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India, Sri Lanka going ahead with Modi-Ranil ‘vision document’
Santosh Jha stresses importance of Unique Digital Identity project
Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha has said that India is working with Sri Lanka to roll out the Unique Digital Identity (UDI) Project based on modular micro service based architecture aka MOSIP architecture. He has said they strongly believe that as in the case of India this UDI will be the beginning of digital magic for Sri Lanka.
Jha made the announcement at the inauguration of a conference at the Taj where experts explored the immense potential for Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for Sri Lanka. Among the invitees were President Ranil Wickremesinghe and senior government officials.
Jha said that the high profile project was in line with the India-Sri Lanka Vision Document, adopted by Indian Premier Narendra Modi and President Ranil Wickremesinghe, in New Delhi, in July 2023, where they agreed to leverage India’s DPI in accordance with Sri Lanka’s requirements and priorities towards effective and efficient delivery of citizen-centric services to the people of Sri Lanka.
The Indian High Commission quoted Jha as having told the conference that the value proposition of DPI is the combination of three components—technology, governance and markets—to achieve sustainable and robust digital transformation. “It is not about one-off technology solutions but about incorporating a wider theory of change that brings about digitisation across domains.
This is the very premise of the Conference.”
The conference consisted of three sessions and what the IHC called breakout meetings which explored the transformative potential of DPI for enabling service delivery, empowering communities by fostering inclusivity and enriching the economy by driving innovation.
Having underlined DPI as a vital enabler for the digitisation of the Sri Lankan economy, President Wickremesinghe emphasised the need for collaboration with India in this domain, highlighting the potential of fast-tracking growth by adapting India’s successful strategies domestically. India’s digital transformation and the significance of DPI and India Stack was elaborated upon by Jha and Dr. Pramod Varma, Co-Chair, Centre for Digital Public Infrastructure (CDPI) in his presentation during the opening plenary.
The other two sessions saw discussions amongst experts from India, Sri Lanka and the region, on the themes of Accelerating Digital Sri Lanka and Unlocking the Digital Stack, respectively. The former focused on roadmap for adoption of DPI in Sri Lanka and the resultant acceleration towards e-governance across the board, with the opening remarks by Kanaka Herath, State Minister of Technology. The latter went beyond foundational DPI to discuss use cases marrying technology, markets and governance with a special focus on the positive externalities in the startups domain. This session was opened by MP Dr. Harsha de Silva.The conference was particularly enriched with several breakout meetings between visiting experts from India and their Sri Lankan counterparts as well as other stakeholders. A key highlight of these was an interaction of the visiting senior officials from Government of India’s Ministries handling Digital India and Startup India programmes with Senior Officials who are leading the six Working Groups of Government of Sri Lanka on digital economy.
Futuristic linkages were also initiated in the startup and IT industries domain on the side-lines of the conference. In the afternoon Startup India’s team held a capacity building workshop for startups in Sri Lanka, including sessions by Indian experts on the art of pitching and effective marketing. The Chief of IIT Chennai’s Incubator ‘Parvartak’ interacted with key startup incubators in Sri Lanka. Chairman NASSCOM called on President of Sri Lanka.
Jha explained how DPI project changed India. Jha said: “India’s own journey stands as testimony to the power of DPI. The digital transformation in India over the last decade or so has been driven by these interoperable and open protocols of DPI. India’s DPI journey started with the basic need to provide direct access to public services and Government benefits to our citizens. This is 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. This digital infrastructure is interoperable and “stacked” together – meaning that 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.
Probably even the architects 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 the laissez-faire approach, more transparent and more innovative than some of the regulation-heavy models. “
Lanka Sathosa has reduced the price of the following food items with effect from today.
Accordingly the new retail price (per kilogram) of the items are
Peanuts Rs 995.00
Brown Sugar Rs 300.00
Potatoes (Imported) Rs 180.00
Red Cowpea Rs 765.00
Sprats Rs 940.00
Dried Chillies Rs 830.00
Basmathi Rice (Premier) Rs 645.00
Big Onions (Imported) Rs 230.00
Lentils Rs 288.00
White Sugar Rs 240.00
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This year’s budget will be presented with the aim of decentralizing the concentrated economy by involving every segment of the population – President
President Anura Kumara Disanayake stated that this year’s budget will be prepared with the objective of involving every segment of the population in the country’s economic processes.
The President expressed these views during a preliminary discussion held on Tuesday (21) at the Presidential Secretariat with officials from the Ministry of Finance regarding the formulation of the 2025 budget.
The discussion focused on the importance of establishing an efficient and productive economic system, emphasizing the necessity of strengthening public transportation and optimizing the utilization of decentralized funds allocated to Members of Parliament (MP).
The meeting explored government intervention and the steps needed to improve public transportation by providing essential facilities.
It was noted that in previous administrations, significant amounts of money were allocated to decentralized funds, but these funds were not directed toward productive projects. Attention was drawn to the need for allocating these resources toward national projects to ensure their effective utilization.
Discussions were also held on regulating the rice stocks held by producers and ensuring that loans provided to rice millers for purchasing paddy are repaid within a year.
The President emphasized the importance of extending the benefits of urban-centered economic activities to the grassroots level and actively involving them in the process, highlighting the need for an economic plan that ensures equitable distribution across all provinces.
He also pointed out deficiencies in the existing welfare distribution mechanisms, stressing the need to identify the genuinely deserving communities and expedite the delivery process to ensure timely support.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Economic Development, Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando; Secretary to the President Dr. Nandika Sanath Kumanayake; Secretary to the Ministry of Finance, . Mahinda Siriwardana; Senior Additional Secretary to the President, . Russell Aponsu; and Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, . A.K. Seneviratne, along with other officials.
“Don’t seek to capitalise on our achievements’
By Shamindra Ferdinando
Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader Udaya Gammanpila said that he was delighted that the National People’s Power (NPP) government had decided to go ahead with the Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm development project agreement inked during President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidency.
The former Energy Minister said so in response to The Island query regarding President Anura Kumara Dissanyake’s declaration at a public rally held at Katukurunda that 61 out of the 99 oil storage tanks would be jointly developed. The President sought credit for the project implying that his recent state visit to New Delhi facilitated it, former lawmaker Gammanpila said.
Declaring that the agreement on the Trincomalee oil tank farm had been signed on January 06, 2022, Attorney-at-Law Gammanpila emphasized that it was tabled in Parliament on Feb 08, 2022. The signatories to the agreement were Sri Lanka, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), Lanka IOC and the subsidiary company Trinco Petroleum Terminal Pvt. Ltd., of which CPC retained 51% and Lanka IOC 49%. President Dissanayake, who had been the leader of a three-member NPP ministerial delegation that made a state visit to India last month, couldn’t be unaware of the agreement that was approved by the Cabinet of Ministers on January 03, 2022, in the run-up to the eruption of public protest campaign demanding President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s ouster, the PHU leader said.
Having been severely critical of the then government’s plans, it would be unfair of the NPP leader ,who is also the leader of the JVP, to take credit for this strategically important Trinco project.
The ex-MP stressed that Lanka IOC is a subsidiary of Indian Oil Corporation which is under the ownership of that country’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
Alleging that the NPP has nothing to do with the Trinco project, the ex-Energy Minister said that in terms of the agreement that covered lower and upper sections of the oil tank farm – consisting of 99 tanks – 14 tanks were further leased to Lanka IOC, 24 tanks to the CPC and the rest to be jointly developed by India and Sri Lanka.
Of the 24 tanks allocated to CPC, five had been already renovated, the PHU chief said, adding that Sri Lanka and India first covered the Trinco oil tank farm in an agreement at the time of the Indo-Lanka Accord that was forced on President J.R. Jayewardene. Since then there had been a couple of agreements that dealt with the British built Trinco oil tank farm targeted by a Japanese naval task force during the Second World War. Of the 100-tank facility, only one was hit.
The PHU leader said that President Dissanayake also claimed credit for securing, what his media division dubbed, the single largest foreign direct investment worth USD 3.7 bn on a state-of-the-art oil refinery at Mirijjawila, Hambantota, whereas the actual agreement was finalized in Nov. 2023 during Ranil Wickremesinghe’s presidency. SLPP’s Kanchana Wijesekera served as the Energy Minister at that time.
The former Minister urged the NPP to accept the truth. Having repeatedly accusing the previous governments of selling national assets to India, the NPP now pursued the same policy, Gammanpila said, declaring the NPP took the electorate for a mega ride. The NPP had been badly exposed and humiliated in the eyes of the public who really believed their catchy and often touted vow to change the system.
The former Minister said that President Dissanayake’s state visits to New Delhi and Beijing advanced the agendas that had been previously agreed. “That is the truth the NPP is reluctant to accept. The NPP claims on Trinco oil tank farm and Mirijjiwila oil refinery proved beyond doubt that previously agreed projects were continuing,” ex-lawmaker Gammanpila said.
Contrary to routine criticism of the IMF, the NPP leadership faithfully followed the IMF agenda as agreed during the Wickremesinghe-Rajapaksa administration, the lawyer said, reminding the NPP conveniently refrained from opposing the Economic Transformation Bill that received parliamentary approval during Wickremesinghe’s presidency.
Gammanpila said that essentially the NPP’s overall policies were the same. There couldn’t be better examples than the continuation of the Trinco project inked before Aragalaya and the Mirijjawila project finalised a year after Aragalaya to highlight the NPP’s duplicity, he said.
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