News
Prez champions digital infrastructure for Lanka’s economic renaissance
By Harischandra Gunaratna
President Ranil Wickremesinghe recently delivering the keynote address at the Digital Public Infrastructure Conference organized by the Indian High Commission in Colombo at the Taj Samudra Hotel, underscored the importance of digital infrastructure in modernizing agriculture, addressing multi-dimensional poverty and reforming the education system.
Wickremesinghe characterized the country’s economy as a ‘patchwork economy’ calling it a symphony of desperate elements stitched together.
Acknowledging the importance of digitization, the President highlighted the significance of discussions on the digital public economy whilst outlining the government’s plans to establish a new institutional framework to facilitate this transition, moving away from the existing structures such as IT Councils and focusing on creating a Digital Transformation Agency and AI Centre, allocated with a budget of one billion rupees. He said the agency would be building a robust economy, departing from the previous approaches which failed to yield the desired results.
The President expressed gratitude to the Indian government for its support, in advancing Sri Lanka’s digital economy, highlighting plants to collaborate with Indian institutions and leverage their expertise, particularly establishing a campus of the Chennai Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) and additionally planning to launch three universities, two of which will focus on technology.
Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Santosh Jha in his welcome address said India’s own journey stands as testimony to the power of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI). The digital transformation in India over the last decade or so has been driven by these inter operable and open protocols of DPI.
The High Commissioner said that India’s DPI journey started with the basic need to provide direct access to public services and Government benefits to its citizen.
“This what gave birth to India’s Digital Identity Number AADHAAR- and the Unique Identification Authority of India in 2016. This became the foundational building block of DPI and the magic began.
At the heart of this magic is what we call India Stack: – government-backed APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, upon which third parties can build software with access to government IDs, payment networks and data Jha said.
This digital infrastructure in inter operable and “stacked together – meaning that private private companies can build apps integrated with state services to provide consumers with seamless access to everything from welfare payments to loan applications and making investments, the High Commissioner stressed.
“Probably even the architects of of AADHAAR didn’t envisage that India was on path to finding a world-beating solution for building out and regulating the online commons that is more equitable than laissez-fare approach, more transparent and more innovative than some of the regulation-heavy models.” he said.
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Iran has sought the Indian intervention, at the highest level, to provide lifesaving support to the crews of empty Iranian vessels stranded just outside Sri Lanka’s 12-nautical mile territorial waters off Galle.
Sources familiar with the issue said that Iran had brought the developing situation to the attention of New Delhi as the crews of almost 20 vessels, included Indian nationals. Sources stressed that the group of vessels that unloaded crude oil a couple of months back were now stranded within Sri Lanka’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
The US Navy torpedoed an unarmed Iran frigate, returning from India, on 04 March, 2026, about 19 nautical miles off the Galle coast. The unprovoked attack killed nearly 100 Iranians.
The Iranian Embassy in Colombo has inquired from the Indian High Commission of their response to the situation, sources said. The US has issued a global warning against providing food, water, medicine and other services to the Iranian vessels. The outcome of Iran-India talks on the issue at hand was not known, though sources asserted India may not throw its weight behind Iranian efforts to address the issue.
Responding to The Island queries, sources said both Sri Lanka and India were in a dilemma due to the US warning. India couldn’t ignore the plight of the Indian crew members and the Iranian vessels in its backyard.
The Sri Lankan government remains tight-lipped about the vessels stranded in its EEZ. Our efforts to elicit a response from relevant authorities were in vain. In addition to Indians, there are Bangladeshis among the crew members. Iran has explicitly stated the responsibilities of the countries concerned to provide assistance in terms of international law.
The Iranian position was articulated by its Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Dr.Alireza Delkhosh, recently. In a special statement, Ambassador Delkhosh emphasised that in terms of the Convention on the Law of the Sea (Article 98) as well as SOLAS and SAR
Conventions, Sri Lanka couldn’t refrain from providing the needs of the Iranian vessels stranded in its EEZ.
SLMC leader Rauff Hakeem lambasted the NPP government in Parliament for failing to provide assistance to the Iranian ships. The former Minister alleged that the government was simply carrying out dictates of the US. He strongly criticised the way Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath was handling the issue.
MP Namal Rajapaksa, who is in remand custody over the controversial Airbus deal, was further remanded until October 27 by the Colombo Magistrate’s Court yesterday (13).
Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama made the order after considering submissions by officers of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption and lawyers representing Rajapaksa.
Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to sustain its recovery over the next two years, although growth is projected to moderate amid mounting global uncertainties, according to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) latest World Economic Outlook.
In its World Economic Outlook 2026: Resilience Under Strain, Urgent Choices, the IMF projects Sri Lanka’s economy to expand by 4% in 2026, slowing to 3.7% in 2027, following estimated growth of 5% in 2025.
Inflation, meanwhile, is forecast to rise to 5.3% in 2026 and 5.4% in 2027, reversing the average deflation rate of 0.5% recorded in 2025.
Unemployment is expected to remain steady at 3.9% throughout the forecast period.
The projections come amid growing pressure on the global economy from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, elevated energy prices, geopolitical tensions and trade disruptions.
Sri Lanka’s external position is also expected to weaken, with the current account balance projected to shift from a surplus of 1.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2025 to deficits of 0.5% in 2026 and 0.3% in 2027.
The IMF’s outlook points to continued economic expansion in Sri Lanka, but with slower growth, rising inflation and a narrowing external surplus giving way to current account deficits over the forecast period.
Heavy showers above 100 mm are likely at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Central, and North-western provinces and in Anuradhapura district.
Sri Lanka, India caught in US-Iran ship crisis
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IMF projects Lankan economic growth to moderate amidst mounting global uncertainties
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