Colombo (LNW): The government will proceed with a complete discontinuation of the procurement of medicines under emergency purchases within the next few months, announced Health Minister Keheliya Rambukwella.
The procurement of medicines under emergency purchases was carried out in the objective of meeting the country’s medicinal drug requirements, the Minister told the reporters in Colombo.
He responded to the allegations that medicines are running out at the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA), stating that issues in drug regulator’s board of directors have been resolved.
Colombo (LNW): The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) made no request for a revision in the electricity tariffs, said Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) Chairman Prof. Manjula Fernando yesterday (04).
Responding to a statement made by the Electricity Consumers’ Association, the PUCSL Chief emphasised that electricity tariff revisions are scheduled to take place twice a year, once in six months, a third revision, therefore, will not take place this year.
Earlier, Secretary of the Electricity Consumers’ Association Sanjeewa Dhammika alleged that the CEB has sought the approval of the PUCSL to increase the electricity tariffs again.
His political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said an appeal has been filed.
Sky News: Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former prime minister, has been arrested after he was sentenced to three years in prison for illegally selling state gifts, his lawyer said.
Police were seen surrounding his residence in Lahore on Saturday after the verdict was released.
The 70-year-old former cricketer was sentenced after he was found guilty of unlawfully selling state gifts while he was prime minister between 2018 and 2022 following an inquiry conducted by the election commission.
He was accused of misusing his position to buy and sell gifts received during visits abroad worth more than 140 million Pakistani rupees ($635,000).
Khan has denied any wrongdoing and his political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said in a statement an appeal has already been filed to the country’s supreme court.
Legal experts say a conviction in the case could end his chances of taking part in the national elections that have to be held before November.
Since he was ousted from power in a no-confidence vote in April last year, Khan has been hit with more than 150 legal cases, including allegations of corruption, terrorism, and inciting violence over deadly protests that saw his followers attack government and military property across the country in May.
Abeyewardene is the founder of The Sri Lanka Reporter, an award-winning English newspaper that catered to the Sri Lankans living in Canada.
He leaves behind a legacy that spans five decades in the media industry and has significantly impacted the Sri Lankan community living in Canada.
He was living in Toronto, Canada at the time of his demise.
Throughout his career, Abeyewardene worked in a number of media agencies, including Ceylon Daily News, Sun-Davasa Group, Times of Ceylon, and Daily News.
Following his migration to Canada in 1988, Abeyewardene was recognised as the largest English Sri Lankan newspaper in North America.
Colombo (LNW): The Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) will earn Rs. 700 per vehicle for each PickMe taxi which operates from the airport, the app-based ride hailing company said.
Under a new agreement between the Airport & Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Private) Ltd., and PickMe, the app-based ride hailing company will operate a taxi stand within the Bandaranaike International Airport.
The new arrangement will bring an additional revenue of Rs. 700/- per vehicle to the BIA while making it easier to monitor tourist arrivals.
Currently the PickMe stand is a 100 square foot area located at the Tourist Exit area of the BIA. They operate 24/7 and will at any given time have a driver at the counter as well as vehicles parked in their allotted slot at the BIA car park.
The company is in negotiations with the Airport and Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) (Private) Ltd., to have a dedicated booth within the BIA for further convenience of arriving tourists.
“We will be generating a daily report to the airport and keeping authorities updated on our vehicle movements.
Apart from the BIA, this will also help the tourism industry to gauge arrivals and departures of free individual travellers (FITs) which will help the industry to understand their stays and travel patterns within the island.
From the user point of view i.e. foreign tourists, they will have access to a transparent system that will allow them to travel from the BIA to any part of the country at a very reasonable cost.
PickMe is already popular amongst video bloggers who travel all over the country, giving useful data to travellers across the world.
They have already highlighted that PickMe rates are less than half of what other taxi services stationed at the BIA offers,” says Zulfer Jiffry, CEO of PickMe, adding that the company looks forward to working with the airport to increase and improve Customer Experiences at the airport.
All Airport trips will have PickMe’s Insurance cover for hospitalisation and Life. The company also has the additional advantage of ride tracking on their app, which enables loved ones to easily see their movements even when overseas.
This not only increases the safety factor, but also ensures peace of mind for tourists and their families.
While PickMe already offers welcome and identification board services for airport arrivals, on the PickMe corporate member platform, the CEO says plans are underway to extend this service to all users in the near future.
Colombo (LNW): The Asian Palm Oil Association (APOA), a multilateral body representing the industry across India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, has urged the President to lift the ban on Palm oil cultivation and production in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka’s recent ill-advised policy decision of ousted former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to either temporarily ban or restrict palm oil cultivation has attracted significant attention both domestically and internationally.
The concerns on this matter were raised formally by the APOA with President Ranil Wickremesinghe while urging him to lift the ban recently.
The association has out lined missed benefits of this golden crop, and explore the overwhelming positives for cultivating oil palms in Sri Lanka, which include economic benefits, potential for improving food security, and support for sustainable development goals.
One of the primary reasons to support the cultivation of oil palms in Sri Lanka is the acute shortage of cooking oil in the country.
Global disruptions caused by the COVID-19 crisis and the Russia-Ukraine war have severely affected vegetable oil supply chains.
As a major consumer of cooking oil, Sri Lanka could address this shortage by fostering a strategic commodity like palm oil, thus reducing its dependence on imports.
Palm oil is a crucial component in numerous consumer products, from toothpaste and shampoo to confectionery and bakery goods. Thus, through oil palm cultivation,
Sri Lanka can strengthen its domestic production capabilities and reduce its reliance on imports. At present, local consumption stands at 264,000 metric tons, with only 20% produced domestically. On the other hand, expanding coconut oil production, the primary alternative is neither economically viable nor technically feasible.
Globally, smallholders are emerging as leading producers of oil palm. However, Sri Lanka’s palm oil sector currently lacks substantial smallholder participation.
The country has over 2,000 smallholders interested in starting oil palm cultivation, presenting a significant opportunity for economic empowerment.
The experience of India’s National Mission on Edible Oil–Oil Palm (NMEO-OP) under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, serves as a successful model for self-reliance in terms of edible oils. Sri Lanka can, therefore, benefit greatly from collaboration with India and other countries to promote sustainable palm oil production.
The expansion of oil palm cultivation can contribute to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Sri Lanka. Studies from Indonesia and Malaysia demonstrate that oil palm cultivation enhances income gains and capital accumulation while improving living standards for smallholder farmers.
Colombo (LNW): Sri Lanka’s first AI-Human marketing agency, vAIral, has been launched by Enfection, a trailblazing force in the marketing industry.
Seamlessly blending human creativity with the unstoppable force of AI, this cutting-edge platform brings forth a revolutionary approach to marketing; redefining the marketing landscape, and positioning Enfection as the first AI-Human agency in Sri Lanka.
In a world where the potential of AI was first met with uncertainty, Enfection diligently worked behind the scenes to harness its true power. The result is vAIral; a remarkable leap into the future of marketing that bridges the gap between ingenious creativity and cutting-edge AI technology.
“Unlike traditional automated systems, vAIral represents a paradigm shift in the marketing landscape by augmenting rather than replacing human talent,” says Saliya Withana, CEO at Enfection. “It’s not about replacing human talent with AI, but rather empowering our incredible team of prompt engineers and creative strategists with AI-driven tools.”
At the heart of vAIral’s offerings lies its exceptional capacity to create engaging content quickly and easily. Clients simply convey their ideas, and vAIral brings them to life, allowing them to fine-tune their inputs to match their unique style and vision.
The platform boasts an impressive range of services, including blog writing, social media post creation, AI-generated articles, and advanced features such as enhancing and creating stunning animated videos.
“Whether you need captivating blog posts, engaging social media content, or articles tailored to your niche, vAIral has got you covered,” says Lahiru Halkewela, COO at Enfection.
“Every piece of content generated by our AI is meticulously vetted by our team of expert human content creators, ensuring top-notch quality that resonates with your audience.”
“With vAIral, we provide a solution for both startups and enterprises to scale their branding efforts by delivering content at speed without compromising on quality,” adds Shezri Junaid, Chief Strategy Officer at Enfection.
The team behind vAIral, known as the “Enfectors,” comprises of marketing virtuosos who have harnessed the true potential of artificial intelligence to revolutionize content generation.
With the launch of vAIral, Enfection reaffirms its commitment to pushing the boundaries of marketing innovation and delivering unparalleled solutions to their clients.
Colombo (LNW): Crisis-hit Sri Lanka has emerged as a key country of interest for India and the UK as they set out to operationalize a Global Innovation Partnership that allows them to cooperate in development projects in third countries, foreign news agencies reported.
The partnership, which is expected to focus on climate-smart innovations, is expected to come out with a list of priority countries and sectors next year.
The two countries have had early- stage talks about cooperation in Sri Lanka’s power and energy sector.
“The Global Innovation Partnership is a flagship new initiative between India and the UK to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals in developing countries.
The GIP is currently in its inception phase. It will foster, scale up and transfer climate innovations from India to countries in Africa, South Asia and the wider Indo-Pacific,” said a spokesperson for the British High Commission in New Delhi, in response to a press query.
The island-nation was hit by a major energy crisis last year which saw widespread power cuts and shortages of fuel. This fuelled massive citizen discontent, which led to the collapse of President Gotabaya Rajapaska’s government.
India has initiated a number of bilateral projects to bolster Sri Lanka’s energy security, including a multi-product petroleum pipeline and linking the power grids of both countries. These were announced during the July visit of Sri Lankan president Ranil Wickremesinghe to New Delhi.
As Colombo recovers from its economic crisis, joint investment in energy security by India and the UK may prove helpful, experts said.
The much-delayed Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm also saw movement — a project that could prove important to India’s efforts to build up energy reserves while also allowing Sri Lanka to improve its energy security.
Both sides signed a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of renewable energy. Progress was also made on the 135MW Sampur solar power project.
New Delhi has built out trilateral development cooperation initiatives in the past. With Germany, India has started work with four countries Peru, Malawi, Cameroon and Ghana.
The projects range from promoting agri-business among women in Malawi to potato production in Cameroon through agri-tech.
Some previous efforts to design trilateral partnerships for development had stalled. This was most notably the case with the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor (AAGC) which envisaged cooperation with Japan in the African continent.
Colombo (LNW): Former Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) Provincial Council Member Nalin Hewage disclosed that there is an outstanding electricity bill amounting to Rs. 26,82,246.57 for a house in Weeraketiya, where Ruling Party MP Namal Rajapaksa held his wedding ceremony four years ago.
The unpaid bill is related to security lights and generators used during an event held between September 12, 2019, and September 15, 2019, Hewage claimed, quoting a response by the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) to his Right-to-Information (RTI) request.
The RTI documents reveals that Rajapaksa is due to settle an amount of Rs. 2,682,246.57 for the security lights and generators used during the event.
Meanwhile, MP Rajapaksa responded to the claim by officially contacting the CEB and demanded that an inquiry be made into the status of this allegedly unpaid bill registered under his name.
Colombo (LNW): Dr. P.A. Kiriwandeniya has been appointed as the Chancellor of the Wayamba University of Sri Lanka.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe made the appointed for a period of five years, according to the President’s Media Unit.
A scholar in the field of cooperatives and finance, Kiriwandeniya previously served in a number of local and international institutions, such as the Chairman of the International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation, the Chairman of the Asian Credit Union Federation, the Chairman of the Peoples Bank, the Director of the Regional Development Bank, the Chairman of the National Cooperative Management Institute and the Chairman of the National Cooperative Council.
