Features

An adventure at Vadamarachi and warm relations with Gamini Dissanayake

Published

4 months ago

2025/11/9

Gamini Dissanayake

In May 1987 an attack by the armed forces on the LTTE stronghold of Vadamarachi in Jaffna took place under the leadership of two of Sri Lanka’s best generals, General Denzil Kobbekaduwe and General Vijaya Wimalaratne. The overall Commander of the operation was the able General Cyril Ranatunge who was at the time Commander, Joint Operations Command, who personally coordinated operations. The operation was a great success and substantial areas under the LTTE including the island’s northernmost city of Point Pedro came under army control.

After the stabilization of the ground situation there, the government decided to send in a team of senior Secretaries in order to restore civilian administration and address the needs of the people. I was among those who were flown by air force planes to Palaly and then by helicopters to Point Pedro, where we were due to meet with a representative group of citizens including presidents of cooperative societies, former heads of local authorities, school principals and others. We were sent in early in the morning with instructions to start the meeting. Several Ministers, including Mr. Lalith Athulathmudali and Mr. Gamani Jayasuriya were to fly in later in the morning in order to participate.

When we arrived in Point Pedro, we saw the scars of battle on trees and buildings. Part of the school where the meeting was held, Hartley College, was also damaged. Some soldiers were bathing in the sea. Perhaps because the most critical issue was the stabilization of the food situation, I was appointed by my fellow Secretaries to chair the meeting. With their assistance we succeeded in making rapid progress and by the time the Ministers came there was nothing for them to decide. We merely briefed them, and they had a general dialogue with those assembled.

An unexpected adventure

After this was over General Ranatunge invited some of us for a drive in his Land Rover. Those invited included Ministers Athulathmudali and Jayasuriya, the Chief of Staff of the Navy and myself. The General himself took the wheel. We saw more damaged buildings and installations with burn and bullet marks, broken up roads and other signs of a fierce battle. All the time escort vehicles were following the General’s Land Rover including a battle tank!

General Ranatunge wanting to show us something in particular, turned into a side road and was soon more than half way down it, when he suddenly braked, stopped his vehicle and said “I am sorry. I took the wrong turn. This road has not yet been cleared!” In other words, there was the distinct possibility that there could be land mines on this road! We just looked at each other ruefully. Strangely enough, I was not in the least frightened. Just resigned.

I had inculcated in myself a lifetime’s discipline in trying not to worry about matters over which I had no control. We also noticed now that our back up vehicles including the battle tank had not followed us into this lane. They obviously knew that the road was not cleared. They would have been wondering with some trepidation as to why the General took this road. General Ranatunge now said “I will reverse carefully keeping to the path we have already taken.”

He dared not turn the vehicle around which would have meant touching so far untraversed areas. He started to reverse very slowly. Everyone was tense. There was no conversation. The road now seemed to us to be miles long. At last we emerged onto the main road. Someone made a wry comment and there was a burst of relieved laughter. The General was very apologetic. We all knew him well. As for me I had known him from the time I was lecturing on current affairs in the Army, when I was Assistant Secretary, Prime Minister’s office in the early 1960’s. He was lecturing on “Tactics” on the same course. We banteringly thanked him for the special thrill he had arranged for us.

Practicing Tamil

We were now on our way back. On the way, we were going to visit some schools where refugees were housed to look into their welfare before boarding helicopters back to Palaly. The road was deserted. Suddenly we spotted a man in a traditional white verti riding a bicycle. Mr. Athulathmudali who was at the time diligently studying Tamil said “Stop, stop” to the General, got out and faced a quite startled citizen who had hastily got off his bicycle. He wanted to have a dialogue with him in Tamil. After responding briefly to the Minister’s halting and perhaps incorrect Tamil, his interlocutor opened up in flawless Sinhala much to our amusement. Thus ended Mr. Athulathmudali’s preliminary attempt to practice his Tamil in Point Pedro.

We spent some time at the refugee camps taking decisions pertaining to the welfare of the people, and flew in thereafter to Palaly for a late lunch. There we met Generals Kobbekaduwe and Wimalaratne both of whom I knew quite well and viewed the large arsenal captured from the LTTE and laid out on the ground for us to see. It was quite an impressive haul. Further plans to capture other areas had to be aborted due mainly to Indian interference and the infamous “food drop” labelled more cynically as the “Parippu drop.”

All of us got back in the late evening to relieved households who were in the first instance unhappy about our going. Relief was deepened when we related our little adventure of the morning. If destiny had otherwise decided that day, there wouldn’t have been very much left of us.

Relations with Minister Gamini Dissanayake

My memoirs of my career in the public service would not be complete without a reference to my relations with senior Minister Hon. Gamini Dissanayake. The most interesting feature of this relationship was that we never worked together. We dealt with each other officially a few times on the phone when I was Secretary to the Prime Minister. In keeping with my strongly held values, I dealt with whatever matter he brought up fairly and impartially, as indeed I dealt with everyone else. At this time I would probably have met him briefly somewhere or other no more than once.

Yet, when the government changed, and I was sent off to the SLBC, he made a special visit just to see me and to inquire whether I was comfortable. A couple of months later he telephoned me at home and invited me to be his Secretary, in the new Ministry of Mahaweli Development. But I was appointed Secretary, Ministry of Food and Co-operatives instead. In the meantime his son Naveen came from another school and joined my son Navin in one of the Primary classes at Royal College, and they became friends.

One day, I had taken Navin to see a day’s play in a cricket test match with India played at the SSC grounds. Mr. Dissanayake was at the time, Chairman of the Board of Control for Cricket. There wasn’t much of a crowd, and we were seated in one of the rows fairly far down in the section where the Board President’s special box was situated. We were seated, and watching the match, after lunch, when my son, nudged me and said “Mr. Gamini Dissanayake is coming down.” When I looked, I saw Mr. Dissanayake dressed in his Immaculately white national dress, coming down the steps towards us. I did not imagine that lie was coming to speak to us. What I thought was that he had spotted a friend of his and was going to talk to him. But he came straight to where we were, and sat in the vacant seat next to my son.

“I saw you seated here,” he said. Then, after a brief conversation he said “What are you doing there by yourselves? Come and join me in the box.” I thanked him and tried to dissuade him saying that we were quite comfortable where we were. But he was not to be denied, and for the rest of the match, until the close of play we sat with him and another guest of his, Mr. Juan Antonio Samaranch, President of the International Olympic Federation in the President’s box. We were treated to an excellent tea, and above all, great personal kindness.

My only residual thought was, that had I known this, I would have dressed myself in a better shirt! Thereafter, I still did not have any occasion to meet him. The earlier meeting was purely by accident. One morning, Mr. Dissanayake phoned me at home. He said, “Dharmasiri, I may need your assistance in the Cricket Board. I need a sound administrator to handle one or two things. It is not urgent at the moment. But I thought I should keep you informed that I may need you.” I had quite enough on my plate, including serving on numerous Committees and Boards, and told him so.

I emphasized that as it is, I had quite a long day and many responsibilities, and doubted whether I had the time for anything more. To this, he said something most interesting, which I have with success quoted later to others, when I needed their assistance. “Dharmasiri,” he said. “I know that you are extremely busy, and that you have many responsibilities. That is why I am speaking to you. Whenever I require assistance, I never speak to people who are not busy. They are useless. I only ask people who are busy.” No further debate was possible. In the end, happily, from my point of view, my services were not required.

This was not all. There was the occasion of the centenary dinner of the well known ship chandling firm, Nagoor Meera & Sons. Normally, I don’t accept invitations from companies who do business with us. This is the difference in approach between the private sector and the public sector. The private sector regards these occasions as important ones, where you renew existing contacts, make new contacts and generally promote business. The public sector on the other hand have not only to conduct business impartially and transparently, but must be manifestly seen to do so.

Hobnobbing with Principals or Agents was not the way to proceed. This invitation, however, I accepted for two reasons. In the first instance, these were after all, centenary celebrations and I felt that an exception needed to be made. Secondly Mr. Hussein Mohamed, then, Deputy Mayor of the Colombo Municipality, whose family firm this was, came personally to see me with the invitation to the Food Ministry and appealed to me that I should attend. It would have been churlish to refuse.

The dinner arrangements were such that there was a long head table at which President Jayewardene, Senior Ministers and other distinguished persons were to sit. Then there were a number of round tables for the other guests. We were standing around and talking before dinner when through a break in the crowd Mr. Dissanayake spotted me and walked straight up to me. “Dharmasiri, we have not met for a long time,” he said. We were conversing when the dinner gong was sounded.

Mr. Dissanayake asked me “where are you seated?” I said, “At one of the round tables. But you will be at the head table, better go.” He said “No, I want to carry on with our conversation. I will sit with you.” I said, “For heaven’s sake, go to the head table. It will be very awkward if you sit elsewhere. You’ ll create a scene.” But he was adamant. All invitations and persuasions to go to the head table were politely declined. He said he wanted to talk to me. We did have an interesting and extended conversation on many matters that evening.

I shall conclude by recording one other episode. This was where both of us were returning to Colombo from London and found ourselves in a nearly deserted first class cabin of Air Lanka. Our seats were on two opposite sides, and we waved to each other. It was my intention to go across and speak to him once the flight took off. But to my embarrassment, he walked across to where I was seated, before take off. In the course of the conversation lie said, “Once we take off, let’s get to the middle seats and have a long chat.”, That’s what happened.

It turned out to be a five hour conversation. Mr. Dissanayake was returning from Cambridge University which he was visiting from time to time in connection with his Master’s thesis. We discussed his thesis; Cambridge; University systems; Buddhism. Philosophy; Economics; Politics; Literature; Shakespeare; Concepts of Cabinet and Presidential systems of government; Cricket; Culture and personal values. He was widely read. I discovered that he used to read daily into the wee hours of the morning. It was a treat to converse with him.

Both our memories sharpened under the stimulus, and quotations from numerous sources came readily to our tongues. In the end it was exhilarating as well as exhausting. We sat and had lunch together, all the while continuing with our conversation. There was not much concentration on the food. He was intelligent, articulate, clear thinking and possessed a vision for Sri Lanka of progress and modernization.

It was a very frank conversation with a minimum of narrative and an abundance of appraisal and critical comment. Towards the end of this conversation, he suddenly said, “Dharmasiri, why don’t you come into politics? The country needs people like you in politics.” I said, “No, I wouldn’t like to enter politics.” “But why?” he inquired. “If people of quality don’t enter, how does the country progress?”

I could see that he intended to seriously follow this topic further. I therefore said, “Please don’t misunderstand me. I have a fundamental problem with politics. Politics is about power. It is about ego. It is highly disruptive of personal values. I feel it is exceedingly difficult to handle power. Once you are in it, quite unnoticed by you, you begin entering the insidious paths of compromising values further and further in order to acquire, retain and enhance power and influence. Then you begin to rationalize away, initially dubious, and then manifestly wrong acts and deeds. I am not blaming anybody. But I feel that this is the nature of politics, and I know that I would feel happier in mind, if I kept out of it.”

Mr. Dissanayake said that he did not agree. “There’s no reason why you can’t keep your values, whilst doing politics,” he said. “It’s nobody’s fault, and somebody has to do it, but I feel that handling power is inherently destabilizing of character and values,” I said. This part of the debate ended on this note of our agreeing to disagree. I was privileged to have this conversation. It was to me one of the stranger and more mysterious things of life, that a Senior Minister, with whom I had never worked, or even met socially, other than by accident should build such a rapport with me and show me such consideration and even affection.

As a Buddhist who believe in Karma, the only explanation I can think of was that he and I must have been close relations in previous births. It was therefore with a heavy heart and great pain of mind that I eventually went to his home some years later to pay my last respects to someone although distant, was at the same time close to me, and who was so brutally assassinated at a political rally, thereby cutting short a life of great promise.

(Excerpted from In Pursuit of Governance, autobigraphy of MDD Pieris) ✍️

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Features

Building on Sand: The Indian market trap

Published

20 hours ago

2026/02/25

Sahan Weerasooriya

(Part III in a series on Sri Lanka’s tourism stagnation.)

Every SLTDA (Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority) press release now leads with the same headline: India is Sri Lanka’s “star market.” The numbers seem to prove it, 531,511 Indian arrivals in 2025, representing 22.5% of all tourists. Officials celebrate the “half-million milestone” and set targets for 600,000, 700,000, more.

But follow the money instead of the headcount, and a different picture emerges. We are building our tourism recovery on a low-spending, short-stay, operationally challenging segment, without any serious strategy to transform it into a high-value market. We have confused market size with market quality, and the confusion is costing us billions.

Per-day spending: While SLTDA does not publish market-specific daily expenditure data, industry operators and informal analyses consistently report Indian tourists in the $100-140 per day range, compared to $180-250 for Western European and North American markets.

The math is brutal and unavoidable: one Western European tourist generates the revenue of 3-4 Indian tourists. Building tourism recovery primarily on the low-yield segment is strategically incoherent, unless the goal is arrivals theater rather than economic contribution.

Comparative Analysis: How Competitors Handle Indian Outbound Tourism

India is not unique to Sri Lanka. Indian outbound tourism reached 30.23 million departures in 2024, an 8.4% year-on-year increase, driven by a growing middle class with disposable income. Every competitor destination is courting this market.

This is not diversification. It is concentration risk dressed up as growth.

How did we end up here? Through a combination of policy laziness, proximity bias, and refusal to confront yield trade-offs.

1. Proximity as Strategy Substitute

India is next door. Flights are short (1.5-3 hours), frequent, and cheap. This makes India the easiest market to attract, low promotional cost, high visibility, strong cultural and linguistic overlap. But easiest is not the same as best.

Tourism strategy should optimize for yield-adjusted effort. Yes, attracting Europeans requires longer promotional cycles, higher marketing spend, and sustained brand-building. But if each European generates 3x the revenue of an Indian tourist, the return on investment is self-evident.

We have chosen ease over effectiveness, proximity over profitability.

2. Visa Policy as Blunt Instrument

3. Failure to Develop High-Value Products for Indian Market

There are segments of Indian outbound tourism that spend heavily:

* Wedding tourism: Indian destination weddings can generate $50,000-200,000+ per event

* Wellness/Ayurveda tourism: High-net-worth Indians seek authentic wellness experiences and will pay premium rates

* MICE tourism: Corporate events, conferences, incentive travel

Sri Lanka has these assets—coastal venues for weddings, Ayurvedic heritage, colonial hotels suitable for corporate events. But we have not systematically developed and marketed these products to high-yield Indian segments.

For the first time in 2025, Sri Lanka conducted multi-city roadshows across India to promote wedding tourism. This is welcome—but it is 25 years late. The Maldives and Mauritius have been curating Indian wedding and MICE tourism for decades, building specialised infrastructure, training staff, and integrating these products into marketing.

We are entering a mature market with no track record, no specialised infrastructure, and no price positioning that signals premium quality.

4. Operational Challenges and Quality Perceptions

Indian tourists, particularly budget segments, present operational challenges:

* Shorter stays mean higher turnover, more check-ins, more logistical overhead per dollar of revenue

* Price sensitivity leads to aggressive bargaining, complaints over perceived overcharging

* Large groups (families, wedding parties) require specialised handling

None of these are insurmountable, but they require investment in training, systems, and service design. Sri Lanka has not made these investments systematically. The result: operators report higher operational costs per Indian guest while generating lower revenue, a toxic margin squeeze.

Additionally, Sri Lanka’s positioning as a “budget-friendly” destination reinforces price expectations. Indians comparing Sri Lanka to Thailand or Malaysia see Sri Lanka as cheaper, not better. We compete on price, not value, a race to the bottom.

The Strategic Error: Mistaking Market Size for Market Fit

India’s outbound tourism market is massive, 30 million+ and growing. But scale is not the same as fit.

Market size ≠ market value: The UAE attracts 7.5 million Indians, but as a high-yield segment (business, luxury shopping, upscale hospitality). Saudi Arabia attracts 3.3 million—but for religious pilgrimage with high per-capita spending and long stays.

Thailand attracts 1.8 million Indians as part of a diversified 35-million-tourist base. Indians represent 5% of Thailand’s mix. Sri Lanka has made Indians 22.5% of our mix, 4.5 times Thailand’s concentration, while generating a fraction of Thailand’s revenue.

This reveals the error. We have prioritised volume from a market segment without ensuring the segment aligns with our value proposition.

These needs are misaligned. Indians seek budget value; Sri Lanka needs yield. Indians want short trips; Sri Lanka needs extended stays. Indians are price-sensitive; Sri Lanka needs premium segments to fund infrastructure.

We have attracted a market that does not match our strategic needs—and then celebrated the mismatch as success.

The Way Forward: From Dependency to Diversification

Fixing the Indian market trap requires three shifts: curation, diversification, and premium positioning.

First

, segment the Indian market and target high-value niches explicitly:

* Wedding tourism: Develop specialised wedding venues, train planners, create integrated packages ($50k+ per event)

* Wellness tourism: Position Sri Lanka as authentic Ayurveda destination for high-net-worth health seekers

* MICE tourism: Target Indian corporate incentive travel and conferences

* Spiritual/religious tourism: Leverage Buddhist and Hindu heritage sites with premium positioning

Market these high-value niches aggressively. Let budget segments self-select out through pricing signals.

Second

, rebalance market mix toward high-yield segments:

* Increase marketing spend on Western Europe, North America, and East Asian premium segments

* Develop products (luxury eco-lodges, boutique heritage hotels, adventure tourism) that appeal to high-yield travelers

* Use visa policy strategically, maintain visa-free for premium markets, consider tiered visa fees or curated visa schemes for volume markets

Third

, stop benchmarking success by Indian arrival volumes. Track:

* Revenue per Indian visitor

* Indian market share of total revenue (not arrivals)

* Yield gap: Indian revenue vs. other major markets

If Indians are 22.5% of arrivals but only 15% of revenue, we have a problem. If the gap widens, we are deepening dependency on a low-yield segment.

Fourth

, invest in Indian market quality rather than quantity:

* Train staff on Indian high-end expectations (luxury service standards, dietary needs)

* Develop bilingual guides and materials (Hindi, Tamil)

* Build partnerships with premium Indian travel agents, not budget consolidators

We should aim to attract 300,000 Indians generating $1,500 per trip (through wedding, wellness, MICE targeting), not 700,000 generating $600 per trip. The former produces $450 million; the latter produces $420 million, while requiring more than twice the operational overhead and infrastructure load.

Fifth

, accept the hard truth: India cannot and should not be 30-40% of our market mix. The structural yield constraints make that model non-viable. Cap Indian arrivals at 15-20% of total mix and aggressively diversify into higher-yield markets.

This will require political courage, saying “no” to easy volume in favour of harder-won value. But that is what strategy means: choosing what not to do.

The Dependency Trap

Every market concentration creates path dependency. The more we optimize for Indian tourists, visa schemes, marketing, infrastructure, pricing, the harder it becomes to attract high-yield markets that expect different value propositions.

Hotels that compete on price for Indian segments cannot simultaneously position as luxury for European segments. Destinations known for “affordability” struggle to pivot to premium. Guides trained for high-turnover, short-stay groups do not develop the deep knowledge required for extended cultural tours.

We are locking in a low-yield equilibrium. Each incremental Indian arrival strengthens the positioning as a “budget-friendly” destination, which repels high-yield segments, which forces further volume-chasing in price-sensitive markets. The cycle reinforces itself.

Breaking the cycle requires accepting short-term pain—lower arrival numbers—for long-term gain—higher revenue, stronger positioning, sustainable margins.

The Hard Question

Is Sri Lanka willing to attract two million tourists generating $5 billion, or three million tourists generating $4 billion?

The current trajectory is toward the latter, more arrivals, less revenue, thinner margins, greater fragility. We are optimizing for metrics that impress press releases but erode economic contribution.

The Indian market is not the problem. The problem is building tourism recovery primarily on a low-yield segment without strategies to either transform that segment to high-yield or balance it with high-yield markets.

We are building on sand. The foundation will not hold.

(The writer, a senior Chartered Accountant and professional banker, is Professor at SLIIT, Malabe. The views and opinions expressed in this article are personal.)

Features

Digital transformation in the Global South

Published

2 days ago

2026/02/24

Sahan Weerasooriya

AI Summit, India

Understanding Sri Lanka through the India AI Impact Summit 2026

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has rapidly moved from being a specialised technological field into a major social force that shapes economies, cultures, governance, and everyday human life. The India AI Impact Summit 2026, held in New Delhi, symbolised a significant moment for the Global South, especially South Asia, because it demonstrated that artificial intelligence is no longer limited to advanced Western economies but can also become a development tool for emerging societies. The summit gathered governments, researchers, technology companies, and international organisations to discuss how AI can support social welfare, public services, and economic growth. Its central message was that artificial intelligence should be human centred and socially useful. Instead of focusing only on powerful computing systems, the summit emphasised affordable technologies, open collaboration, and ethical responsibility so that ordinary citizens can benefit from digital transformation. For South Asia, where large populations live in rural areas and resources are unevenly distributed, this idea is particularly important.

People friendly AI

One of the most important concepts promoted at the summit was the idea of “people friendly AI.” This means that artificial intelligence should be accessible, understandable, and helpful in daily activities. In South Asia, language diversity and economic inequality often prevent people from using advanced technology. Therefore, systems designed for local languages, and smartphones, play a crucial role. When a farmer can speak to a digital assistant in Sinhala, Tamil, or Hindi and receive advice about weather patterns or crop diseases, technology becomes practical rather than distant. Similarly, voice based interfaces allow elderly people and individuals with limited literacy to use digital services. Affordable mobile based AI tools reduce the digital divide between urban and rural populations. As a result, artificial intelligence stops being an elite instrument and becomes a social assistant that supports ordinary life.

Transformation in education sector

The influence of this transformation is visible in education. AI based learning platforms can analyse student performance and provide personalised lessons. Instead of all students following the same pace, weaker learners receive additional practice while advanced learners explore deeper material. Teachers are able to focus on mentoring and explanation rather than repetitive instruction. In many South Asian societies, including Sri Lanka, education has long depended on memorisation and private tuition classes. AI tutoring systems could reduce educational inequality by giving rural students access to learning resources, similar to those available in cities. A student who struggles with mathematics, for example, can practice step by step exercises automatically generated according to individual mistakes. This reduces pressure, improves confidence, and gradually changes the educational culture from rote learning toward understanding and problem solving.

Healthcare is another area where AI is becoming people friendly. Many rural communities face shortages of doctors and medical facilities. AI-assisted diagnostic tools can analyse symptoms, or medical images, and provide early warnings about diseases. Patients can receive preliminary advice through mobile applications, which helps them decide whether hospital visits are necessary. This reduces overcrowding in hospitals and saves travel costs. Public health authorities can also analyse large datasets to monitor disease outbreaks and allocate resources efficiently. In this way, artificial intelligence supports not only individual patients but also the entire health system.

Agriculture, which remains a primary livelihood for millions in South Asia, is also undergoing transformation. Farmers traditionally rely on seasonal experience, but climate change has made weather patterns unpredictable. AI systems that analyse rainfall data, soil conditions, and satellite images can predict crop performance and recommend irrigation schedules. Early detection of plant diseases prevents large-scale crop losses. For a small farmer, accurate information can mean the difference between profit and debt. Thus, AI directly influences economic stability at the household level.

Employment and communication reshaped

Artificial intelligence is also reshaping employment and communication. Routine clerical and repetitive tasks are increasingly automated, while demand grows for digital skills, such as data management, programming, and online services. Many young people in South Asia are beginning to participate in remote work, freelancing, and digital entrepreneurship. AI translation tools allow communication across languages, enabling businesses to reach international customers. Knowledge becomes more accessible because information can be summarised, translated, and explained instantly. This leads to a broader sociological shift: authority moves from tradition and hierarchy toward information and analytical reasoning. Individuals rely more on data when making decisions about education, finance, and career planning.

Impact on Sri Lanka

The impact on Sri Lanka is especially significant because the country shares many social and economic conditions with India and often adopts regional technological innovations. Sri Lanka has already begun integrating artificial intelligence into education, agriculture, and public administration. In schools and universities, AI learning tools may reduce the heavy dependence on private tuition and help students in rural districts receive equal academic support. In agriculture, predictive analytics can help farmers manage climate variability, improving productivity and food security. In public administration, digital systems can speed up document processing, licensing, and public service delivery. Smart transportation systems may reduce congestion in urban areas, saving time and fuel.

Economic opportunities are also expanding. Sri Lanka’s service based economy and IT outsourcing sector can benefit from increased global demand for digital skills. AI-assisted software development, data annotation, and online service platforms can create new employment pathways, especially for educated youth. Small and medium entrepreneurs can use AI tools to design products, manage finances, and market services internationally at low cost. In tourism, personalised digital assistants and recommendation systems can improve visitor experiences and help small businesses connect with travellers directly.

Digital inequality

However, the integration of artificial intelligence also raises serious concerns. Digital inequality may widen if only educated urban populations gain access to technological skills. Some routine jobs may disappear, requiring workers to retrain. There are also risks of misinformation, surveillance, and misuse of personal data. Ethical regulation and transparency are, therefore, essential. Governments must develop policies that protect privacy, ensure accountability, and encourage responsible innovation. Public awareness and digital literacy programmes are necessary so that citizens understand both the benefits and limitations of AI systems.

Beyond economics and services, AI is gradually influencing social relationships and cultural patterns. South Asian societies have traditionally relied on hierarchy and personal authority, but data-driven decision making changes this structure. Agricultural planning may depend on predictive models rather than ancestral practice, and educational evaluation may rely on learning analytics instead of examination rankings alone. This does not eliminate human judgment, but it alters its basis. Societies increasingly value analytical thinking, creativity, and adaptability. Educational systems must, therefore, move beyond memorisation toward critical thinking and interdisciplinary learning.

AI contribution to national development

In Sri Lanka, these changes may contribute to national development if implemented carefully. AI-supported financial monitoring can improve transparency and reduce corruption. Smart infrastructure systems can help manage transportation and urban planning. Communication technologies can support interaction among Sinhala, Tamil, and English speakers, promoting social inclusion in a multilingual society. Assistive technologies can improve accessibility for persons with disabilities, enabling broader participation in education and employment. These developments show that artificial intelligence is not merely a technological innovation but a social instrument capable of strengthening equality when guided by ethical policy.

Symbolic shift

Ultimately, the India AI Impact Summit 2026 represents a symbolic shift in the global technological landscape. It indicates that developing nations are beginning to shape the future of artificial intelligence according to their own social needs rather than passively importing technology. For South Asia and Sri Lanka, the challenge is not whether AI will arrive but how it will be used. If education systems prepare citizens, if governments establish responsible regulations, and if access remains inclusive, AI can become a partner in development rather than a source of inequality. The future will likely involve close collaboration between humans and intelligent systems, where machines assist decision making while human values guide outcomes. In this sense, artificial intelligence does not replace human society, but transforms it, offering Sri Lanka an opportunity to build a more knowledge based, efficient, and equitable social order in the decades ahead.

by Milinda Mayadunna

Features

Governance cannot be a postscript to economics

Published

2 days ago

2026/02/24

Sahan Weerasooriya

Kristalina-Georgieva

The visit by IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva to Sri Lanka was widely described as a success for the government. She was fulsome in her praise of the country and its developmental potential. The grounds for this success and collaborative spirit go back to the inception of the agreement signed in March 2023 in the aftermath of Sri Lanka’s declaration of international bankruptcy. The IMF came in to fulfil its role as lender of last resort. The government of the day bit the bullet. It imposed unpopular policies on the people, most notably significant tax increases. At a moment when the country had run out of foreign exchange, defaulted on its debt, and faced shortages of fuel, medicine and food, the IMF programme restored a measure of confidence both within the country and internationally.

Since 1965 Sri Lanka has entered into agreements with the IMF on 16 occasions none of which were taken to their full term. The present agreement is the 17^th agreement . IMF agreements have traditionally been focused on economic restructuring. Invariably the terms of agreement have been harsh on the people, with priority being given to ensure the debtor country pays its loans back to the IMF. Fiscal consolidation, tax increases, subsidy reductions and structural reforms have been the recurring features. The social and political costs have often been high. Governments have lost popularity and sometimes fallen before programmes were completed. The IMF has learned from experience across the world that macroeconomic reform without social protection can generate backlash, instability and policy reversals.

The experience of countries such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal in dealing with the IMF during the eurozone crisis demonstrated the political and social costs of austerity, even though those economies later stabilised and returned to growth. The evolution of IMF policies has ensured that there are two special features in the present agreement. The first is that the IMF has included a safety net of social welfare spending to mitigate the impact of the austerity measures on the poorest sections of the population. No country can hope to grow at 7 or 8 percent per annum when a third of its people are struggling to survive. Poverty alleviation measures in the Aswesuma programme, developed with the agreement of the IMF, are key to mitigating the worst impacts of the rising cost of living and limited opportunities for employment.

Governance Included

The second important feature of the IMF agreement is the inclusion of governance criteria to be implemented alongside the economic reforms. It goes to the heart of why Sri Lanka has had to return to the IMF repeatedly. Economic mismanagement did not take place in a vacuum. It was enabled by weak institutions, politicised decision making, non-transparent procurement, and the erosion of checks and balances. In its economic reform process, the IMF has included an assessment of governance related issues to accompany the economic restructuring process. At the top of this list is tackling the problem of corruption by means of publicising contracts, ensuring open solicitation of tenders, and strengthening financial accountability mechanisms.

The IMF also encouraged a civil society diagnostic study and engaged with civil society organisations regularly. The civil society analysis of governance issues which was promoted by Verite Research and facilitated by Transparency International was wider in scope than those identified in the IMF’s own diagnostic. It pointed to systemic weaknesses that go beyond narrow fiscal concerns. The civil society diagnostic study included issues of social justice such as the inequitable impact of targeting EPF and ETF funds of workers for restructuring and the need to repeal abuse prone laws such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Online Safety Act. When workers see their retirement savings restructured without adequate consultation, confidence in policy making erodes. When laws are perceived to be instruments of arbitrary power, social cohesion weakens.

During a meeting between the IMF Managing Director Georgeiva and civil society members last week, there was discussion on the implementation of those governance measures in which she spoke in a manner that was not alien to the civil society representatives. Significantly, the civil society diagnostic report also referred to the ethnic conflict and the breakdown of interethnic relations that led to three decades of deadly war, causing severe economic losses to the country. This was also discussed at the meeting. Governance is not only about accounting standards and procurement rules. It is about social justice, equality before the law, and political representation. On this issue the government has more to do. Ethnic and religious minorities find themselves inadequately represented in high level government committees. The provincial council system that ensured ethnic and minority representation at the provincial level continues to be in abeyance.

Beyond IMF

The significance of addressing governance issues is not only relevant to the IMF agreement. It is also important in accessing tariff concessions from the European Union. The GSP Plus tariff concession given by the EU enables Sri Lankan exports to be sold at lower prices and win markets in Europe. For an export dependent economy, this is critical. Loss of such concessions would directly affect employment in key sectors such as apparel. The government needs to address longstanding EU concerns about the protection of human rights and labour rights in the country. The EU has, for several years, linked the continuation of GSP Plus to compliance with international conventions. This includes the condition that the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) be brought into line with international standards. The government’s alternative in the form of the draft Protection of the State from Terrorism Act (PTSA) is less abusive on paper but is wider in scope and retains the core features of the PTA.

Governance and social justice factors cannot be ignored or downplayed in the pursuit of economic development. If Sri Lanka is to break out of its cycle of crisis and bailout, it must internalise the fact that good governance which promotes social justice and more fairly distributes the costs and fruits of development is the foundation on which durable economic growth is built. Without it, stabilisation will remain fragile, poverty will remain high, and the promise of 7 to 8 percent growth will remain elusive. The implementation of governance reforms will also have a positive effect through the creative mechanism of governance linked bonds, an innovation of the present IMF agreement.

The Sri Lankan think tank Verité Research played an important role in the development of governance linked bonds. They reduce the rate of interest payable by the government on outstanding debt on the basis that better governance leads to a reduction in risk for those who have lent their money to Sri Lanka. This is a direct financial reward for governance reform. The present IMF programme offers an opportunity not only to stabilise the economy but to strengthen the institutions that underpin it. That opportunity needs to be taken. Without it, the country cannot attract investment, expand exports and move towards shared prosperity and to a 7-8 percent growth rate that can lift the country out of its debt trap.

by Jehan Perera