The Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC) conducts many financial literacy programs targeting school children aimed at enhancing their knowledge on the capital market. This year the SEC conducted a television quiz program with the participation of Sinhala medium Advanced Level Commerce students at a Provincial level. The finals of the television quiz ...

The global escalation of commodity prices in the latter part of last decade impacted Sri Lanka’s rice market, with retail prices showing sharp increases for the consumer. The regulatory forces with a ceiling on consumer prices and guaranteed price for paddy did alleviate this problem to some extent. Today it has taken a different turn ...

A salutary reader interest on share market regulation A reader of the previous week’s My View titled ‘SEC: Not a mere watchdog, but a bloodhound mandated to bite’ has raised an important issue with this writer. He has asked the question why it is necessary to have a regulator to police the financial markets and ...

A goat’s best friend is Mervyn! The populace has been cruel to him. Ok, to the goat too, but I am talking about a man willing to be incarcerated just to liberate a hapless animal. Thankfully, the President interceded and saved the day for both. The Minister had promised to defy a Court order and ...

At an event held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel amidst an eminent gathering of celebrities, guests, clients, foreign delegates and media, Quantum Fitness recently launched NordicTrack and PRO-FORM, the latest addition to their renowned range of fitness products and introduced Anarkalli Aakarssha the celebrity Sri Lankan film and tele drama actress, beauty queen, model cum ...

The ‘Yes-Man’ Parasite, a.k.a. HMV The dictionary definition of a ‘pun’: ‘the clever or humorous use of a word that has more than one meaning, or words that have different meanings but sound the same’. The second word of the headline of today’s column is not exactly a pun, but somewhat akin to one, as ...

The support from the bastion of the game, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), and world famous Brian Lara propelled the inaugural Sri Lanka Premier League T20 tournament to the global stage on Saturday. Kicked off via an international style show of dance and culture of seven provinces at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium, the SLPL celebrated its ...

Playing off India against China and vice versa‘The Great Game’ was the name given to a diplomatic and military tussle between the British and Russian empires during the time of the British Raj in India for influence over what constitutes today’s central Asian states. Commonly known as the ‘Stan states,’ they were located along the ...

Every country must have a socioeconomic model for developing the country and achieving sustainable growth and prosperity. The function of a sound model is to transform aspirations into reality by identifying all that needs to be done to achieve the aspirations.   What is prosperity? What do we mean by prosperity for a country? My ...

T20 tourney to take up over 7,000 room nights in lean tourism season; bring in over Rs. 130 m revenue for hotels Destination Sri Lanka to get a fillip via global TV coverage The inaugural Sri Lanka Premier League (SLPL), ready to kick off in two weeks’ time, is expected to give a big boost ...

‘Shakthi’ fundraiser by Emerge Lanka Foundation today   ‘Shakthi, a Celebration of Femininity,’ a fundraiser for Emerge Lanka Foundation to spread awareness about sexual assault/abuse through artistic avenues, will be held at Barefoot Café today, 21 July, from 6 to 10 p.m. Emerge Global is dedicated to empowering young women around the world who have ...

Rio+20 has come and gone. For some, with June gone, the task may be looking at the flavour of the month for July to prop up different hoardings. The conference was concluded successfully and most of the final photos and comments indicated it was well attended and well run and perhaps well concluded. For sure, ...

The Knowledge Conglomerate, an independent subsidiary of MTI Consulting dedicated to knowledge based businesses in Sri Lanka, has announced the launch of their Executive Education Series. The knowledge Conglomerate is intent to high performance knowledge-based business in Sri Lanka. The concept believes knowledge-based business will grow in size, importance and dominance and offers exciting, high ...

A solution for loss-making SOEs? In the USA, a new corporate entity referred to as a Benefit Corporation (B-Corp) has been brought into being. The states of Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, California and Vermont have legislation which permits companies to combine the profit motive with the purpose of making a positive impact on society and ...

As Sri Lanka-Japan bilateral discourse completes 60 memorable events, Japan has become our seventh largest international trade partner. “The total bilateral trade turnover between the two nations has grown to $ 1,250 m in 2011. Japan, our seventh largest trade partner in 2011, has always been a key trading nation as well as a generous ...

Political parties supporting Greece’s international bailout begin forging a government on Monday after an election victory over radical leftists staved off the prospect of the debt-laden country leaving the euro and brought relief to global markets.  Conservative New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras called for broad support after winning Sunday’s election over the Syriza party, wh...

Peter Kropotkin is a Russian revolutionist who has commented in his book ‘The Conquest of Bread’ what he considers to be the weaknesses of the economic systems of capitalism and how poverty and scarcity thrives on. However, Kropotkin did not believe in the theory of state and is known as an anarchist. The issue of ...

Historically, capital markets have played an important role in the development of market economies and therefore the development of efficient regulation of securities too has become increasingly important. While fostering the development of the economy, the capital markets also play an important equalising role. Viz – it attracts the participation of a large number of ...

By Damien The Secretary to the treasury Dr. P.B Jayasundera recently made statement that the country is wasting the foreign currency on things that can be made in this country. I would like to add to this by stating that as a country we should have clear targets and policies that are aimed at both ...

By Cassandra Mascarenhas The biggest mobile forum in the region, the South Asian Mobile Conference was held for the third year in Colombo earlier this week, bringing together some of the world’s top experts in the mobile sphere, developers of the next generation, researchers, academics and policy makers, creating a platform for a chance of ...

The first quarterly draw of the Nations Trust Bank (NTB) Nations Saver Promotion was held recently in the presence of an official from the Western Provincial Council and six winners from each branch were selected and awarded an array of electrical home appliances. The prizes included a double door refrigerators, 22” LCD televisions, washing machines, ...

An internship with MAS Holdings, Deutsche Bank and DialogCorporate heavyweights MAS Holdings, Deutsche Bank and Dialog Axiata PLC are in search of the next batch of exceptional interns to join their annual Summer Internship Program, commencing July 2012. This joint initiative is rated one of the best internship programs in the island and has been ...

n The Scholar who has refused to changeHumanistic approach Dr. Gunadasa Amarasekera, scholar, writer, poet, novelist, social activist and many more, in a special contribution to Professor Buddhadasa Hewavitharana Felicitation Volume Two released last month, has tried to analyse the most recent history of Sri Lanka in the context of the onset of the process ...