Features
Taking Sri Lanka Forward- Excerpts from C. Narayanasuwami’s “Managing Development: People, Policies and Institutions
Confronting issues of debt restructuring, economic stability and sustainability- a long-term perspective
Sri Lanka’s financial crisis has created greater awareness of the need for financial, economic and institutional reform and the development of a holistic approach to the planning, implementation and monitoring of economic and social policies and programs. Substantial efforts have been made in Sri Lanka for over one year or so to restructure debt and increase revenues but the conditions for long-term economic stability are yet to be fully addressed as these require multi-faceted initiatives at different levels. Reform measures are unlikely to be implemented expeditiously given the current socioeconomic pressures. Any reform initiatives will be time consuming and will require political cohesion and commitment.
The visit of the IMF team this month will throw some light on measures to be adopted with immediate and long-term results orientation.It would be prudent to think in terms of overall structural changes, some requiring immediate attention and others planned for a longer-term intervention. Looking at similar emergencies encountered in South America, South Africa and Asian countries such as Pakistan a number of short and long-term structural changes are warranted. Do the current programs, policies and the institutional framework provide adequate flexibility to enhance public sector performance, governance mechanisms and institutional capacity to address stabilisation issues? We had reviewed a few books and reports on economic management and found that considerable efforts need to be made to bring the country to sustainable levels of economic performance.
We reviewed, among others, a recent publication authored by a Sri Lankan Asian Development Bank Professional, Mr. C. Narayanasuwami, previously of the Ceylon Civil Service who last headed the then Agrarian Research and Training Institute (now known as Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute) prior to joining the international civil service.
The book was released simultaneously in Colombo, Manila and Sydney. Some of the key aspects covered in the book entitled, ‘Managing Development: People, Policies and Institutions’ apply to the situation in several developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region with a few areas specifically addressing issues of particular relevance to Sri Lanka. Governance. The section on Governance, for example, deals primarily with the Sri Lankan situation and acknowledges that ‘sound governance would require (i) an effective policy framework, (ii) a qualified, competent, trained, and skilled workforce at different levels, (iii) an appropriate emoluments and salary structure that takes into account differences in performance levels, (v) a corruption free management system, and (vi) an overall politico-legal framework that supports non-discriminatory policies and promotes initiative and dynamism in project and program execution.
Evidently, transparency, predictability, accountability, stakeholder participation, rule of law, an efficient and uncorrupted public service, independence of judiciary, and media freedom, among others, are vital components of good governance. Sri Lanka has suffered substantially in upholding many of these values largely due to the adoption of undemocratic and often ill-conceived policies and practices in implementing varied development programs. No significant changes have occurred to reverse the culture of corruption and public sector inefficiencies and instil discipline in the maintenance of law and order’.
Public Sector Performance. Reference is made to the deterioration of public service standards in Sri Lanka and the following excerpt captures the current weaknesses that impede development performance.‘Over the past 30 years, about 40 percent of development projects failed to achieve their intended objectives within the stipulated time frames or within the expected budgetary allocations because of the lack of capacity to plan, implement, and deliver in a coordinated and integrated manner.
Some of the major factors that contributed to this situation are identified as follows; (i) politicization of the public service, (ii) lack of an enabling environment for improving performance, (iii) inadequate punitive strategies, (iv) inconsistent recruitment standards for public services, (v) inadequacies in the compensation and benefit packages, (vi) disproportionate expansion in the public sector-at present at least one-third of the public sector personnel are considered as superfluous and (vii) ethnic conflict and its debilitating impact on public sector morale’.
‘The politicization of the public service initially arose out of a felt need, largely driven by the desire to transform a highly elitist pro-western bureaucracy to meet the demands of a nation that had emerged from the shackles of colonialism. However, when public servants used this opportunity to seek favours and ignore tradition-bound value systems and ethical conduct, a service that built its reputation on its ability to withstand political pressures, maintain impartiality, objectivity and transparency in its dealings since the time of the British rule, began to crumble.
Loyalty was linked to political parties and individuals rather than to institutions and programs’. We consider the situation a major impediment to implementation of vital development projects. Capacity for decision-making is virtually non-existent due to the politicisation of the public sector. A radical transformation of the public sector is called for. Capacity Constraints. The book identifies capacity constraints as a major impediment to project/program implementation and provides some insights based on ADB experience in developing countries.
ADB has defined capacity as ‘strengthening the national framework within a developing member country (DMC) that affects the direction, management, and sustenance of the development process in a sector and the economy as a whole’. ‘In recent years ADB has linked capacity building closely with governance and has emphasized that good governance implies the capacity to provide citizens with an acceptable level of public services in an effective and efficient manner. Despite efforts made by multilateral agencies capacity constraints continue to pose challenges to development initiatives, as proven in Sri Lanka.
The limited success is attributable to shortcomings in the approaches adopted and the inability of countries like Sri Lanka to change, adapt, adjust and learn from lessons of experience’. The book refers to the efforts made and states as follows; ‘Over the years, a substantial number of development projects in most of the sectors failed to realise their full potential due to inadequate implementation capacities.
Evidence suggests that funds allocated by multilateral agencies lapsed on several occasions due to less than satisfactory disbursement processes, The factors that impeded more effective utilization of foreign aid is summarised as follows;(i)inadequate understanding of management systems, including a thorough understanding of the broad based objectives and goals of projects/programs, (ii) rigidity of policy structures that were bound by archaic regulations irrelevant to modern concepts of management, (iii) presence of multiple institutions whose roles overlapped with one another making decision making difficult because of conflicts that had political undertones, (iv) inadequate monitoring of development operations that had high foreign equity and funding support, and (v) weak public accountability and transparency that raised concerns among donors, and inadequate counterpart budget provisions.
Overall, lack of a results-based management system, complex administrative procedures, poor policy and institutional environment, weak procurement systems, and inadequate counterpart budget provisions contributed to the slow absorption of aid resources’.
The above excerpts coincide with some of the management shortcomings identified by the World Bank and the IMF in their deliberations with the Government in recent months.A major area identified as a constraint to development operations by international donors is the weak institutional capacity of implementing agencies. The book has a lot to offer in this regard and some useful excerpts are provided below;
Institution Building
. ‘institution building is aimed at strengthening capabilities for planning, organising, implementing, monitoring and evaluating development projects and programs sponsored by public, private, or grassroots level organisations. The major focus of governments should be on the approaches and issues related to increasing the capability of development institutions to make effective use of available human, physical, and financial resources.
The strengths and weaknesses of institutions as well as behavioural factors have often influenced the nature and pace of the development process. Many failures in development projects are not only due to production or technological inadequacies but also to institutional deficiencies, largely because self-sustaining capacity to implement projects is not emphasized at the time of project formulation. Studies of rural development in Asia have confirmed that inadequacies in the institutional framework have hindered the effective implementation of rural development programs’.
‘Institutional development has been impeded by shortages of trained staff, including competent middle-level managers who could provide the leadership to manage development projects. The available key staff are often burdened with multiple assignments and are denied the opportunity to provide the required focus and direction for project implementation.
The designers of complex projects do not examine thoroughly the capacities of each agency to implement complex components. Programs that depend on key individuals had collapsed when they left and equivalent replacements were not found. This raises the question of leadership and the importance of formulating appropriate policies and procedures for attracting and retaining staff in developing countries’.
The foregoing analysis covers a large number of countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It applies to the situation in Sri Lanka as well and though senior politicians and administrators are aware of the issues highlighted, very little has been done to address the issues primarily due to the lack of political will to institute radical change in the approaches to institutional reform. Little has been done up to date to transform the overall institutional framework. It is realised that the most important element in institution building is leadership but the efforts made to redress this inadequacy have had disastrous results. Nothing short of a substantial change to the institutional framework will remedy this situation’.
Leadership.
The book provides some insights into the role of leadership to provide the right impetus to improve managerial capability and to eventual success in project/program delivery. We quote some extracts below;
‘The most important element in institution building is leadership because change processes require intensive, skilful, and highly committed management, both of internal and of environmental relationships.
Managing uncertainty is part of the process of leadership and this requires immense skills and capacity for organisational learning. It is said that leadership is many things. It is meticulously shifting the attention of the institution through the mundane language of management systems. It is altering agenda so that new priorities get enough attention. It is being visible when things are going awry and invisible when they are working well. It is building a loyal team at the top that speaks more or less with one voice. Leadership does not refer to mere exercise of power but motivating, mobilizing, and transforming a group of individuals engaged in a common task to deliver effectively and efficiently the overall output expected of the agency.
Project completion reports and audits of completed projects undertaken by multilateral agencies have documented the success and failure of projects that have benefitted or suffered from competent or incompetent leadership. Similarly, the success stories of big private corporations in the developed world lend support to the spectacular achievement of leaders who were able to work within the framework of approved budgets and staff and yet motivate staff to achieve higher goals’
The above excerpt illustrates the significance of leadership in delivering successful outcomes. Sri Lanka has many examples which have proven that the right leadership stimulated progress and achieved expected successes. However, in recent years this has been an issue which even the President has had to lament on. There are key areas under the IMF/ World Bank assistance programs that envisage quick and methodical implementation of reform measures and development initiatives.
The lack of an institutional arrangement where a capable, experienced and proven leader assumes responsibility for the total implementation of key reform initiatives, including management of development projects, supported by a team of chosen set of administrative and professional staff is the need of the hour. It is important that the organisational structure provides for freedom of action within stipulated limits and concedes considerable authority to implement processes without reference to multiple sources. The political head of this organisational entity should ideally be the Finance Minister or the President himself who would ensure the independence of the entity to work diligently to deliver expected outputs on time and within budget.
Reviewing the book further we found some interesting thoughts and ideas that are relevant to many countries in the region, including Sri Lanka. The book covers a wide ground on the subjects of monitoring and evaluation and their relevance and significance for project development, management and evaluation. An interesting observation is ‘that in most countries of the developing world, monitoring is often conceived as collection of information and development of reporting systems, with little attention paid to using the information and reporting systems as effective management tools for controlling financial and physical performance. Management controls provide the project implementors the tools for determining whether or not the organisation is proceeding toward the objective as planned. Control has to do with making events conform to plans. It is an organic function of management which coordinates the project affairs so that project objectives are achieved’.
Control is exercised through various tools and one such tool is performance indicators which are identified at the design stage of a project as they are key variables in determining whether a project is progressing as envisaged during design. Performance indicators have to be specific, measurable, attainable, reliable and time-bound (SMART). Indicators are the quantitative or qualitative variables that provide a simple and reliable means to measure achievement, to reflect the changes connected to an intervention, or to help assess the performance of an organisation against the stated outcome. A comprehensive monitoring system postulates the need for good performance indicators, realistic target setting and collection of appropriate baseline data that would provide a comparison to gauge results during and after implementation’.
These are tools that are essential for project management and such systems have been established and are operational in Sri Lanka. There are however doubts whether the systems are being put to effective use for project management. There have been reports that lack of competent staff have often hampered the execution of appropriate strategies for implementation of a sound monitoring program. In the context of the current economic crisis it would be absolutely crucial to fine tune these tools for better collection, analysis and reporting of progress in the achievement of targets.
Evaluation
The role of evaluation in development management is being increasingly appreciated by developing countries due to continued interactions and emphasis by donors on accountability and performance management issues. There is however, a long way to go to institutionalise evaluation infrastructure in the context of emerging need to improve the quality of decision making. Some excerpts from the book under review provide interesting insights into the role and function of evaluation in improving policy formulation.’ The OECD defines evaluation as the systematic and objective assessment of an ongoing or completed project, program, or policy, including its design, implementation and results.
The aim is to determine the relevance and fulfillment of objectives, development efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. ‘An evaluation should provide information that is credible and useful, enabling the incorporation of lessons learned into the decision-making process of both recipients and donors’ Evaluation differs from monitoring-monitoring is essentially a management activity confining its concerns to the implementation cycle of program/project. Monitoring is concerned with day-to-day management aspects whereas evaluation deals with ongoing and post-project impact and effectiveness of a project. Evaluation ascertains the relevance of the project, challenges all aspects of the project design, examines performance of inputs and implementing agents against targets and may even enable redesigning or re-planning of project activities’.
‘Evaluation also uses performance indicators formulated at the design stage of a project to measure outputs, outcomes and impact. The selection of indicators is governed by the changes that are sought or anticipated. In general terms, performance indicators are included under three broad categories-economic, social and environmental’.
The above references to monitoring and evaluation are intended to highlight their relevance in the context of ongoing efforts to resuscitate the economy. It is important to ascertain whether these tools of management are currently being used to assess development operations to obtain sufficient and acceptable outcomes demanded by donors and investment partners.
The current crisis calls for the establishment of an appropriate mechanism to continuously measure results and take remedial measures, when required, to improve outcomes. For projects to succeed and improve incomes and revenues anticipated at the outset, closer supervision, monitoring and evaluation would be a prerequisite and will be demanded by donors whether it is the world Bank, IMF or ADB.
Our review of the book was intended to ascertain areas that could provide information on lessons learned to improve performance, particularly to removing the constraints to progress and economic advancement in the context of the serious economic and financial issues faced by Sri Lanka leading to bankruptcy announcement.
Though no immediate solutions could be discerned due to the nature of the subjects covered, considerable insights were gained on the long-term public sector management issues that require prompt remedial initiatives. The issues discussed herein such as removing the constraints to capacity development, improving implementation capacities of agencies, public sector performance and enhancing the approaches to management of investment projects, including greater emphasis to the establishment of a sound institutional framework are valid and require closer attention.
Overall, the need of the hour is to institutionalise the implementation machinery that could serve as a catalyst to produce results. Malaysia and Singapore introduced super implementation frameworks to achieve success in project and program delivery. Sri Lanka needs a super implementation department or ministry under the overall supervision of the President to initiate constant project reviews, alter strategies of implementation when needed, and set up effective small units under competent leaders for physical, social, environmental and procurement related aspects of implementation. Leadership is the primary component that will orchestrate delivery. Consequently, the appointment of a highly competent head/leader to organise, manage and deliver becomes crucial. If such a leader is appointed there will definitely be greater success in achieving the goals of recovery faster.
Sri Lanka’s survival and independence have historically depended on accurately identifying foreign policy priorities, selecting viable strategies as a small island state, and advancing them with prudence. This requires an objective assessment of the shifting geopolitical landscape through a distinctly Sri Lankan strategic lens. Consequently, foreign policy has been central to Sri Lanka’s statecraft, warranted by its pivotal location in the Indian Ocean—adjacent to South Asia yet separated by a narrow stretch of water.
Amid pivotal geopolitical transformations in motion across South Asia, in the Indian Ocean, and beyond, the formulation and implementation of Sri Lanka’s foreign policy has never been more critical to its national security. Despite the pressing need for a cohesive policy framework, Sri Lanka’s foreign policy, over the past few decades, has struggled to effectively respond to the challenges posed by shifting geopolitical dynamics. This article examines the evolution of Sri Lanka’s foreign policy and its inconsistencies amid shifting geopolitical dynamics since the end of the Cold War.
First
, the article examines geopolitical shifts in three key spaces—South Asia, the Indian Ocean, and the global arena—since the end of the Cold War, from Sri Lanka’s strategic perspective. Building on this, second, it analyses Sri Lanka’s foreign policy responses, emphasising its role as a key instrument of statecraft. Third, it explores the link between Sri Lanka’s foreign policy dilemmas during this period and the ongoing crisis of the post-colonial state. Finally, the article concludes that while geopolitical constraints persist, Sri Lanka’s ability to adopt a more proactive foreign policy depends on internal political and economic reforms that strengthen democracy and inclusivity.
Shifting South Asian Strategic Dynamics
Geopolitical concerns in South Asia—Sri Lanka’s immediate sphere—take precedence, as the country is inherently tied to the Indo-centric South Asian socio-cultural milieu. Sri Lanka’s foreign policy has long faced challenges in navigating its relationship with India, conditioned by a perceived disparity in power capabilities between the two countries. This dynamic has made the ‘India factor’ a persistent consideration in Sri Lanka’s strategic thinking. As Ivor Jennings observed in 1951, ‘India thus appears as a friendly but potentially dangerous neighbour, to whom one must be polite but a little distant’ (Jennings, 1951, 113).The importance of managing the ‘India Factor’ in Sri Lankan foreign policy has grown further with India’s advancements in military strength, economic development, and the knowledge industry, positioning it as a rising global great power on Sri Lanka’s doorstep.
India’s Strategic Rise
Over the past three decades, South Asia’s geopolitical landscape has undergone a profound transformation, driven by India’s strategic rise as a global great power. Barry Buzan (2002:2) foresees this shift within the South Asian regional system as a transition from asymmetric bipolarity to India-centric unipolarity. India’s continuous military advancements have elevated it to the fourth position in the Global Firepower (GFP) index, highlighting its formidable conventional war-making capabilities across land, sea, and air (Global Firepower, 2024). It currently lays claims to being the world’s third-largest military, the fourth-largest Air Force, and the fifth-largest Navy.
India consistently ranks among the fastest-growing major economies, often surpassing the global average. According to Forbes India, India is projected to be the world’s fifth-largest economy in 2025, with a real GDP growth rate of 6.5% (Forbes, January 10, 2025). India’s strategic ascendance is increasingly driven by its advancements in the knowledge industry. The country is actively embracing the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and emerging as the Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) hub of South Asia. However, India’s rise has a paradoxical impact on its neighbours. On one hand, it offers them an opportunity to integrate into a rapidly expanding economic engine. On the other, it heightens concerns over India’s dominance, leaving them feeling increasingly overshadowed by the regional giant.
Despite significant geo-strategic transformations, the longstanding antagonism and strategic rivalry between India and Pakistan have persisted into the new millennium, continuing to shape South Asia’s security landscape. Born in 1947 amid mutual hostility, the two countries remained locked in a multi-dimensional conflict encompassing territorial disputes, power equilibrium, threat perceptions, accusations of interference in each other’s domestic affairs, and divergent foreign policy approaches. The acquisition of nuclear weapons by both countries in 1998 added a new dimension to their rivalry.
The SAARC process has been a notable casualty of the enduring Indo-Pakistani rivalry. Since India’s boycott of the Islamabad Summit in response to the 2016 Uri attack in Kashmir, the SAARC process has remained in limbo. Countries like Sri Lanka, which seek to maintain equally amicable relations with both India and Pakistan, often find themselves in awkward positions due to the ongoing rivalry between them. One of the key challenges for Sri Lanka’s foreign policy is maintaining strong relations with Pakistan while ensuring its ties with India remain unaffected. India now actively promotes regional cooperation bodies in South Asia, excluding Pakistan, favouring broader frameworks such as BIMSTEC. While Sri Lanka can benefit greatly from engaging with these regional initiatives, it must carefully navigate its involvement to avoid inadvertently aligning with India’s efforts to contain Pakistan. Maintaining this balance will require sharp diplomatic acumen.
India’s expansive naval strategy, especially its development of onshore naval infrastructure, has positioned Sri Lanka within its maritime sphere of influence. As part of the Maritime Infrastructure Perspective Plan (MIPP) launched in 2015 to enhance operational readiness and surveillance capabilities, India is developing an alternative nuclear submarine base for the Eastern Command under Project Varsha (Deccan Chronicle, 22.11.2016). This base is located in Rambilli village, 50 km southwest of Visakhapatnam and 1,200 km from Colombo (Chang, 2024). Additionally, INS Dega, the naval air base at Visakhapatnam, is being expanded to accommodate Vikrant’s MiG-29K and Tejas fighter aircraft.
Another key strategic development in India’s ascent that warrants serious attention in Sri Lanka’s foreign policy formulation is India’s progress in missile delivery systems (ICBMs and SLBMs) and nuclear-powered submarines. In 1998, India made it clear that its future nuclear deterrence would be based on a nuclear triad consisting of land-based Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and strategic bombers (Rehman, 2015). Since then, India has steadily advanced in this direction. The expansion of India’s missile delivery systems, including ICBMs and SLBMs, serves as a reminder that Sri Lanka exists under the strategic shadow of a major global power.
The development of India’s nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) accelerated after 2016. The first in this class, INS Arihant (S2), was commissioned in August 2016, followed by the launch of INS Arighat in November 2021. Designed for strategic deterrence, INS Arighat is equipped to carry the Sagarika K-4 submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), with a range of 3,500 kilometers, as well as the K-5, a long-range SLBM capable of reaching 5,000 kilometers. The submarine is based at INS Varsha (Deb, 2021).
India has significantly advanced its missile delivery systems, improving both their range and precision. In 2021, it successfully tested the Agni-5, a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of 5,000 kilometers. On March 11, 2024, India joined the ranks of global powers possessing Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) technology (The Hindu, January 4, 2022). These advancements elevate the Bay of Bengal as a pivotal arena in the naval competition between India and China, carrying profound political and strategic implications for Sri Lanka, which seeks to maintain equally friendly relations with both countries.
Further, India’s remarkable strides in space research have cemented its status as a global power. A defining moment in this journey was the historic lunar landing on 23 August 2023, when Chandrayaan-3 successfully deployed two robotic marvels: the Vikram lander and its companion rover, Pragyan. They made a graceful touchdown in the Moon’s southern polar region, making India the fourth nation to achieve a successful lunar landing. This milestone has further reinforced India’s position as an emerging great power, enhancing its credentials to assert itself more confidently in South Asian, Indian Ocean, and global power dynamics.
India envisions a stable and secure South Asia as essential to its emergence as a great power in the Indian Ocean and global strategic arenas. However, it does not consider Pakistan to be a part of this stability that it seeks. Accordingly, when India launched the ‘Neighbourhood First Policy’ in 2008 to strengthen regional ties, Pakistan was excluded. India’s ‘Neighbourhood First Policy’ gained renewed momentum after 2015 under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. His approach to South Asia is embedded in a broader narrative emphasising the deep-rooted cultural, economic, and social exchanges between India and other South Asian countries over centuries. India’s promotion of heritage tourism, particularly the ‘Ramayana Trail’ in Sri Lanka, should be viewed through this strategic lens as part of its broader strategic narrative.
Evolving Indian Ocean Geo-political Dynamics
The Indian Ocean constitutes the next geopolitical frame for Sri Lanka’s foreign policy. The Indian Ocean is a huge bay bordered by the Afro-Asian landmass and Australia on three sides and the South Asian peninsula extends into the Indian Ocean basin centrally. Situated at the southern tip of South Asia, Sri Lanka extends strategically into the heart of the Indian Ocean, shaping its geopolitical significance and strategic imperatives for maintaining sovereignty. Historically, Sri Lanka has often been caught in the power struggles of extra-regional actors in the Indian Ocean, repeatedly at the expense of its independence.
Sri Lanka’s leadership at the time of independence was acutely aware of the strategic significance of the Indian Ocean for the nation’s survival. The first Prime Minister D.S. Senanayake, who was also the Minister of Defence and External Affair, stated in Parliament that: “We are in a dangerous position, because we are on one of the strategic highways of the world. The country that captures Ceylon would dominate the Indian Ocean. Nor is it only a question of protecting ourselves against invasion and air attack. If we have no imports for three months, we would starve, and we have therefore to protect our sea and air communications” (Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, House of Representative. Vol. I, 1 December 1947, c. 444)
As naval competition between superpowers during the Cold War extended to the Indian Ocean, following the British naval withdrawal in the late 1960s, Sri Lanka, under Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike, played a key diplomatic role in keeping the region free from extra-regional naval rivalry by mobilising the countries that were members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). In 1971, Sri Lanka sponsored a proposal at the UN General Assembly to establish the Indian Ocean as a Peace Zone (IOPZ). While the initiative initially gained traction, it stalled at the committee stage and ultimately lost momentum.
The maritime security architecture of the Indian Ocean entered a new phase after the end of the Cold War. The United States became the single superpower in the Indian Ocean with an ocean-wide naval presence bolstered by the fully fledged Diego Garcia base. Correspondingly, the regional strategic linkages that evolved in the context of the Cold War were eventually dismantled, giving way to new strategic relationships. Additionally, three key developments with profound implications for Sri Lanka should be noted: India’s projection of political and naval power into the deeper Indian Ocean, China’s rapid economic and military rise in the region, and the entry of other extra-regional powers into Indian Ocean politics. Although Sri Lanka adopted a broader strategic perspective and a more proactive foreign policy in the 1970s, its approach to geopolitical developments in the Indian Ocean in the post-Cold War era became increasingly shaped by domestic challenges—particularly countering the LTTE threat and addressing post-war exigencies.
India’s Expanding Naval Diplomatic Role in the Indian Ocean
Parallel to its strategic rise, India has intensified its engagement in the broader strategic landscape of the Indian Ocean with renewed vigor. This expansion extends beyond its traditional focus on the South Asian strategic theatre, reflecting a more assertive and multidimensional approach to regional security, economic connectivity, and maritime diplomacy. India’s active participation in multilateral security frameworks, infrastructure investments in critical maritime hubs and strategic alignments with major global powers signify its role in the changing naval security architecture of the Indian Ocean. India’s shifting strategic posture in the Indian Ocean is reflected in the 2015 strategy document Ensuring Secure Seas: Indian Maritime Security Strategy. It broadens the definition of India’s maritime neighbors beyond those sharing maritime boundaries to include all nations within the Indian Ocean region (Ensuring Secure Seas, p. 23).
In 2015, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched his signature Indian Ocean diplomacy initiative, Security and Growth for All in the Region (SAGAR) to foster trust and transparency, uphold international maritime norms, respect mutual interests, resolve disputes peacefully, and enhance maritime cooperation. Strategic engagement with the littoral states in the Indian Ocean region, especially Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Seychelles, and Mauritius and Madagascar has emerged as a key component of India’s Indian Ocean naval diplomacy.
The Seychelles archipelago, located approximately 600 miles east of the Diego Garcia base, holds particular significance in India’s maritime strategy. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official visit to Seychelles in March 2015, India and Seychelles signed four agreements. A key strategic outcome of the visit was Seychelles’ agreement to lease Assumption Island, one of its 115 islands, to India—a move that reinforced Seychelles’ alignment with India’s broader naval diplomacy in the Indian Ocean
Similarly, Mauritius holds a central position in India’s naval diplomacy in the Indian Ocean. During Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Mauritius in March 2015, India signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Mauritius to establish a new base on North Agalega Island, a 12-kilometer-long and 1.5-kilometer-wide Island. The base is crucial for air and surface maritime patrols in the southwest Indian Ocean. It will also serve as an intelligence outpost. In September 2016, defense and security cooperation between India and Mauritius deepened alongside the signing of the ‘Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Partnership Agreement’ (CECPA).
India’s expanding strategic interests across the Indian Ocean are reflected in its growing economic, educational, and defense collaborations with Madagascar. In 2007, India established its first overseas listening post in northern Madagascar to monitor shipping activities and intercept marine communications in the Indian Ocean. This initiative provided India with a naval foothold near South Africa and key sea-lanes in the southwestern Indian Ocean. The significance of India’s defense ties with Madagascar is further highlighted by Madagascar’s participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). As a crucial hub along the Maritime Silk Road connecting Africa, Madagascar’s strategic importance is underscored in the broader geopolitical landscape.
Another element of India’s expanding naval diplomacy in the Indian Ocean is its participation in both unilateral and multilateral anti-piracy operations. India’s commitment to regional security was reinforced in 2008 when it established a ‘Strategic Partnership’ with Oman, securing berthing and replenishment facilities for its navy, along with a strategically significant listening post in the Western Indian Ocean. India’s naval presence in the Arabian Gulf gains additional significance amid reports of a new Chinese naval base in Djibouti and recent submarine deployments. Successful anti-piracy missions in the western Indian Ocean underscore India’s growing influence in the region’s evolving naval security architecture.
India increasingly views its vast Diaspora as a soft power tool to bolster its status as an Indian Ocean power. In June 2014, it launched the Mausam project to reinforce its cultural ties across the region, showcasing its heritage, traditions, and contributions to global arts, literature, cinema, yoga, and cuisine. This initiative complements India’s expanding naval diplomacy and strategic presence in the Indian Ocean. Over the years, it has established listening facilities, airfields, and port infrastructure in key locations such as northern Madagascar, Agaléga Island (Mauritius), and Assumption Island (Seychelles). This has led India Today to ask: “Could this mark the emergence of an Indian ‘String of Flowers’ to counter China’s ‘String of Pearls’?” (The be continued)
by Gamini Keerawella
Exploring Sunethra Rajakarunanayake’s Visachakayo
Sunethra Rajakarunanayake’s Sinhala novel Visachakayo (published in 2023) is a thriller in its own sense due to its daring exploration of social themes that modern Sinhala writers fail to touch. To me, the novel is a mosaic that explores pressing issues that middle-class Sri Lankans go through in the 21st Century. The narrative is seen from the perspective of Akshara, a Tamil girl whom the reader first meets in an infamous ‘Visa Queue’ to get her passport to go to England.
Akshara lives with her grandmother ‘Ammamma’ and her aunt ‘Periyamma’ (the younger sister of her mother). Both Ammamma and Periyamma look after her in the absence of her mother, Chinthamani who passed away a long time ago. Akshara’s father lives in Jaffna, with the kids of the second marriage. Later, we are told that Akshara’s father had to marry the second wife due to the loss of his wife’s first husband, who was an LTTE cadre. The second marriage of men seems to be a common theme in the novel due to their commitments to the family as an act of duty and honour.
The most iconic character in the novel is Preethiraj, ‘the man with a big heart’ who functions as a father figure to the other characters in the novel. It is through Preethiraj’s memory that the reader becomes aware of sociological themes in the novel: displacement and immigration, the institution of marriage and mental health issues. Preethiraj (fondly known as Preethi) is the son of Pushpawathi, the second wife of Akshara’s grandfather. Preethi goes to Royal College, but he has to relocate to Jaffna in 1958. Preethi endures social injustice in both public and private spheres. His studious sister, a medical student, labels him as a ‘lunatic’, while his mother condemns him as the ‘odd one’.
The novel intersects between the three themes: immigration and displacement, mental health issues and the institution of marriage. Almost all the characters have to go through displacement, suffer from intricacies of love laws and marriage rules like in The God of Small Things by Arundathi Roy. The writer offers a nuanced analysis of these three themes. For example, take mental health issues. The novel portrays a spectrum of mental health issues, such as schizophrenia, psychosis, Othello Syndrome, depression, autism and even malingering. At times, the representation of such ailments is extremely sarcastic:
“Hm… Canadian citizenship is an easy solution to secure those opportunities. However, unless I am asked to intervene, I will not meddle with their affairs. The son of one of my friends was introduced to a pretty girl. They liked her, not because of her money, but because of her looks and her ability to play the piano. But later, they discovered she has schizophrenia. Now their son follows whatever she says to save the marriage. My friend says she has lost her son” (p.20).
“Those opportunities” refer to material wealth including money and property in Colombo. Here, Rajakarunanayake does not fail to capture the extreme materialism and consumerism. However, in general, her representation of human follies is extremely humane.
The title ‘Visachakayo’ is another interesting coinage that reflects the plight of Sri Lankans who migrate to the ‘global north’ in search of greener pastures. Akshara’s friend, Subhani, who has migrated to England, explains that the term ‘Visachaya’ captures the in-between status of immigrants who are waiting for PR in a foreign country. Subhani mockingly says that they are equal to beggars who beg for visas. Subhani’s coinage and other accounts of Sri Lankan immigrants in England, the novel shows how difficult it is for an immigrant from the ‘global south’ to fight for a living in a country like England where immigrants come to resolve their financial struggles back home.
The novel is an eye-opener in many ways. First, it is an attempt to bridge the gap caused by the Sinhala-Tamil ethnic strife. It is also a cultural mosaic that captures both the joys and sorrows of Sinhala, Tamil and Burgher families in Sri Lanka. The novel also delves into mental health issues, categorically tied to marriage, a daring task even for a seasoned writer. However, Rajakarunanayake’s writing style compels the reader to adopt a more humane and empathetic approach towards individuals grappling with mental health challenges at various stages of their lives. The linguistic technique of using ‘ne’ tag at the end of sentences creates a conversational tone, making the narrative as if it is a conversation between a therapist and a patient. Her writing style also resembles that of Sri Lankan and Indian diasporic writers, a style that is used when writing about the motherland in exile, of which food becomes a critical trope in the narrative that unites the characters who live in exile.
Rajakarunanayake has done a commendable job in the representation of social issues, making this novel a must-read for anyone who is interested in researching social dynamics of contemporary Sri Lanka. It soon needs to be translated into English which will offer a unique experience to Sri Lankan English and international readers. A good book is something that affects the reader. Visachakayo has this quality, and it makes the reader revisit the past, reflect on the present and anticipate the future with hope for humanity just as Preethi does regardless of hardships he endured in the theatre of life.
By C. M. Arsakulasuriya
The potential available in lands under Mahaweli Project, which cover about one third of farming areas of the Dry Zone, could easily help the country become self-sufficient in healthy foods, provided it is managed properly. However, at present, the main focus of the Mahaweli Authority of Sri Lanka (MASL) is mainly on Operation & Maintenance of Canal network feeding the farms. Main purpose of the Mahaweli Restructuring & Rehabilitation Project (MRRP) funded by the World Bank in 2000 was to diversify that objective to cover enhancement of agriculture aspects also. System H Irrigation Systems covering about 20,000 Hectares commanded under Kalawewa Tank located in the Anuradhapura District was used as a pilot area to initiate this effort. However, only the Canal Rehabilitation component of the MRRP was attended because of the government policy at that time. Restructuring component is still awaiting to be completed. Only, a strategy called Water Quota was introduced under the MRRP to initiate the restructuring component. However, the management restructuring required addressing the agriculture component expected under MRRP is still not attended.
Propose Strategy
Total length of the canal network which needs seasonal maintenance is about 1,000 Km in a typical large-scale irrigation project such as Kalawewa. Main role of the Resident Project Managers (RPM) appointed to manage such projects should be to enhance the food production jointly with the Farmer Organizations. Therefore, the abbreviation used for RPM should be redefined as Resident Production Manager. The role of a Production Manager is not limited to maintenance of canal networks as adapted presently. In the current production phase, Irrigation projects should be perceived as a Food Producing “Factory” – where water is the main raw material. Farmers as the owners of the factory, play the role of the labour force of the factory. The Production Manager’s focus should be to maximize food production, deviating from Rice Only Mode, to cater the market needs earning profits for the farmers who are the owners of the “factory”. Canal systems within the project area which need regular maintenance are just “Belts” conveying raw materials (water) in a Typical Factory.
Required Management Shift
In order to implement the above management concept, there is a need for a paradigm shift in managing large scale irrigation projects. In the new approach, the main purpose of managing irrigation systems is to deliver water to the farm gate at the right time in the right quantity. It is a big challenge to operate a canal network about 1000 KM long feeding about 20,000 Hectare in a typical Irrigation System such as Kalawewa.
It is also very pathetic to observe that main clients of irrigation projects (farmers providing labor force) are now dying of various diseases caused by indiscriminate use of agrochemicals. Therefore, there is a need to minimize the damages caused to the ecosystems where these food production factories are located. Therefore, the management objectives should also be focused on producing multiple types of organically grown crops, profitably without polluting the soil and groundwater aquifers causing diseases like Kidney Failures.
Proposed Management Structure
Existing management staff should either be trained or new recruitments having Production Engineering background, should be made. Water should be perceived as the most limited input, which needs to be managed profitably jointly with the farming community. Each Production Manager could be allocated a Fixed Volume of water annually, and their performance could be measured in terms of $s earned for the country per Unit Volume of water, while economically upgrading a healthy lifestyle of the farmers by using climate smart agriculture.
In addition to the government salary, the production management staff should also be compensated in the form of incentives, calculated in proportion to income generated by them from their management areas. It should be a Win-Win situation for both farmers as well as officers responsible for managing the food production factory. Operation of the Main Canal to cater flexible needs of each factory is the main responsibility of the Resident Production Manager. In other countries, the term used to measure their performance is $ earned per gallon of water to the country, without damaging the ecosystem.
Recent Efforts
Mahaweli Authority introduced some of the concepts explained in this note during 2000 to 2006, under MRRP. It was done by operating the Distributary canals feeding each block as elongated Village Tanks. It was known as the Bulk Water Allocation (BWA) strategy. Recently an attempt was made to digitize the same concept, by independently arranging funds from ICTA / World Bank. In that project, called Eazy Water, a SMS communication system was introduced, so that they can order water from the Main Reservoir by sending a SMS, when they need rather; than depend on time tables decided by authorities as normally practiced.
Though the BWA was practiced successfully until 2015, the new generation of managers did not continue it beyond 2015.
Conclusion
The recent Cabinet decision to close down the MASL should prompt the MASL officers to reactivate the BWA approach again. Farmer Organisations at the distributary canal level responsible for managing canal networks covering about 400 Hectares can be registered as farmer cooperatives. For example, there are about 50 farmer cooperatives in a typical irrigation project such as Kalawewa. This transformation should be a gradual process which would take at least two years. I am sure the World Bank would definitely fund this project during the transition period because it is a continuation of the MRRP to address the restructuring component which was not attended by them in 2000 because of government policy at that time. System H could be used as a pilot demonstration area. Guidelines introduced under the MRRP could be used as tools to manage the main canal. World Bank funded Agribusiness Value Chain Support with CSIAP (Climate Smart Irrigated Agriculture Project) under the Ministry of Agriculture which is presently in progress could also provide necessary guidelines to initiate this project.
by Eng. Mahinda Panapitiya
Engineer who worked for Mahaweli Project since its inception
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