Nov 3 (ST) The govt has decided to maintain its own buffer stocks of paddy as a countermeasure against large-scale mill owners who are holding back stocks, resulting in a shortage of rice and an increase in prices. Agriculture Ministry Secretary M.P.N.M. Wickremasinghe said the current fluctuation of rice prices was because large mill owners had significantly reduced the supplies to the market to create an artificial shortage. He said the govt had decided to buy 300,000 MT of paddy more..

Nov 3 (ST) SL’s fake websites and phishing game have scaled up in numbers. Financial Sector Computer Security Incident Response Team (FinCSIRT), a part of Lanka Pay, has pulled down at least 50 fake phishing websites defrauding the gullible public, a top official said. “These scams have been there for some time. We have noticed them scaling up in the past few months. Many phishing attacks have been reported to us,” Channa De Silva, CEO FinCSIRT and Director Lanka Pay said. more..

Nov 3 (ST) Questions are being raised about the money wasted on developing a major digital economy strategy six years ago. In mid-Dec 2017 the Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure, with the support of McKinsey & Company, embarked on the process of developing SL’s Digital Economy strategy, an initiative to enable Sri Lanka to scientifically identify appropriate opportunities for promoting Sri Lanka’s Digital Economy and the key enablers to promote more..

Nov 3 (ST) Prez Anura Kumara Dissanayake will present a Vote on Account (VoA) in his capacity as Minister of Finance during the first sitting week of the new Parliament this month. The VoA will ensure the continuation of govt services for four months until next April, after which the govt will present the budget for 2025. The Finance Ministry is compiling the VoA, according to a senior Treasury official. He said it would be presented to Parliament once the new Cabinet approved it. more..

Nov 3 (DM) 31 govt bungalows built during the colonial period and allocated to ministers as their official residences in recent times under different govts will be reserved for viable purposes in the future without assigning them to any govt official or minister. During the time of the previous govt, 28 of these state bungalows or mansions had been assigned as official residences of those who held ministerial responsibilities. more..

Nov 3 (AD) A decision has been taken to provide special security to former State Minister Lohan Ratwatte, who has been admitted to the prison hospital due to an illness. Prisons Commissioner Gamini B. Dissanayake stated that since Lohan Ratwatte is the former State Minister in charge of Prisons, this special protection has been provided according to court orders. He was arrested by the Mirihana Police on Oct 31 in Katugastota, Kandy, for allegedly using a luxury car that more..

Nov 3 (DM) Association of Medical Specialists (AMS) has stepped in regarding allegations of abusive conduct by a specialist at the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital, Galle, urging immediate disciplinary action. In a letter to Director General of Health Services Asela Gunawardene, the AMS requested an impartial investigation into claims by two of its members, Dr. Jayamini Horathugoda and Dr. Harshani Dharmawardena, who reported experiencing verbal abuse by the doctor while more..

Nov 3 (CT) Prof. Rohan Gunaratna, a global counterterrorism expert, reiterated that the intelligence community should not bear the blame for the Easter attacks, which he termed as an operational failure—specifically, a failure of the Govt to act on critical intelligence, saying that the Sri Lankan intelligence community produced 337 reports concerning Zahran Hashim, ISIS, and Muslim radicalisation between January 2015 and April 2019. more..

Nov 3 (DM) The govt has taken steps to complete the construction of the Central Expressway where discussions were held with the Japanese Ambassador to seek their assistance to complete its constructions, Prez Anura Kumara Dissanayake said today. He said the govt will take steps to find solutions to the traffic congestion in Kandy. He said a discussion was held recently to review the progress of the projects which have been launched in Kandy and that the govt will take steps to resume more..

Nov 3 (TM) The new Govt’s decision to revisit the X-Press Pearl disaster and initiate an investigation has raised concerns among legal experts handling the existing lawsuits in Singapore and the UK. They warn that any findings implicating SL authorities could jeopardise the country’s potential compensation claims, estimated in millions of dollars, for 2021 shipwreck. A prior investigation had absolved SL of responsibility in the disaster. more..

Nov 3 (SO) With the tainted SL cricket administration allowed to carry on despite a change at the top in the govt, the sport’s global keeper has got down to serious business and appointed legal heavyweight Sumathi Dharmawardena as the new head of its Anti Corruption Unit (ACU) to root out match fixing in the international arena. Dharmawardena may be a stranger to most Sri Lankans but the International Cricket Council (ICC) is well aware that their new hunter of corrupt elements played a key role more..

Nov 3 (SO) SL golfer Kaya Daluwatta has put herself in an enviable position, sitting in second place with a gross score of 223, just one shot behind Vietnam’s An Lee, who leads with a score of 222 in the Thai Singha Junior World Tournament. The race for the championship has never been keener with R Ng from the Philippines also closely trailing at 224. Kaya’s impressive performance on the penultimate day has set the stage for an exciting conclusion, as she continues to apply pressure on An Lee. more..

Nov 3 (EN) Sri Lanka’s trade deficit widened to US$ 634 million in Sept 2024 from US$ 429 million a month earlier, while the services surplus plunged to US$ 156 million from US$ 287 million in August. Imports remained at US$ 1,645 million in Sept 2024, compared to US$ 1,654 million in August while exports fell from US$ 1,224 million to US$ 1,011 million, and remittances were marginally down to US$ 555.6 million, CB data showed. more..

Nov 3 (EN) Vietnamese women in Sri Lanka have met newly appointed envoy Trinh Thi Tam at an interactive session to mark Viet Nam Women’s Day 2024, a statement said. The Vietnamese community in SL numbering about 200, is made up of Buddhist monks and nuns, ladies married to SL men and staff of foreign projects. “This program allowed the female Vietnamese community in SL to explore ways to bring Viet Nam closer to SL through people-to-people exchanges and activities,” more..

Nov 3 (TM) Sri Lanka, fresh from their 2-1 T20I and ODI series triumphs over the West Indies last month, are set to retain the same white ball squads for the upcoming series against New Zealand as well. The white ball series against Mitchell Santner’s team is scheduled to start with the two-match T20I series in Dambulla commencing Saturday (9) and the selectors are reportedly determined to bank on the same set of players to maintain their current winning streak at home. more..

Nov 3 (Island) Imagine SL striding onto the hallowed turf at Lord’s next June for the World Test Championship final. That would be a real shot in the arm for the nation’s cricket. Who would have imagined that little SL could climb such heights? Yet here they are, on the cusp of making history, thanks to stellar performances both at home and away, making steady strides towards glory. As things stand, five teams are still in the hunt for the WTC final, but India and NZ have a mountain to climb. more..

Nov 3 (Island) About ten months ago, among other things, I informally discussed the devolution of power with Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who was an MP at the time. The consequences of his low-priority approach to devolution, as predicted then, were reflected in the presidential election results in the North and the East. Perhaps, there were other reasons also for the low level of popular support for him over there. Now that he is the Prez of 23 million Sri Lankans, he must consider more..

Nov 3 (ST) Initially, the govt wanted to keep the reopening of an access road in Palali in the north after 34 years as a low-key event for a couple of reasons: one was not to allow the opportunity to be used for political campaigning purposes ahead of the general election, and the other was not to leave space for elements in the south to stir controversy on national security grounds. Therefore, the event was planned as early as 6 am on Friday, more..

Nov 3 (ST) Under pressure following its Ethics Committee’s call for an immediate suspension of Maxwell de Silva, Secretary General of the National Olympic Committee (NOC), de Silva and his proxies have ignited a significant controversy by calling for an immediate Special General Assembly (SGA) on Nov 29, 2024. This was after eight Executive Committee members, who have turned a blind-eye to Ethics Committee’s call, requested for an immediate SGA. Following the request, more..

Nov 3 (Island) On Tuesday (5), Americans will vote for a new president at an election that most observers and commentators agree is destined to be as consequential, if not even more so, as only two other elections in the chequered history of the US. Americans will either choose to continue with the Great Experiment of democracy envisaged by the Founding Fathers over two centuries ago; or they will change course and adopt an authoritarian govt on the model of other authoritarian nations more..

Nov 3 (ST) My dear Uncle Ranil, I thought I must write to you after seeing and hearing you, so soon after the last big election. Maybe I should have written to you earlier to offer you my commiserations about the outcome of that election but I really didn’t expect to see you bounce back and be so much in the public eye again so soon. Uncle Ranil, I am not sure what your thoughts are about your performance at the big election. Many feel you did better than expected. more..

Nov 3 (ST) SL’s membership bid, along with that of dozens of other aspirants to join BRICS—the group of emerging markets and developing countries of the Global South—was put on ice at its summit in Kazan, Russia, last week. The ostensible reason: BRICS’ (originally Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, later adding Egypt, Iran, UAE, and Ethiopia) decision to freeze membership for now. Instead, they proposed a new partner membership status for which SL will hopefully be more..

Nov 3 (TM) It is now becoming evident that JVP-led NPP, despite waxing eloquent about governance and actions needed to be taken for economic recovery while in Opposition, is still trying to find its footing in real-time governance now that JVP/NPP Leader, Prez Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) is holding the highest office in the country. AKD Govt and supporters have called for time until after the new govt is formed following more..

Nov 3 (TM) Looking around the streets of Colombo these days, or any other city in the country for that matter, it is hard to tell that an all-important General Election is just one more Sunday away, making this poll somewhat of an aberration from the norm and, indeed, a case study of SL’s evolving political scene. While credit for this unusual phenomenon must accrue to the new leadership, there is more to it than meets the eye. The prevailing calm is unusual in the sense that it was just two-and-a-half yrs ago more..

Nov 3 (CT) Sri Lanka’s tertiary education system is at a critical juncture, requiring significant upgrading to meet the evolving demands of its youth and the modern workforce. The current State-funded higher education institutions face substantial challenges in accommodating the growing number of students seeking higher education, resulting in overcrowded classrooms, limited resources, and a curriculum that often fails to align with industry needs. As the job market becomes increasingly competitive, more..

Nov 3 (CT) British PM Winston Churchill once said, “You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.” This seems very apt for the current Anura Kumara Dissanayake-led govt, which appears to be entangled in endless counter-arguments and attempts to debunk claims by opponents since the interim Cabinet was formed. In the past few weeks, this has been particularly evident, more..

Nov 3 (CT) The rejected presidential candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe has come out of the woods and demanding the new president and his interim cabinet to increase the salaries of about 1.2 million public servants out of a total 8 million wage earners. According to RW, that increase was approved by the govt under his presidency. It has now come to public knowledge that although the former govt approved the increase the necessary financial allocation was not provided. more..

Nov 3 (SO) The Govt deserves plaudits for recalling 16 unqualified diplomatic personnel including Ambassadors and High Commissioners who had been posted to various world capitals solely due to their political links or relationships to powerful figures in former Govts. There are many more of them but this is a good start. According to newspaper reports, political appointees serve even in some key capitals such as London, Washington DC, Jakarta and Abu Dhabi. more..

Nov 2 (FP) The conventional wisdom is that a growing economy helps the incumbent, and a weakening one helps their opponents. But the effects of economics on election outcomes are never straightforward. SL’s prez election, held in September, came in the middle of a steady recovery from a debilitating economic crisis two years ago. Despite this, the election results saw a political transition, from a seasoned politician who more..

Nov 2 (FT) The Colombo stock market yesterday began trading for November on a positive note with Rs. 5 billion turnover despite initial struggle by the indices. On a choppy day of investor sentiments, the benchmark ASPI closed with a gain of 0.7% and the active S&P SL by 0.4%. The positive start for November comes on the back of ASPI finishing October by a 7.7% gain and the S&P SL by 12%. Turnover yesterday was Rs. 4.9 billion involving 104.3 million shares. more..

Nov 2 (ST) While most of the older, more established political parties are contesting the upcoming parliamentary election, many newer parties that might be less familiar to voters are also in the mix. The Sunday Times spoke to a few of the more prominent candidates who are contesting from some of these parties and asked why they chose to contest from these parties, what their party policies are and why people should vote for them. The United National Freedom Front (UNFF) more..

Nov 2 (EN) Prez Anura Kumara Dissanayake has expressed interest in learning from India’s expertise in power and energy sector development when he met the Indian High Commissioner to SL. Prez’s expression comes as India’s Adani renewable energy project is facing a delay due to a raft of legal cases filed in the island nation’s Supreme Court due to environmental concerns amid higher cost per tariff quoted more..