News
Sri Lanka notifies Indian rupee as designated currency
Sri Lanka has notified the Indian rupee as a designated currency, Indian External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday (July 20).
“In terms of trading in our national currencies, Sri Lanka has already notified India Rupee as designated foreign currency in their system,” Bachi said during a weekly media interaction in New Delhi.
Making Indian rupee (INR) as a designated foreign currency enables not only trade settlement between the two countries in INR but also Indian tourists coming to Sri Lanka can use INR for transactions.
Deepening financial and economic connection Bagchi said that the utilisation will depend on India’s private sector and people who engage in the trade sector.
“We would like to deepen this financial and economic connection. It will be premature to comment today on it, when the visit is tomorrow,” he added.
The comments came hours before Sri Lankan President landed in the capital New Delhi to kickstart his two-day visit to India.
Wickremesinghe in India
Wickremesinghe was invited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and is the first Sri Lankan leader to visit since the island nation was hit by an unprecedented economic crisis last year.
Notably, this is also the first time that the 74-year-old Sri Lankan leader is vising India since he assumed office in July 2022 after his predecessor, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled Sri Lanka amid massive public protests.
President Wickremesinghe is expected to visit his Indian counterpart Droupadi Murmu and discuss various issues of mutual interest with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Indian dignitaries, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a press release.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a press release noted, “Sri Lanka is an important partner in India’s Neighbourhood First Policy and Vision SAGAR. The visit will reinforce the longstanding friendship between the two countries and explore avenues for enhanced connectivity and mutually beneficial cooperation across sectors.”
India helping Sri Lanka
Meanwhile, Bagchi earlier in the day said that Wickremesinghe’s India visit is a major one as the country has important, multifaceted relations with the island nation.
“This is a very important visit, it is a neighbouring country with whom we have very important relationship, we have multifaceted relations,” he said.
Ever since Sri Lanka plunged into economic chaos, India has been helping the island country by providing aid, medicines and other essential items.
Last year, India gave aid worth almost $4 billion, including currency support, deferred payment of loans and lines of credit for emergency purchases of food, fuel and medicines, to Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka will now focus on grid connectivity between the two countries, port development and renewable energy projects, largely in the northern part of the island, when President Ranil Wickremesinghe visits India from July 21 for two days, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry told reporters on July 10. – WIO
An Australian woman has given birth to rare, naturally-conceived identical quadruplets after a pregnancy described as “extremely high risk” by the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
The four girls, who were delivered via caesarean section at 28 weeks and four days on 14 July, were monozygotic quadruplets – where a single fertilised egg splits into four embryos.
The hospital said the girls’ mother, 34-year-old Jenitar Na’amoana, and her husband Jortham, already had four children and were taken by “immense surprise” when told to expect quadruplets.
Dr Alexa Bendall, who cared for the mother from the start of her pregnancy, estimated identical quadruplets occur “at one in every 15 million pregnancies” and said “but to share the same placenta – this is unheard of”.
Bendall, who is a maternal foetal medicine specialist and obstetrician, said such a pregnancy was very high-risk, with the hospital admitting Na’amoana as an inpatient at 25 weeks so she could be monitored.
“We always said that if we could get her to 28 weeks, we would be doing well,” Bendall said.
“So the fact that we’ve got four beautiful, healthy babies born at 28 weeks and four days is incredible and we’re very happy to be a part of it,” she added.
“Jenitar has taken everything in her stride from day one… she has somehow dodged every complication and risk for both herself and her babies,” Bendall said.
The newborn girls have been named Emily, Harriet, Catherine, and also Alexa, after Alexa Bendall, who described it as “a beautiful tribute”.
The babies will stay in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit until they grow to full term and are “currently doing extremely well”, Bendall added.
The parents’ other children are between one and 10 years old and the mother has recently launched an online fundraising campaign to help buy a van with at least 10 seats.
In a message alongside the fundraiser, which has already received over A$37,000 (£19,261) in donations, Na’amoana wrote: “Our four precious miracles have arrived safely, and while our hearts are overflowing with gratitude, the reality of caring for four newborns at once has brought challenges we never could have imagined.”
Naturally conceived quadruplets are extremely rare, with doctors estimating the odds at about one in 700,000 births.
(BBC)
… bribe giver departs Colombo port
The Merchant Shipping Secretariat (MSS) is investigating a complaint received from the Captain of an Indonesian flagged vessel Sensho that he had to pay an official USD 5,000 bribe to facilitate what our sources called port state control inspection.
Sources said that the cement carrier arrived at the Colombo Port, on Friday, and departed after having passed the rigorous inspection. Responding to queries, sources said that after paying the bribe, the vessel’s Captain has lodged complaints with MSS and the Commission to Investigate Allegation of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC).
In spite of the government’s high profile anti-corruption drive there seemed to be fresh cases, sources said, adding that MSS had received a comprehensive complaint. The vessel had departed Colombo for Jeddah, sources said.
“The issue at hand is whether there have been unreported cases of MSS personnel receiving bribes,” sources said, acknowledging that the Captain, instead of immediately bringing the demand for USD 5,000 bribe to the MSS, had paid it and departed Colombo. (SF)
An opposition political group, styled as Dinana Dakuna, has accused the Committee of Public Finance (COPF) of protecting the masterminds behind the USD 2.5 mn theft from the Treasury.
Commenting on the recent COPF report on the theft, the group has alleged that the all-party parliamentary grouping made an attempt to shift the blame to the Central Bank as part of a cover-up. It has described the COPF report as a deliberate attempt to suppress the truth.
The group said that the COPF conveniently asserted that the theft took place due to the inexperience of officers concerned, thereby diverting the attention from those who perpetrated it.
An alleged attempt to portray the collapse of the administrative set-up that led to the USD 2.5 mn theft as a human resource problem, has also been questioned by Dinana Dakuna.
Rare identical quadruplets born in Australia
Showers will occur in the Western, Sabaragamuwa and North-western provinces and in Kandy, Nuwara-Eliya, Galle and Matara districts
Merchant Shipping Secretariat probes bribery scandal
Theft of USD 2.5 mn: Dinana Dakuna claims COPF trying to protect mastermind
COPF chief slams security sticker scam
CAA urged to protect soap users
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
Sunday Island 27 December – Headlines
#SundayIsland 17th December – Headlines
Sunday Island – 28th March
Sunday Island Headlines – 21 March
Sunday Island – 21st February – Headlines
-
Business2 days ago‘Giving up was never an option’: The fisherman who fought back after losing millions in SL
-
Features2 days agoTwo memorable excerpts from a former SLAF commander’s memoir
-
Latest News3 days agoDavis cup Asia/Oceania Group IV 2026 to be held in Colombo from 20th to 25th July
-
Features2 days agoErdoğan’s New Republic
-
Life style2 days agoTaste of the Swiss Alps comes to Colombo
-
Features6 days agoDirty Money
-
News3 days agoDengue outbreak gallops ahead: Infections surpasses 73,455, leaving 50 dead
-
News3 days agoEvidence recorded in money laundering case against Yoshitha Rajapaksa