Can Education make a difference in the country?  Just giving it free would help to develop the country?  or just making sure all the people do get educated? or just literacy is enough to develop the country? The answer is NO.  Just the education would not contribute in developing the country.  It will be yet another factor if it is not properly designed.  The purpose of this article is to discuss how the Effective education is tied with the national development. 

What is Education?

Education in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual. In its technical sense education is the process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills and values from one generation to another.

Human development Index is as follows

The 17th Amendment was passed in the parliament in 2001 and was practice only for few years.  The purpose of bringing this amendment to the constitution was to eliminate the political interference to the national authorities which should stick independent.  17th Amendment suggested to centralize the control around independent commissions.  This would address the fundamental problem of our constitution which is having all the government entities under political branches.  However exercising this would be really challenging as this clearly discourages the political inference.

He went to Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and told him that India needed a strong vision to take it forward!

"I said to him it is possible that we will still collapse, but there is a chance that if we take bold measures we may turn around, and that, I said, is an opportunity. We must convert this crisis into an opportunity to build a new India, to do things which many people before us have thought and said should be done, but somehow were never done," said Singh in an interview to PBS in 2001.

India, a country with hundreds of ethnics, thousands of different people contexts and over one billion of population, has now become e one of the strongest economies in the modern world.  It is a fact that you find the most richest and the poorest people segments in India. 
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Political Solution to Sri Lanka: is one of the popular topics being discussed these days.  The Political Solution for the Sri Lankan political issues, was initiated by HE JR Jayawardena and Indian Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi.  This agreement is well known as Indo Lanka Peace Accord.  The most important fact is that this is the first ever incident happened after the independence, which involved an external party in an internal matter.  There are number of political aspects around this agreement.  It is not merely bring peace to people but there were many hidden intentions initiated.  

This article discusses the step by step incidents that ultimately resulted in Indo Lanka Agreement.  Further this discusses the Russian factor which could have had a big influence indirectly.  Remember that this was the Soviet Union's demanding time.  This article is mainly based on Wiki sources. 

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These days Good Governance is a hot topic and therefore thought to figure what does it mean?

From Wikipedia

Good governance is an indeterminate term used in development literature to describe how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources in order to guarantee the realization of human rights.^[1] Governance describes "the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemented (or not implemented)".^[1] The term governance can apply to corporate, international, national, local governance ^[1] or to the interactions between other sectors of society.

Source of the article: Click here for the Source: UN ESCAPE

Good governance has 8 major characteristics. It is participatory, consensus oriented, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law. It assures that corruption is minimized, the views of minorities are taken into account and that the voices of the most vulnerable in society are heard in decision-making. It is also responsive to the present and future needs of society.

Figure 2: Characteristics of good governance

Participation

Participation by both men and women is a key cornerstone of good governance. Participation could be either direct or through legitimate intermediate institutions or representatives. It is important to point out that representative democracy does not necessarily mean that the concerns of the most vulnerable in society would be taken into consideration in decision making. Participation needs to be informed and organized. This means freedom of association and expression on the one hand and an organized civil society on the other hand.

Rule of law

Good governance requires fair legal frameworks that are enforced impartially. It also requires full protection of human rights, particularly those of minorities. Impartial enforcement of laws requires an independent judiciary and an impartial and incorruptible police force.

Transparency

Transparency means that decisions taken and their enforcement are done in a manner that follows rules and regulations. It also means that information is freely available and directly accessible to those who will be affected by such decisions and their enforcement. It also means that enough information is provided and that it is provided in easily understandable forms and media.

Responsiveness

Good governance requires that institutions and processes try to serve all stakeholders within a reasonable timeframe.

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Sri Lank's foreign reserves hits a record figure!! Wow great!! this is a very good indication of re gaining the county's economic stability after the costly war with rebels.  The defense budget was sucking the the national resources and it hit the national development over past three decades.  Now the war has ended and looks like economy of the country is becoming stronger.

What does Foreign exchange reserves means? Wiki says:

Foreign exchange reserves (also called Forex reserves) in a strict sense are only the foreign currency deposits and bonds held by central banks and monetary authorities. However, the term in popular usage commonly includes foreign exchange and gold, SDRsIMF reserve positions. This broader figure is more readily available, but it is more accurately termed official international reserves or international reserves. These are assets of the central bank held in different reserve currencies, mostly the US dollar, and to a lesser extent the euro, the UK pound, and the Japanese yen, and used to back its liabilities, e.g. the local currency issued, and the various bank reserves deposited with the central bank, by the government or financial institutions.

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I saw an interesting mail conversation in a friend group and though that this will really shows the fight between two camps.  Enjoys and make sure that you understand this as an unofficial conversation between two friends.  Black is the original mail and purple is the answer

Following is the popular news of SF and Sunday Leader!!!
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Is this the beginning of controversial decisions?  

The purpose of this article is to discuss the controversial LMS deal which was taken place between the Sri Lankan government and JKH recently.  Many sources stated that the verdict was quiet controversial.

What is LMS? Lanka Marine Services expertise in bunkering and lubricants to meet all demands at port, at anchorage and at off port limits.

This is what I  could find:

1. LMS was a subsidiary of Ceylon Petroleum Cooperation.  However the land where the LMS is physically located was not under LMS account but under Sri Lanka ports authority.  This was not a problem for their operations as both were held by the government.

2. The government then decided to privatize the LMS through the PERC - Public Enterprise Reforming Commission. 

3. Government called for bidders.  JKH offered a massive bid which hammered all other bidders.  Finally the bid was closed selecting JKH as the potential buyer.  Deal was made!

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The following article is not mine.  But it would be really interesting to read this.  Source of the article is: