A suspect in connection with the assault on the peaceful protest held in front of Temple Trees on May 09 has been arrested, Police said.
The suspect arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is a 49-year old resident of Moratuwella and a worker at the Moratuwa Urban Council, according to the Police Spokesman.
MIAP
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe Continues Discussions to Solve Economic Crisis
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe held discussions with the country representatives of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank regarding the current economic crisis in the country.
The discussions with the organizations focused on assistance for the issues facing the supply of medicine, food and fertiliser.
In a statement, the Prime Minister explained that along with meeting the two international financial organisations he has also held discussions with foreign envoys regarding the formation of an international consortium.
While explaining that discussions have been positive, the Prime Minister stated that the Government is facing the immediate challenge of securing funds to pay for the fuel requirement for this coming week. Due to the dollar shortages in the banks, the Government is now exploring other options of securing the necessary funding.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe further stated that the 21st Amendment would be taken up for discussion tomorrow. It will then be presented to Cabinet for approval.
The Prime Minister said that following his meetings over the past two days, he would provide a full explanation of the financial crisis in the country tomorrow (15).
Prime Minister’s Media
15th May 2022
The Defence Ministry of Sri Lanka has issued a statement in response to foreign media reports on a terrorist attack warned of being occurred on May 18.
On May 13, ‘The Hindu‘ claimed that ‘Indian Intelligence agencies have warned of erstwhile cadre of the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) regrouping to launch attacks in Sri Lanka’ in the period of the country being affected by an economic and political crisis.
In response, the Defence Ministry stated that the government has called on the Indian Intelligence in this regard and learned that the report of the attack was generation information, but an investigation is also underway.
The MOD further stated that it will conduct proper investigations into any information received by the intelligence services and that the security forces will be taking steps to strengthen security. The disclosure made by The Hindu that a terrorist attack is due on occurrence on May 18 will further be looked into, it went on, adding that investigations will be carried out in this regard.
MIAP
Ruling Party MP Dinesh Gunawardena has been declared as the Leader of the House and Ruling Party MP Prasanna Ranatunga as the Ruling Party Whip of the new government.
The two held the same positions in the last Parliament session as well.
MIAP
Sri Lanka is set to receive a 3,700 M/T of LP gas as part of the programme implemented by the new government led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to solve the gas shortage in the country, sources said.
Accordingly, the Ranil-led government has paid for 3,700 M/T of gas the ship is expected arrive in the Port on Tuesday (17).
Another ship with the same tonnage of LP gas is expected to arrive in the island later in the week, sources further disclosed.
MIAP
And so are the stakes
Over the past three years India has endured more than its share of bad news and suffering. The pandemic has killed between 2.2m and 9.7m people. Lockdowns caused the economy to shrink temporarily by a quarter and triggered the largest internal migrations since partition in 1947, as city workers fled to their villages. Religious tensions have been simmering, stoked by the anti-Muslim chauvinism of the Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp), in power since 2014 under the strongman prime minister, Narendra Modi. Now a heatwave is baking the north of the country and the global oil- and food-price shock is battering the poor.Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android.
Yet as our Briefing explains, if you take a step back, a novel confluence of forces stands to transform India’s economy over the next decade, improving the lives of 1.4bn people and changing the balance of power in Asia. Technological leaps, the energy transition and geopolitical shifts are creating new opportunities—and new tools to fix intractable problems. The biggest threat to all this is India’s incendiary politics.
Since India opened up in 1991, its economy has prompted both euphoria and despair. One minute it is the next China: a rising superpower bursting with enterprising geniuses. The next it is a demographic time-bomb unable to generate hope for its young people; or a Wild West where Vodafone and other naive multinationals are fleeced. Over the past decade India has outgrown most other big countries, yet this has been overshadowed by a sense of disappointment. It has not engineered the manufacturing surge that enriched East Asia nor built enough big companies to marshal capital for development. Its fragmented markets and informal firms create few good jobs.
As the country emerges from the pandemic, however, a new pattern of growth is visible. It is unlike anything you have seen before. An indigenous tech effort is key. As the cost of technology has dropped, India has rolled out a national “tech stack”: a set of state-sponsored digital services that link ordinary Indians with an electronic identity, payments and tax systems, and bank accounts. The rapid adoption of these platforms is forcing a vast, inefficient, informal cash economy into the 21st century. It has turbocharged the world’s third-largest startup scene after America’s and China’s.
Alongside that, global trends are creating bigger business clusters. The it-services industry has doubled in size in a decade, helped by the cloud and a worldwide shortage of software workers. Where else can Western firms find half a million new engineers a year? There is a renewable-energy investment spree: India ranks third for solar installations and is pioneering green hydrogen. As firms everywhere reconfigure supply chains to lessen their reliance on China, India’s attractions as a manufacturing location have risen, helped by a $26bn subsidy scheme. Western governments are keen to forge defence and technology links. India has also found a workaround to redistribute more to ordinary folk who vote but rarely see immediate gains from economic reforms: a direct, real-time, digital welfare system that in 36 months has paid $200bn to about 950m people.
These changes will not lead to a manufacturing boom as big as those in South Korea or China, which created enough jobs to empty the fields of farmers. They do not solve deep problems such as extreme weather or clogged courts. But they do help explain why India is forecast to be the world’s fastest-growing big economy in 2022 and why it has a chance of holding on to that title for years. Growth generates more wealth to invest in the country’s human capital, particularly hospitals and schools.
Who deserves the credit? Chance has played a big role: India did not create the Sino-American split or the cloud, but benefits from both. So has the steady accumulation of piecemeal reform over many governments. The digital-identity scheme and new national tax system were dreamed up a decade or more ago.
Mr Modi’s government has also got a lot right. It has backed the tech stack and direct welfare, and persevered with the painful task of shrinking the informal economy. It has found pragmatic fixes. Central-government purchases of solar power have kick-started renewables. Financial reforms have made it easier to float young firms and bankrupt bad ones. Mr Modi’s electoral prowess provides economic continuity. Even the opposition expects him to be in power well after the election in 2024.
The danger is that over the next decade this dominance hardens into autocracy. One risk is the bjp’s abhorrent hostility towards Muslims, which it uses to rally its political base. Companies tend to shrug this off, judging that Mr Modi can keep tensions under control and that capital flight will be limited. Yet violence and deteriorating human rights could lead to stigma that impairs India’s access to Western markets. The bjp’s desire for religious and linguistic conformity in a huge, diverse country could be destabilising. Were the party to impose Hindi as the national language, secessionist pressures would grow in some wealthy states that pay much of the taxes.
The quality of decision-making could also deteriorate. Prickly and vindictive, the government has co-opted the bureaucracy to bully the press and the courts. A botched decision to abolish bank notes in 2016 showed Mr Modi’s impulsive side. A strongman lacking checks and balances can eventually endanger not just demo cracy, but also the economy: think of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, whose bizarre views on inflation have caused a currency crisis. And, given the bjp’s ambivalence towards foreign capital, the campaign for national renewal risks regressing into protectionism. The party loves blank cheques from Silicon Valley but is wary of foreign firms competing in India. Today’s targeted subsidies could degenerate into autarky and cronyism—the tendencies that have long held India back.
For India to grow at 7% or 8% for years to come would be momentous. It would lift huge numbers of people out of poverty. It would generate a vast new market and manufacturing base for global business, and it would change the global balance of power by creating a bigger counterweight to China in Asia. Fate, inheritance and pragmatic decisions have created a new opportunity in the next decade. It is India’s and Mr Modi’s to squander. ■
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “India’s next decade”
THE ECONOMIST
ike so much of her life, Shireen Abu Aqleh’s final moments were captured in the stark style of news footage. Seven shots ring out. The cameraman creeps around to show a woman, clad in a flak jacket labelled “ press”, lying prone in the dirt. A young man tries to help her, only to retreat after another shot. When he finally manages to lift her limp body, it is clear she is beyond help: one of the most recognisable faces in Arab media has been reduced to a bloody pulp.
Ms Abu Aqleh, a correspondent for Al Jazeera, a news channel based in Qatar, was killed on May 11th. She was in Jenin, in the West Bank, to cover a raid by Israeli soldiers. Several witnesses, her employer and the Palestinian health ministry say it was those soldiers who shot her.
Naftali Bennett, Israel’s prime minister, said it “appears likely” she was killed by Palestinian gunmen. By way of evidence his foreign ministry shared a 15-second clip showing a masked man shooting down an alley. Nothing indicates when it was filmed or what he was aiming at. Benny Gantz, Israel’s defence minister, later sounded less sure. b’ tselem, an Israeli human-rights group, found where the clip was recorded—300 metres away and out of sight of the spot where Ms Abu Aqleh fell.
Ali al-Samoudi, a colleague at Al Jazeera who was also shot, says no armed Palestinians were nearby. Mr Bennett says the shooting that killed her was “indiscriminate and uncontrolled”. In raw footage, volleys of gunfire can be heard in the distance. The shots aimed at the journalists, louder and closer, sound controlled and seem to come from a single gun.
Ms Abu Aqleh, 51, started at Al Jazeera in 1997 and became one of its best-known reporters. Many young Arab journalists, especially women, cite her as an inspiration. A Christian Jerusalemite, she was omnipresent in the West Bank. That meant regular trips to places like Jenin. For the past six weeks Israeli soldiers have conducted almost nightly raids to nab suspects there, following a series of deadly attacks inside Israel, at least two of which were carried out by Palestinians from the area.
Since March, 19 Israelis and 30 Palestinians have been killed. Ms Abu Aqleh was the eighth Palestinian to die in the recent raids on Jenin’s refugee camp. Among the other victims was Muhammad Zakarneh, a 17-year-old shot by soldiers looking for his mother and brother.
Unsurprisingly, anti-Israel sentiment in the camp has soared. Fighters are celebrated as heroes. Alleyways are coated in the flags and graffiti of Islamic Jihad, the camp’s dominant militant group. Makeshift barricades guard its entrances.
This latest killing will rattle Israel’s unwieldy eight-party coalition. The government lost its majority last month when a member of Mr Bennett’s own party defected. Ra’am, a conservative Islamist party, is on the brink of bolting over clashes between Israeli police and worshippers at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
Mansour Abbas, the party’s pragmatic leader, would like to remain in the coalition to secure gains for his Arab-Israeli constituents. On May 11th he said his party would not back an opposition bid to dissolve Israel’s parliament. But events like Ms Abu Aqleh’s killing make staying in government ever trickier for him. ■
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “A death in Jenin”
THE ECONOMIST
Police have arrested 230 suspects in connection with the May 09 assault at the Galleface Ground. 68 suspects are already in remand custody.
As of now 707 incidents including burning of houses, vehicles and other properties belonging to MPs, ministers, local politicians and businessmen have been reported, and the Police are conducting further investigations into the events.
Meanwhile, statements have been collected from 170 witnesses with regard to the probe carried out by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into the Galleface assault.
Statements are to be obtained from several other witnesses after examining video footage on the incident.
MIAP
Sri Lanka in the middle of a political crisis amidst curfew being imposed as mobs went on a rampage protesting against the Government, garment exporters in Bangladesh are now in fear of their apparel shipments getting delayed for transshipment at the Colombo port.
The Bangladesh garment exporters have their reasons to be worried about as the Colombo Port acts as key transhipment hub for ‘Made in Bangladesh’ apparels heading for Europe and USA.
These exporters have spoken to the shipping executives and buyers’ forums on how to avoid the Sri Lankan crisis that may affect shipments, First Vice-President, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Nazrul Islam told a media conference,
Speaking to the media even as reports suggest navigation of ships or process of monitoring and controlling the movement of vessels from one place to another remained suspended from Colombo Port, shipping executives in Bangladesh have, reportedly, underlined more than 10 feeder vessels were either stuck or on the way to Colombo carrying export items.
The ongoing social -political crisis in Sri Lanka, which has over 2,000 trade unions on strike, is having spillover effects in the region, especially in Bangladesh.
The apparel sector in Bangladesh is currently witnessing an unexpected hit, as it is unable to get the shipments to its markets since the cargoes are stuck at the Port of Colombo.
Bangladesh media reported this week that the apparel manufacturers have expressed grave concerns about their shipments reaching their destination on time. According to news reports filed in Bangladesh, over 10 feeder vessels carrying export goods are either already stuck or on the way to Colombo.
“After the arrival of the Bangladesh-made cargoes at the port, they connect with mother vessels to reach the US and European ports. But the executives were tight-lipped to disclose in detail,” reported the Financial Express.
Around 40 percent of Bangladesh’s apparel shipments use the Port of Colombo as the key transshipment hub to reach the US and European ports.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Associating (BGMEA) had shared with the Financial Express that discussions have been held with the buyers’ forums and shipping executives on tackling the issue.
The association said avenues are being explored as to how shipments from Bangladesh can be cushioned from the impacts of the ongoing crisis in Sri Lanka. One of the measures taken into consideration is avoiding the Colombo port and using alternative routes to reach the North American ports.
While routes via Chinese ports and Singapore port are being considered, Bangladesh exporters are looking to capitalise on the newly-introduced direct shipping services to and from Chittagong.
The news report by Financial Express also pointed out that the vessels operating from Chittagong and Colombo witnessed delays when the fuel crisis began in Sri Lanka a few months back.
Due to the local crisis, the duration of the shipments from Chittagong to Colombo increased to 10 to 11 days, while previously it was eight days.
The Department of Prisons states that 244 prisoners will receive state pardons on the occasion of the Vesak festival. These prisoners are entitled to a state pardon in accordance with the powers vested in the President by Article 34 of the Constitution.
State pardoned prisoners have been selected to represent every prison islandwide. It has also been decided to halve the sentence of prisoners over 65 years of age and abolish the remainder of the sentence of more than half.
By 15.05.2022, who has been sentenced to 40 years or more, the remainder of the sentence of 20 years from the date of sentencing by the High Court will be abolished.
A group of artists and others staged a protest in front of the Welikada Prison yesterday demanding the release of Ranjan Ramanayake, a former parliamentarian who is serving a prison sentence for contempt of court. However, it is reported that the former MP is not among the persons released today under the state pardon.
