PERTH, Australia (Reuters): Commonwealth leaders on Sunday defended their moves to toughen support for human rights, rejecting criticism the group was becoming irrelevant and had failed at their three-day summit to hold member Sri Lanka accountable for alleged abuses. But several leaders of the 54 mostly former British colonies, meeting in the remote Australian city ...

Five energetic young professionals, representing Rotary International District 3220 Sri Lanka will fly to Osaka, Japan for a Group Study Exchange (GSE) programme in November. Led by a Rotarian Past President Pubudu de Zoysa, a member of Rotary Club of Colombo, the team includes Rukshi Liyanage, Shamali Perera, Srikanth Selladurai and Mel Gunasekera. The month-long ...

Sri Lanka Economic Association Conference – Key takes at the inauguration By Dinali Goonewardene The Government in addition to domestic constraints faces a series of external and global constraints and the Sri Lanka Economic Association at its annual sessions from 13-14 October 2011 discussed this under the theme ‘Achieving National Economic Goals Amidst Global Challenges’. ...

In the midst of the turmoil in international financial markets and national economies, Sovereign Wealth Funds are coming into closer focus. For the first time since the breakout of the financial crisis, the financial mandarins of China intervened to shore up confidence in the country’s four largest banks by increasing its holdings in them through ...

Professionals are shy to raise critical issues in public!It is believed that the single focus advocacy proposal of the Joint Chambers of Commerce and Industry for the Budget 2012 to address is the continuing high priority of enhancing the ‘ease of doing business in Sri Lanka’. A president of a chamber holds a publicly articulated ...

DNH Financial shares some key insights to the upcoming earnings season and how to manage investments in the Colombo stock marketFIn the absence of any significant news, the Sri Lanka bourse continued to trade on a lacklustre note with the ASPI and MPI falling by 2.2% and 1.7%WoW to close the week at 6,550 and ...

The world’s economies are competing for investment, in order that they create jobs for their citizens and trade effectively in goods and services in this globalised world economy. Barriers and restrictions are tumbling down as nation states compete against each other, to become attractive to investors.Competitiveness is a comparative concept of the ability of a ...

The misery continues at the Colombo stock market as its year to date return yesterday dipped below the 1% threshold once again, a level last witnessed in mid July. A 0.4% dip in All Share Index saw the year to date dip from Wednesday’s 1.06% to 0.63% yesterday. On 19 July  the Bourse was recording ...

The genie of separationThe agitation for a new state called Telangana for the Telagu-speaking people of India is in the news again. At the time of writing, there is an agitation going on, sometimes turning violent. An announcement in 2009 by Home Minister Chidambaram that the Government of India had decided to carve out a ...

Women in South AsiaFollowing is the address delivered by the High Commissioner of Pakistan Seema Ilahi Baloch at the South Asia Women in Media Forum: The women of South Asia must be proud, because our land can boast of some of the greatest women leaders of our times. Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Husina ...

I do not think any recent issue related to nature and environment has generated such an avalanche of news, views, controversies, and information, as did the now concluded wild elephant census of the Department of Wild Life Conservation (DWLC) of Sri Lanka. The DWLC study covered 65,000 sq km (the total area of Sri Lanka) ...

Millennium Information Technologies (MillenniumIT), a leading technology solutions provider yesterday announced the appointment of Amit Alok as its new President and General Manager. Two years ago MillenniumIT became part of  London Stock Exchange Group Plc, the international exchange business, and since then has gone from strength to strength, providing the Group with the world’s faste...

Solar, wind, wave, geo thermal, bio massNorochcholai – underperforming, Kerawalapitiya – under maintenance, power utility – threatens strike, Sampur at Trincomalee – coal power agreement signed with NTPC of India, lack of rain in hydropower catchments… the travails of Sri Lanka’s power sector are always in the news. The policy on energy has been driven ...

This is a headline article of Khaleej Times – one of the most prominent and leading newspapers in the United Arab Emirates.  According to the news item 350milion population in the Arab World is in need of 160,000 doctors.  In the UAE out of the population 80% are expatriates mainly from South Asia.   The ...

Clean campaign, a new Colombo as centre of excellence and example for others promised among other positives By Chamitha Kuruppu United People’s Freedom Alliance Mayoral candidate Milinda Moragoda yesterday guaranteed a new city and a new life in Colombo in 100 days. Launching his policy platform entitled ‘Making Colombo a centre of excellence’ Moragoda yesterday ...

By Harsha de Silva We understand that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is planning to compound undisclosed securities fraud by some billionaire investors. Media reports have begun to circulate that Environmental Resources Investments (ERI) and its Directors have agreed with the SEC to pay an insignificant fine of Rs. 10 million and compound an ...

Reuters: England piled more misery on India with a thrilling six-wicket victory in a one-off Twenty20 match at Old Trafford on Wednesday. After losing the test series 4-0, India started brightly in the shortest version of the game and racked up 165 all out, only to see England reach their target with three balls to ...

It’s strange how the innovations of the world tend to wrap around our daily life. One of them is the brand Facebook. I have been trying to locate a friend of mine for the last 12 years and failed, until I used a modern IT application like FB and today I realise the power of ...

Coming from a marketing background I tend to view the happenings of the world from a lens that can be different to many. Last week’s developing story of the Anna Hazare episode in India was unique, in my perception. A man who does not own a computer and is 74 years of age, with little ...

Our ‘poli-socionomic’ dialogue You will recall that like Capt. Kirk in his Star Ship-Enterprise,’ we also ventured into new territory with our first discussions under this theme ‘poli-socionomics,’ which appears to have caught on somewhat; thus, on behalf of those of us who still dare to think, I must thank those editors who carried it. ...

The Colombo stock market erupted yesterday before and after the SEC lifted the ban on broker credit to clients establishing one of the biggest day gains with value of Bourse rising by Rs. 77 billion. The benchmark All Share Index (ASI) shot up by 3.13% or 214 points and Milanka Price Index rose sharply by ...

Investors toast SEC move as pent up buying bolsters CSE to record one of the biggest day gains Market’s value jump by Rs. 77 b; ASI up 3.13% or 214 points; MPI by 3.67%; Turnover tops Rs. 3.76 b; Welcome net foreign inflow completes resurgent day SEC move will encourage greater recapitalisation at broking firms; ...

The Colombo stock market began a fresh week with caution though there was some degree of volatility during the day. Despite gaining 39.3 points at its intra-day high of 6,872.34 points, activity levels calmed down to close flat for the day. ASI eventually closed up 3.47 points and MPI by 13 points. Turnover was a ...

THERE was welcome news from the highly-successful city of Shenzhen, China on Friday, when it was announced that the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) deal on the Colombo South Container Terminal (CST) was signed between the consortium involving China Merchant Harbour International (CMHI) and Aitken Spence and Company Plc and State entity Sri Lanka Ports ...