament is already elected. We cannot make changes to the present Parliament. But we can make sure the next Parliament makes the changes we want. What are the changes that we want. Re-allocating […]

Shenali D Waduge It was clear that 19a was drafted taking into consideration the President in power & the hurriedly appointing Ranil Wickremasinghe who was Opposition Leader as PM without removing the sitting PM (D M Jayaratne) The legality of this remains unanswered. 18 FR petitions were filed in SC. There were amendments to amendments […]

සුදත් ගුනසේකර මහනුවර “මේ රට සින්හල බෞද්ධ රාජ්‍යයකි” යන මූලික සම්මුතිය ඇතුළු පහතසඳහන් ජාතික ප්‍රතිපත්ති පිළිගෙන ඒවා ක්‍රියාත්මක කරණ බවට මහනුවර ශ්‍රී දළදා මාලිගාවේදී ත්‍රයිනිකායික නායක හිමිවරුන් ප්‍රමුඛ සන්ඝ සභාවක් ඉදිරියේදී දිවුරා පොරොන්දු නොවන කිසිවෙකුට මේ රටේ කිසිදාක පාලන බලය නොදිය යුතුය”                                            1 කොටස එක්සත්, සව්භාග්‍යමත් ප්‍රබල ශ්‍රී ලාන්කික ජාතියක් ගොඩ නැගීම සඳහා මේ […]

Shenali D Waduge This is the question everyone should be asking. To answer this we need to return to the regime change & coup that led to the January 2015 Presidential election of Maithripala Sirisena as President & the swearing in of Ranil as PM without removing the sitting PM D M Jayaratne. With this […]

Pathik Hasan, Dhaka, Bangladesh.  The Cambodian media has published excellent article praising Bangladesh’s economic model. Cambodian media has  lavished praise on Bangladesh and its economic success.  At age 51, Bangladesh is going to be a South Asian economic miracle. Although Bangladesh is also a South Asian country , an immediate neighbour of Sri Lanka, it […]

උපුටා ගැන්ම  Colombo Today බුදුන්ගේ ශ්‍රේෂ්ඨ නාමයට හා බුදු දහමට අපකීර්තියක් සිදුවන ආකාරයේ පොතක් මුද්‍රණය කිරීම හා බෙදා හැරීම සිදු කළැයි කියන සිද්ධිය සම්බන්ධයෙන් අධිකරණය හමුවේ පෙනී සිටි කන්දේ කපුගේ ශ්‍රීනාත් චතුරංග හා උපුල් ශාන්ත සන්නස්ගල යන අයට එක් අයකුට රුපියල් 50,000 බැගින් වූ ශරීර ඇපයක් මත මුදා හැරීමට කොළඹ ප්‍රධාන මහේස්ත්‍රාත් නන්දන අමරසිංහ මහතා […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, May 21 (Xinhua):  Pettah Market is one of Sri Lanka’s most important and busiest commodity hubs in Colombo,  where one can find a wide variety of goods. Due to the economic crisis, business in Pettah Market is not as prosperous as before, but the wholesale food market, which is closely related to […]

Courtesy The TelegraphOnLine 21st Amendment to the Constitution to be referred to the cabinet for approval on Monday. Sri Lanka’s minister of justice has said that the 21st Amendment to the Constitution will be referred to the cabinet for approval on Monday, a media report said on Sunday, paving the way to curb the unfettered […]

By Gerry Shih and Hafeel Farisz Courtesy Washington Post How two powerful brothers fell out and took their country down with them COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The mob was bashing on the gates of the Sri Lankan prime minister’s official residence, its size and fury swelling dangerously. For weeks, Mahinda Rajapaksa, the 76-year-old prime minister, had been […]

Courtesy The Daily Mirror An Indian ship carrying urgent relief supplies including rice, life-saving medicines and milk powder arrived in Colombo on Sunday and the consignment was handed over to the government, the Indian High Commission said. High Commissioner Gopal Baglay handed over a large consignment of humanitarian assistance worth more than SLR 2 billion […]

Courtesy Adaderana The residence of an owner of a filling station in the Ipalogama area in Anuradhapura has been set ablaze by a certain group of individuals. The incident had occurred at around 9.40 p.m. last night (21) at the residence located in the Bogaha Akkare area in Ipalogama. The home owner’s wife and two […]

Courtesy Adaderana Governments need to subsidise the cost of food and energy for the poorest members of society and without the correct support, the protests seen in Sri Lanka could be repeated in other countries.”  This is the observation of the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva. Kristalina Georgieva, while speaking […]

By Raj Gonsalkorale Sri Lanka has defaulted on a foreign loan interest component for the first time in its history. It is a day of shame for a country that boasts of such a rich and ancient cultural heritage, and which has produced so many people of eminence in so many fields of expertise over […]

Courtesy NewsIn.Asia Colombo, May 21 (Newswire) – Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekara says that the government has decided to supply fuel for electricity generation as a priority, to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply in the country. He said that with the Norachcholai power plant expected to be back in full operation by tomorrow after […]

Anne-Marie Gulde  Courtesy IMF Bulgaria’s latest stabilization program, which included the introduction of a currency board, marked the end of a period of economic turmoil and near-hyperinflation. What accounts for its success? After several failed stabilization attempts, Bulgaria introduced a currency board on July 1, 1997. Controversial and difficult to implement because of Bulgaria’s serious […]

IMF A currency board combines three elements: a fixed exchange rate between a country’s currency and an “anchor currency,” automatic convertibility, and a long-term commitment to the system, often made explicit in the central bank law. The main reason for countries to consider a currency board is to demonstrate that they are pursuing an anti-inflationary […]