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Serving as MR’s Deputy Finance Minister and the travel the job entailed

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Addressing an IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington

The two week delay in declaring the results of the Kandy district elections upset all the plans of MR to reconstitute his Cabinet. I was aware that he had reserved the slot of Education Minister for me particularly at the urging of his secretary Lalith Weeratunga, Sunimal Fernando and PB Jayasundera. MR phoned me to ask when the rescheduled mini election in Kandy would be held. But due to delays he had to go ahead and appoint his Cabinet with Bandula Gunawardena as the Minister of Education.

Sunimal Fernando told me that he had remonstrated with MR to no avail. By the time I came to Colombo the new Cabinet had already been installed and I was asked to function from the Ministry of Finance as MR’s deputy. He was too embarrassed to tell me of this suggestion himself and had deputed PB Jayasundera to convince me. PB told me that he was facing a difficulty as he had no one to handle international monetary affairs as the President could not undertake that task which involved a lot of foreign travel. I agreed and went back to the Treasury but not for too long.

Very soon the President effected another reshuffle of his Cabinet with the objective of introducing a new concept of “Senior Ministers” at the urging of PB Jayasundera. Several ministers who were senior in age and tenure in Parliament were appointed senior ministers in respect of a clutch of subjects which they were expected to oversee. Leading this group was Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, the former Prime Minister and included the leaders of the left parties – DEW Gunasekera, Tissa Vitarane and Athauda Seneviratne. I was appointed the Senior Minister (of International Monetary Cooperation).

Many of the seniors led by Ratnasiri were not happy with this arrangement as they had no departments under them. But I was the exception in that I continued to function with the Treasury within the offices of the Ministry of Finance. When the Attorney General was tasked to look into the grievances of the senior minsters regarding the powers wielded by them I told him that I had no difficulty with that arrangement. MR telephoned to thank me for my observations and added, ominously, that these ad hoc arrangements will alienate his powerful ministers from him for which he will have to pay a heavy price some day. But he rarely went against the advice of his officials even though his political instincts told him otherwise.

International Monetary Cooperation

As Senior Minister I continued the work I had begun as the Minister of Finance in 2004-2005 with almost the same staff members working under the stewardship of PB Jayasundera. By now PB had become an indispensable cog in the Rajapaksa machine and his word was law in the Finance Ministry and the Central Bank. President Rajapaksa would swear by him. The Governor of the Central Bank was Nivard Cabraal who too was a close confidant of MR. They kept him well informed of the activities in the financial sector.

In turn MR and Gotabaya were grateful that all the demands of the armed services were funded without demur during the Northern war due to the skill and commitment of the officials in the Treasury. The activities of the Tamil diaspora which was carrying on a hostile campaign spilled over to our negotiations with the IMF and World Bank. Their lobbyists were constantly calling for the curtailing of economic assistance to Sri Lanka. Canada was particularly problematic. It had been one of our major partners in development assistance during the Sirimavo and JRJ years. But due to diaspora lobbyists and our inefficient Foreign Service this aid had been reduced to a trickle even at a time when Canada was stepping up its funding for Third World countries.

Since I had studied in a Canadian University I was a regular invitee for social events organized by the Canadian High Commission here. So I could sense the embarrassment of their representatives when they had to follow the obviously biased “line” which was embodied in their instructions from home. The close links we had with CIDA (Canadian International Development Association) and the Canadian “think tanks” had been snapped. There were similar signals from the Scandinavian countries which were our strong development partners in the days gone by.

At a meeting with the head of China Import and Export Bank

As Senior Minister I resumed my role which began in 2004 as chief interlocutor with the global financial institutions. This meant that I had a busy travel schedule to facilitate my interactions with the multilateral organizations like IMF, World Bank and ADB. In addition I undertook visits to promote bilateral assistance. These were mostly to donor countries like India, China, Japan, UK and USA. In all these countries we established good relations with the leaders and staff of Central Banks and Export-Import banks [Exim banks] which dealt with the details of financial assistance.

In addition I had to accompany the President or Prime Minister on his state visits since many of the bilateral issues discussed pertained to economic affairs. I can recall such visits to China [Beijing, Shanghai, Guandong] South Korea [Seoul], Russia [St. Petersburg] and Japan [Tokyo]. These state tours involved much more ceremonial than our matter of fact discussions with foreign financial authorities during my bilateral working visits. Then the only other Sri Lankan participants were drawn from our missions in those host countries.

They were officers who had handled economic subjects on our behalf. One of our sad discoveries was that many of our Ambassadors did not get personally involved in these matters and preferred to delegate such tasks to a senior officer in his office. In time the quality of such supporting staff declined and we had to bear the brunt of even the “donkey work” which is usually delegated to the embassy. To make matters worse senior positions in the embassies had been mostly assigned to political appointees who were not competent to help us.

However since we had our own officials and Central Bank officers in our delegation we could get by even though we had to burn midnight oil. Many were the major development projects that we had successfully negotiated. Now when I drive past some of those land mark infrastructure projects I recall how a few of us sat across a table in a distant land to begin the discussion on the manner of funding that project as a first step in getting it off the ground.

St. Petersburg

One of the most interesting of these state visits with MR was to St. Petersburg, cradle of the Russian revolution which was later renamed Leningrad by the Soviet regime. This was the capital of the Romanov Czars and their aristocratic coterie before the Russian revolution of 1917. The rulers occupied the Winter Palace which was stormed by the revolutionary workers led by the Bolsheviks with Lenin as their leader. Lenin had arrived in a sealed train arranged for him by the Germans who thought that he would help in destabilizing their enemy – Czar Nicholas who was waging a war against them.

Lenin arrived at the Finland station in Petersburg and making use of the abysmal living conditions of the workers, peasants and the ill equipped Russian army and navy, raised the “banner of revolt “which led to the fall of the monarchy and the elimination of the Romanovs. It was a model of the politicization of violence which historians attribute to Leon Trotsky’s establishment of the Red Army and its conquest of the distant territories and their integration with the new state of “Socialist Soviets”. Today the Winter Palace by the river Neva is a museum and we were lucky to be given a guided tour of it by the museum director. We also visited the Hermitage to view a fabulous collection of impressionist art which could only be rivaled by the paintings exhibited in the Orangerie in Paris. The military and artistic elite under the Czars looked to France as a beacon of modern art and culture. Indeed many of them spoke French as their second language as testified by the large number of Russian exiles in Paris. They tended to congregate in Paris 15 which is full of Orthodox churches, cafes, clubs, art houses and restaurants serving Russian cuisine so beloved of the emigre “White Russians”.

My secretary in UNESCO Paris, Nadia came from an emigre Russian family and she directed me to their best eateries and cultural events in Paris 15. The heyday of Russian ballet was in Petersburg from which emerged Diaghalev the manager of the Ballet Russe and his temperamental protege the dancer Nijinsky. In the St. Petersburg harbour we could see the “Aurora” the legendary ship of the sailors who refused to fire on the workers led by Lenin and instead trained their guns on the Czarists.

The harbour and the city figures also in one of the most harrowing, as well as heroic, events in the history of Russia namely the siege of Petersburg [or then Leningrad] by the Nazi army. This ruthless blockade deprived the citizens of basic amenities including food. Finally they were forced to survive on two slices of bread a day. There is a monument to commemorate this event in which the centre piece is a glass case showing two slices of bread. We went there in the bitter cold but could not but be moved by the sacrifices and heroism of the Soviet people and the Communist party.

The harbour in Petersburg was the main sea port of the Russians of that time. Even today it is an important opening to western Europe and the Scandinavian countries with Finland as its closest neighbour. The earliest tea traders in Russia imported Ceylon tea through this harbour. The major importer of tea in Petersburg whose company distributed it to the rest of Russia from the time of the Czars, had his office in the city. He entertained our Presidential team at a magnificent lunch in the top ranking old hotel in the capital.

It was a grand example of the old times when fabulous meals were served to the elite with no expenses spared. The building was in baroque style and the interior decor had all the opulence of Czarist times. But while the lunch was going on there was a conspiracy being hatched by the Presidents PA and confidante Sajin Vas Gunawardene with the cautious support of Nivard Cabraal against our Ambassador to Russia and President’s cousin Udayanga Weeratunga – all unknown to MR.

Beijing

In addition to state visits with the President, I had to undertake several visits to Beijing to expedite the release of funds for Chinese supported projects in Sri Lanka. Though the general impression is that China forced us to take loans the truth is far from that. The Chinese Import and Export Bank which oversaw the funding was always cautioning the local counterparts to undertake detailed feasibility studies before projects were submitted to them. While the local sponsors were calling for quick action the Exim Bank usually held back till they finished their own investigations.

Another problem was that our initial estimates were understated to make for easy acceptance by our authorities. Half way through the implementation of the project, cost estimates had to be revised and the amount of the loan revised upwards. This entailed delays and interruption of work. The politicians who pressed for those projects then complained of delays and urged the Finance Ministry to expedite their negotiations with the Chinese Bank. MR was always urging PB Jayasundera to expedite the funding of his projects. PB in turn would call for quickening the release of funds. This often took me to Beijing because due to protocol the Bank would give a Ministerial delegation preference.

We were lucky to have the late Kirthi Amunugama as our Ambassador in Beijing at that time. He was always knocking at the door of the Bank’s Chairman to accommodate us. This system worked well and it took me on several visits to Beijing to claim preference in meeting Chinese authorities. Hotel Beijing was our port of call and we were well known to the staff including the barbers who had been in the business from the early days of the revolution and boasted of cutting the hair of leaders like Chou En Lai and Deng Hsiao Ping.

Beijing outside the official circuit is quite different and offers many rare experiences. One is a drive round the new ring road with a view of the newly developed areas leading to the Olympic village with its famous “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium and large assembly halls. Another view is of the new buildings erected for the Beijing Olympics. I was invited for the Beijing Olympics together with DM Jayaratne, the then Prime Minister. It was an architectural wonder in addition to being an event which was enacted with pin point precision.

Earlier global media had cast doubt on China’s ability to mount such a major event. But all that was dispelled from the spectacular opening to the ceremonial ending. A large number of iconic buildings were erected and after the Olympics they were used for state business. One such meeting in a spectacular new conference complex was held to launch the “Belt and Road initiative” by Xi Jinping. I attended it with Ranil who was then Prime Minister.

There we had a meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi who was the leader of the Myanmar delegation. While chatting I asked her about my Trinity schoolmate Micheal Aung who with his brother, both Christians, were sent by their father to study in Kandy. She only remembered that they had been in the Burmese administration many years ago. I also told her about the “Burmese Rest” in Trincomalee street close to Trinity which hosted Burmese pilgrims who had come to worship at the Temple of the Tooth. She was an amiable lady with a slight British accent, who had been thrust into Burmese politics in order to safeguard the heritage of her father Aung San, a national hero who had been murdered by reactionary elements.

(This volume is available at the Vijitha Yapa Bookshop)

(Excerpted from volume 3 of the Sarath Amunugama autobiography)

 



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Citizenship, Devolution, Land and Language: The Vicarious Legacies of SJV Chelvanayakam

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From left GG Ponnambalam, SJV Chelvanayakam and M. Tiruchelvam

SJV Chelvanayakam, the founder leader of the Ilankai Thamil Arasu Kadchi, aka Ceylon Tamil Federal Party, passed away 49 years ago on 26 April 1977. There were events in Sri Lanka and other parts of the world where Tamils live, to commemorate his memory and his contributions to Tamil society and politics. His legacy is most remembered for his espousal of the cause of federalism and his commitment to pursuing it solely through non-violent politics. Chelvanayakam’s political life spanned a full 30 years from his first election as MP for Kankesanthurai in 1947 until his death in 1977.

Under the rubric of federalism, Chelvanayakam formulated what he called the four basic demands of the Tamil speaking people, a political appellation he coined to encompass – the Sri Lankan Tamils, Sri Lankan Muslims and the hill country Tamils (Malaiyaka Tamils). The four demands included the restoration of the citizenship rights of the hill country Tamils; cessation of state sponsored land colonisation in the North and East; parity of status for the Sinhala and Tamil languages; and a system of regional autonomy to devolve power to the northern and eastern provinces.

High-minded Politics

Although the four basic demands that Chelvanayakam articulated were not directly delivered upon during his lifetime, they became part of the country’s political discourse and dynamic to such an extent that they had to be dealt with, one way or another, even after his death. So, we can call these posthumous developments as Chelvanayakam’s vicarious legacies. There is more to his legacy. He belonged to a category of Sri Lankans, Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims, who took to politics, public life, public service, and even private business with a measure of high-mindedness that was almost temperamental and not at all contrived. Chelvanayakam personified high-minded politics. But he was not the only one. There were quite a few others in the 20th century. There have not been many since.

Born on 31 March 1898, Chelvanayakam was 49 years old when he entered parliament. He was not an upstart school dropout dashing into politics or coming straight out of the university, or even a hereditary claimant, but a self-made man, an accomplished lawyer, a King’s Counsel, later Queen’s Counsel, and was widely regarded as one of the finest civil lawyers of his generation. He was a serious man who took to politics seriously. Howard Wriggins, in his classic 1960 book, “Ceylon: Dilemmas of a New Nation”, called Chelvanayakam “the earnest Christian lawyer.”

Chelvanayakam’s professional standing, calm demeanour, his personal qualities of sincerity and honesty, and his friendships with men of the calibre of Sir Edward Jayatilleke KC (Chief Justice, 1950-52), H.V. Perera QC, P. Navaratnarajah, QC, and K.C. Thangarajah, were integral to his politics. The four of them were also mutual friends of Prime Minister SWRD Bandaranaike and they played a part in the celebrated consociational achievement in 1957, called the B-C Pact.

Chelvanayakam effortlessly combined elite consociationalism with grass roots politics and mass movements. He led the Federal Party both as a democratic organization and an open movement. Chelvanayakam and the Federal Party used parliament as their forum to present their case, the courts to fight for their rights, and took to organizing non-violent protests, political pilgrimages and satyagraha campaigns. He was imprisoned in Batticaloa, detained in Panagoda, and was placed under house arrest several times. His Alfred House Gardens neighbours in Colombo used to wonder why the government and the police were after him, of all people, and why wouldn’t they do something about his four boisterous, but studious, sons!

He was a rare politician who filed his own election petition when he was defeated in the 1952 election, his first as the leader of the Federal Party, and was rewarded with punitive damages by an exacting judge. He had to borrow money from Sir Edward Jayatilleke to pay damages. The common practice for losing candidates was to file vexatious petitions in the name of one of their supporters with no asset to pay legal costs. Chelvanayakam was too much of a principled man for that. As a matter of a different principle, the two old Left parties never challenged election losses in court, but Dr. Colvin R de Silva singled out Chelvanayakam’s uniqueness for praise in parliament, in the course of a debate on amendments to the country’s election laws in 1968.

Disenfranchisement & Disintegration

Although he became an MP in 1947, Chelvanayakam had been associated with GG Ponnambalam and the Tamil Congress Party for a number of years. GG was the flamboyant frontliner, SJV the quiet mainstay behind. Tamil politics at that time was all about representation. In fact, all politics in Sri Lanka has been all about representation all the time. It started when British colonial rulers began nominating local (Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim) representatives to quasi legislative bodies, and it became a contentious political matter after the introduction of universal franchise in 1931.

Communal representation was conveniently made to look ugly by those who themselves were politically communal. Indeed, under colonial rule, if not later too, Sri Lankans were a schizophrenic society where most Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims were socially friendly, but politically communal. The underlying premise to the fight over representation was that British colonialists were not leaving in a hurry and they were there to stay and rule for a long time. Hence the jostling for positions under a foreign master. It was in this context that Ponnambalam made his celebrated 50-50 pitch for balanced representation between the Sinhalese, on the one hand, and all the others – Tamils, Muslims, Indian Tamils – combined on the other. It was a perfectly rational proposition, but it was also perfectly poor politics.

But independence came far sooner than expected. The Soulbury Constitution was set up not for a continuing colonial state, but as the constitution for an independent new Ceylon. So, the argument for balanced representation became irrelevant in the new circumstances. The new Soulbury Constitution was enacted in 1945, general elections were held in 1947, a new parliament was elected, and Ceylon became independent in 1948. SJV Chelvanayakam was among the seven Tamil Congress MPs elected to the first parliament led by GG Ponnambalam.

The Tamil Congress campaigned in the 1947 election against accepting the Soulbury Constitution and for a vaguely formulated mandate “to cooperate with any progressive Sinhalese party which would grant the Tamil their due rights.” But what these rights are was not specified. In a Feb. 5, 1946 speech in Jaffna, Ponnambalam specifically proposed “responsive cooperation between the communities” – not parties – and advocated “a social welfare policy” to benefit not only the poor masses of Tamils but also the large masses of the Sinhalese.

So, when Ponnambalam and four of the seven Tamil Congress MPs decided to join the government of DS Senanayake with Ponnambalam accepting the portfolio of the Minister of Industries, Industrial Research and Fisheries, they were opposed by Chelvanayakam and two other Tamil Congress MPs. The immediate context for this split was the Citizenship question that arose soon after independence when DS Senanayake’s UNP government introduced the Ceylon Citizenship Bill in parliament. The purpose and effect of the bill was to deprive the estate Tamils of Indian origin (then numbering about 780,000) of their citizenship. Previously the government had got parliament to enact the Elections Act to stipulate that only citizens can vote in national elections. In one stroke, the whole working population of the plantations was disenfranchised.

GG Ponnambalam and all seven Tamil Congress MPs voted against the two bills. Joining them in opposition were the six MPs from the Ceylon Indian Congress representing the Malaiyaka Tamils and 18 Sinhalese MPs from the Left Parties. The Citizenship Bill was passed in Parliament on 20 August 1948. Ponnambalam called it a dark day for Ceylon and accused Senanayake of racism. But less than a month later, on September 3, 1948, he joined the Senanayake cabinet as a prominent minister and the government’s principal defender in parliamentary debates. Dr. NM Perera once called Ponnambalam “the devil’s advocate from Jaffna.”

Chelvanayakam remained in the opposition with two of his Congress colleagues. A little over an year later, on December 18, 1949, Chelvanayakam founded the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kadchi, Federal Party in English. Not long after, joining Chelvanayakam in the opposition was SWRD Bandaranaike, who broke away from the UNP government over succession differences and went on to form another new political party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. As was his wont as a Marxist to see trends and patterns in politics, Hector Abhayavardhana saw the breakaways of Chelvanayakam and Bandaranaike, as well as the emergence of Thondaman as the leader of the disenfranchised hill country Tamils, as symptoms of a disintegrating society as it was transitioning from colonial rule to independence.

Abhayavardhana saw the Citizenship Act as the political trigger of this disintegration in the course of which “what was set up for the purpose of a future nation ended in caricature as a Sinhalese state.” Chelvanayakam may have agreed with this assessment even though he was located at the right end of the ideological continuum. “Ideologically, SJV is to the right of JR,” was part of political gossip in the old days. He saw “seeds of communism” in Philip Gunawardena’s Paddy Lands Act. For all their differences, Chelvanayakam and Ponnambalam were united in one respect – as unrepentant opponents of Marxism.

The Four Demands

Chelvanayakam had his work cut out as the leader of a new political party and pitting himself against a formidable political foe like Ponnambalam with all the ministerial resources at his disposal. Chelvanayakam may not have quite seen it that way. Rather, he saw his role as a matter of moral duty to fill the vacuum created by what he believed to be Ponnambalam’s betrayal, and to provide new leadership to a people who were at the crossroads of uncertainty after the unexpectedly early arrival of independence.

He set about his work by expanding his political constituency to include not only the island’s indigenous Tamils, but also the Muslims and the Tamil plantation workers from South India – as the island’s Tamil speaking people. It was he who vigorously introduced the disenfranchised Indian Tamils as hill country Tamils. In the aftermath of the Citizenship Act and disenfranchisement, restoring their citizenship rights became an obvious first demand for the new Party.

Having learnt the lesson from Ponnambalam’s failed 50-50 demand, Chelvanayakam territorialized the representation question by identifying the northern and eastern provinces as “traditional Tamil homelands,” and adding a measure regional autonomy to make up for the shortfall in representation at the national level in Colombo. To territorialization and autonomy, he added the cessation of state sponsored land colonization especially in the eastern province. Chelvanayakam and the Federal Party painstakingly explained that they were by no means opposed to Sinhalese voluntarily living in Tamil areas, either as a matter of choice, pursuing business or as government and private sector employees, but the nuancing was quite easily lost in the political shouting match.

The fourth demand, after citizenship, regional autonomy, and land, was about language. Language was not an issue when Chelvanayakam started the Federal Party. But he pessimistically predicted that sooner or later the then prevailing consensus, based on a State Council resolution, over equality between the two languages would be broken. He was proved right, sooner than later, and language became the explosive question in the 1956 election. As it turned out, the UNP government was thrown out, SWRD Bandaranaike led a coalition of parties to victory and government in the south, while SJV Chelvanayakam won a majority of the seats in the North and East, including two Muslims from Kalmunai and Pottuvil.

After the passage of the Sinhala Only Act on June 5, 1956, the Federal Party launched a political pilgrimage and mobilized a convention that was held in Trincomalee in the month of August. The four basic demands were concretized at the convention, viz., citizenship restoration for the hill country Tamils, parity of status for the Sinhala and Tamil languages, the cessation of state sponsored land colonization, and a system of regional autonomy in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.

The four demands became the basis for the Bandaranaike-Chelvanayakam agreement – the B-C Pact of 1957, and again the agreement between SJV Chelvanayakam and Dudley Senanayake in 1965. The former was abrogated by Prime Minister Bandaranaike under political duress but was not abandoned by him. The latter has been implemented in fits and starts.

The two agreements which should have been constitutionally enshrined, were severely ignored in the making of the 1972 Constitution and the 1978 Constitution – with the latter learning nothing and forgetting everything that its predecessor had inadvertently precipitated. The political precipitation was the rise of Tamil separatism and its companion, Tamil political violence. Ironically, Tamil separatism and violence created the incentive to resolve what Chelvanayakam had formulated and non-violently pursued as the four basic demands of the Tamils.

After his death in 1977, the citizenship question has finally been resolved. The 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution that was enacted in 1987 resolved the language question both in law and to an appreciable measure in practice. The same amendment also brought about the system of provincial councils, substantially fulfilling the regional autonomy demand of SJV Chelvanayakam. The land question, however, has taken a different turn with state sponsored land colonisation in the east giving way to government security forces sequestering private residential properties of Tamil families in the north, especially in the Jaffna Peninsula.

Further, the future of the Provincial Council system has become uncertain with the extended postponement of provincial elections by four Presidents and their governments, including the current incumbents. The provinces are now being administered by the President through handpicked governors without the elected provincial councils as mandated by the constitution. Imagine a Sri Lanka where there is only an Executive President and no parliament – not even a nameboard one. “What horror!”, you would say. But that is the microcosmic reality today in the country’s nine provinces.

by Rajan Philips

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Application of AI in Logistics in Sri Lanka can improve efficiency, reduce cost and enhance decision making

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KIVA robots in Amazon Warehouses

“AI increases profits while reducing un ethical intervention which is proven by Successful Global Business Models”

Artificial Intelligence(AI) is still only a buzz word in the Sri Lankan society, though many wanted to have an awareness of the concept the resources are scares, even still the IT industry has not formulated any awareness programs or a Degree yet to cope with the development. But world education warns that there want be any IT based jobs in future without learning the AI. AI has multiple use in any discipline and it has the ability to increase the efficiency of the work intern cut down the product or the service cost. Below description is how the application of AI can smoother the function of Logistic or the Supply Chain Management.

AI Integrating Procedure for Distribution Systems

Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in logistics can greatly improve efficiency, reduce costs, and enhance decision-making in simple enhance the profit margins. Below is a structured overview of how AI can be used in logistics, including key applications, tools, and real-world examples. Machine Learning(ML) is the foundation to AI but subsequently develops the capability of absorbing the information from the cloud (IT environment) and produce future behavior or trends by analyzing the fed data to the computers on a certain period of time. In some occasions vendors offer unbelievable discounts by using ML or AI, because it clearly understands the market behavior, human behavior, expiration and many other variables that gives the profits or losses to the product or the service.

Key Areas Where AI is Used in Logistics;

· Demand Forecasting

· Route Optimization

· Warehouse Automation

· Predictive Maintenance

· Inventory Management

· Supply chain Management

· Customer Service with Chat bots

· Fraud Detection and Risk Management

1. Demand Forecasting

AI can analyze historical data, market trends, and external factors (like weather or news) to:

· Predict product demand more accurately

· Optimize inventory levels

· Reduce stockouts or overstocking

Tools: Machine learning models (e.g., time series forecasting) and IT platforms/software like Amazon Forecast, Prophet by Meta. These are the software applications that helps to understand the future trends.

Amazon Forecasting software

Traditional forecasting methods typically rely on statistical modeling, but software like “Chronos” that treats time series data (data collected during a certain period of time) as a language to be modeled and uses a pre-trained FM (forecast Models) to generate forecasts, which similar to how “Large Language Models” (LLMs) generate texts helps you achieve accurate predictions faster, significantly reducing development time compared to traditional methods.

Prophet by Meta

Prophet is a very efficient and accurate procedure for forecasting time series data based on an additive model where non-linear trends are fit with yearly, weekly, and daily seasonality, plus holiday effects. It works best with time series that have strong seasonal effects and several seasons of historical data. This software adds many social, cultural and geographical variables other than internal information to decision making.

2. Route Optimization

AI-powered systems can calculate the most efficient delivery routes in real-time using:

· Traffic data

· Weather conditions

· Delivery time windows

· Vehicle capacity and fuel usage

Example: UPS (one of the largest Logistic companies in the world) uses its ORION system (AI-based) to save millions of gallons of fuel per year.

IT Tools: Google OR-Tools, Route4Me, Mapbox with ML integration.

IBM Maximo is a multi-facet coordinator

The “Route4Me” IT platform automates and integrates mission-critical last mile workflows, empowering route planners, dispatchers, drivers, and managers to take the business to the next level. Distribution networks, passenger transportation networks can achieve much cost reduction by using above platforms. This is a good platform for the Sri Lanka passenger industry to reduce the overheads for the population. In Sri Lanka “Pick me” and “Uber” uses similar platforms in their transportation industry. Whole three wheeler industry can be regulating with this kind of software and transfer benefits to the passengers.

3. Warehouse Automation

AI enables:

· Robotics for picking, packing, and sorting

· Vision systems for scanning and inventory management

· Autonomous forklifts and drones for internal transport

Example: Amazon’s use of “Kiva robots” in fulfillment(distribution) centers.

Kiva Robots in Warehouses

Traditionally, goods are moved around a distribution center using a conveyor system  or by human-operated machines (such as forklifts). In Kiva’s approach, items are stored in portable storage units. When an order is entered into the Kiva database system, the software locates the closest automated guided vehicle to the item and directs it to retrieve it. The mobile robots navigate around the warehouse by following a series of computerized bar-code stickers on the floor. Each drive unit has a sensor that prevents it from colliding with others. When the drive unit reaches the target location, it slides underneath the pod(Pallet) and lifts it off the ground through a corkscrew action. The robot then carries the pod to the specified human operator to pick up the items or subsequently hand over to the “drone” to deliver to the customer. Human intervention is minimal and accordingly overheads are reduced, Sri Lanka needs to achieve this kind of operational level in order to par with the international markets.

4. Predictive Maintenance

Traditionally Sri Lankans are week in maintenance, they basically wait until the machine stops in the other way bureaucratic too are much restrict on the maintenance and the procurement procedure. Applying this kind of maintenance software will eradicate all of these lethargies and the bureaucratic blocks. Subsequently continuing the smooth operations and productions.

AI monitors equipment (vehicles, conveyor belts, etc.) to:

· Predict when they will fail

· Schedule maintenance proactively

· Reduce downtime and repair costs

Tools: IoT(internet of things as cameras, sensors, GPS etc.) sensors + ML models (e.g., anomaly detection), IT platforms like IBM Maximo.

IBM Maximo is a multi-facet coordinator

“From equipment to factories, from fleets to infrastructure, Maximo Application Suite empowers users across verticals to coordinate maintenance and management for a broad range of asset classes”.

5. Supply Chain Visibility

AI can analyze data across the supply chain to:

· Track shipments in real-time

· Identify delays or bottlenecks

· Provide predictive ETAs

📦 Example: DHL (Logistic Company) uses AI to forecast transit delays and offer dynamic ETA updates.

This is an ideal tool for cargo management, ideal for sea ports and the air ports in Sri Lanka. This is one of the grave gray areas in the port system, though the port system is lacking the required information due to that the client has to pay the demurrages and warehouse cost for the ports. Also, cut down unnecessary delays and reduce bribes and corruption at all levels.

6. Inventory Management

AI helps optimize:

· Stock levels across multiple warehouses

· Replenishment timing

· Safety stock calculation

Tools: ERP (Entrepreneur Resource Planning) systems with embedded AI (e.g., SAP, Oracle), custom ML models.

These systems drastically reduce the human intervention and speedup the Supply management process.

7. Customer Service & Chatbots

AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants can:

· Handle customer queries 24/7

· Track orders

· Provide personalized delivery updates

Tools: Dialogflow, Microsoft Bot Framework, ChatGPT API

Dialogflow

“Dialogflow” is a natural language understanding IT platform that makes it easy to design and integrate a conversational user interface into the mobile app, web application, device, bot, interactive voice response system, and so on. Using Dialogflow, establishments can provide new and engaging ways for users to interact with the product. Dialogflow can analyze multiple types of input from the customers, including text or audio inputs (like from a phone or voice recording). It can also respond to the customers in a couple of ways, either through text or with synthetic speech.

AI Conversational Chatbots Platform

Above IT platforms control the human intervention and reduce the cost of employees. Chatbots are basically efficient than the humans due to the high memory power for the standard customer inquiries. Application to Government sector will reduce the burden for the general public.

8. Fraud Detection & Risk Management

AI detects unusual patterns in:

· Orders

· Transactions

· Supplier behavior

Helps prevent:

· Cargo theft

· Counterfeit goods

· Financial fraud

*”KPMG Clara” for Supply Chain Risk Management

“KPMG Clara” is an AI-powered IT platform offering supply chain analytics, risk detection, and compliance management.

Key Features:

· AI-driven risk modeling

· ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) and compliance monitoring

· Predictive analytics for disruptions

· Supplier risk scoring

“Geo Analysis” (AI based) IT platform in Supply Chain Access Control

Above IT platform Monitor access patterns across cross-border freight hubs, regional warehouses, and remote carrier logins. “Geo analysis” for supply chain authentication identifies impossible travel, geo-inconsistencies, and spoofed IPs to reduce credential abuse and unauthorized entry into logistics systems. This important IT platform can reduce corruption and many unethical practices, ideal tool for the Sri Lankan Government sector that can curb the mal practices.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a remarkable IT tool which can apply in almost all the sectors that can reap the Efficiency and Accuracy. In above paragraphs I have described the application in different stages of the Logistic or the Supply Chain Management. Application of AI tools can be done on stages as initially find the specific pain points pertaining to the supply chain and then, prepare data from the GPS, inventory systems, sales forecasts and supplier records. Subsequently can understand the specific AI platforms and ML models to suit the SCM operation. Further, can apply in a small scale as a pilot project and analyze impact as cost savings or efficiency gains. Once understand the model can roll out to other areas of operations in the establishment.

Final outcome will be “15% reduction in fuel cost, 20% faster deliveries, Increased customer satisfaction”

There may be many negative lobbies since this is new to the many sectors in the country and further ability to proof the corruption but proper education and understanding the world AI based business models, establishments can reach the required goal.

(Writer can be reached at, chandana_w@yahoo.com)

by Lt Col. Chandana Weerakoon.
Chartered Logistician

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Features

Motherhood is not ‘giving up’

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Since having my baby, I have been regularly met with the question, “Are you back at work?”

“No,”

I reply. “I am doing my PhD from home.”

Several emotions arise. I feel guilty that I am not back at work, that somehow I should be. I also feel relieved that I can justify my time at home by offering up the PhD as a worthy endeavour. Sometimes, the person responds in surprise, “Oh, so no work?” Other times, they are approving, “How lucky for you and your baby.” Occasionally, there is the advice, “Don’t give up work.”

At the back of my mind are certain thoughts. “Am I not ‘working’? Isn’t the work of motherhood also considered ‘work’? If it isn’t, shouldn’t it be?”

Although the questions, comments, and advice about returning to work are made innocently enough, mostly benevolently, they have prompted me to reflect on the idea of work and motherhood, and how mothers and society view both.

Motherhood, I believe, is a full-time, highly skilled, unpaid job that never ends. All mothers work at least two jobs. They do the work of mothering, and also work in either a paid or unpaid additional role. Many women will do even more. They mother, care for their elderly parents, work a paid job, voluntarily contribute to community building, and try to fit in creative pursuits, hobbies, or ‘self-care’ when they can.

Motherhood requires many skills. You are, effectively, the CEO of your family and home (with hopefully a supportive co-CEO by your side). There is the work of child-rearing, which requires patience, energy, creativity, presence, flexibility, courage, fortitude, knowledge, and the ability to research, learn, and unlearn. You are raising the future. Then there is the work of home and family life, which requires skills in leadership, organisation, prioritisation, delegation, negotiation, financial management, crisis management, and conflict resolution. There is also the internal work of being self-aware, forgiving yourself and others, practicing compassion, and accepting the inherent imperfections of ‘doing it all’.

This work of motherhood is now recognised as ‘unpaid caregiving and domestic work’ and ‘invisible labour’ by international organisations such as the United Nations. It includes physical labour, direct care labour, mental or cognitive labour, and emotional labour, and is mostly the work of women.

I am not complaining. Men have their own unpaid labour. I love being a mother and wife. I view it as a privilege and a blessing. Ideally, the job can also be supported by paid or unpaid help. My point is that the work of women, and specifically mothers, should be recognised and respected, not only by society, but also by women and mothers themselves.

I know it is not just me who has experienced conflicting emotions about ‘giving up’ traditional work to focus on family life. Within my social circle and more widely, mothers describe a loss of self-worth and identity unless they are ‘working mothers’, and feeling embarrassment and guilt when asked the dreaded question, “What do you do?” There is the loss of financial dignity that comes with taking on an unpaid job, no matter how important you may think it is. Dynamics with husbands also need to shift, where both members are viewed as equally valuable to making the business of ‘home’ successful.

Neha Ruch, the author of The Power Pause, is an American brand strategist-turned-full-time stay-at-home mother and home maker, who addresses this very issue. Many of my thoughts for this article are based on her book. She argues that the time a woman wishes to invest in this phase of life, motherhood and family life, is valuable, not just for the children or family unit, but for the mother herself. It is a time for growth, skill-building, and expanding networks and connections.

Often, it leads women in new, creative, and more fulfilling directions, and provides an opportunity for them to re-enter the workforce on their own terms. She also points out that ‘the pause’ is not a luxury for a lucky minority, as many women become the default caregiver for their children if childcare is too costly, or not the preferred option. Through the movement she has created, Ruch provides legitimacy, validation, and structure to this phase of life (because, after all, it is only a phase, not forever) that is often spoken of as mindless, monotonous, and unglamorous, and I am grateful for it.

I suppose what I am saying is, next time you meet a mother, consider asking her, “How are you?”, and next time I am asked what I do, I should proudly declare (using Ruch’s script), “Right now, I am on a career pause and get to be home with my baby, and I am exploring possibilities for the future.”

(Lihini Wijeyaratne Cooray

Lihini is rediscovering her love for writing while embracing first-time motherhood and her ‘Power Pause’. She is also navigating her roles as a doctor and PhD researcher. She hopes that her writing can inspire a fresh perspective on motherhood as being valuable, powerful, and exciting.)

by Lihini Wijeyaratne Cooray

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