Dr Surangika Ranathunga and Dr Nisansa de Silva from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Moratuwa recently became recipients of Google’s Inclusion Research award, 2022. Dr. Nisansa de Silva is affiliated with LIRNEasia as a Research Fellow. Google’s Inclusion Research Program is targeted towards academic research in computing and technology that globally addresses the needs of historically marginalized groups. It was launched in 2020 and research proposals under topics such as Accessibility, Algorithmic fairness, and Digital safety are supported.
Today, I delivered the keynote at the 9th International Conference on multidisciplinary approaches at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. Here is on story that I told. In 2008, Nokia, then a leading global telecom equipment supplier, came to LIRNEasia with a question they wanted answered: How was it that countries in South Asia, not known for the highest standards of policy and regulation, were offering the lowest prices for mobile communication to their customers? Conventional wisdom was that a stable policy environment with an independent and efficient regulatory agency was essential for good performance. Nokia provided us with comparative price data which we looked at in the context of the findings of the extensive “Teleuse at the Bottom of the Pyramid” surveys and qualitative studies we had conducted and the Telecom Policy and Regulatory Environment studies we were running in countries in South and Southeast Asia at that time.

The passing of Nirmani Liyanage

Posted on November 14, 2022  /  2 Comments

We are saddened to hear that Nirmani Liyanage passed away suddenly over the weekend.
සමෘද්ධි දෙපාර්තමේන්තුවේ අධ්‍යක්ෂ ජනරාල්වරයා විසින් 2022 අගෝස්තු 29 වැනි දින නිකුත් කරන ලද චක්‍රලේඛය අනුව, ජ්‍යෙෂ්ඨ පුරවැසියන්, ආබාධිත පුද්ගලයන් (PWDs) සහ වකුගඩු රෝගීන් සඳහා මාසික මුදල් ආධාර ලබාදීම් 2022 සැප්තැම්බර් මාසයේ සිට සමෘද්ධි බැංකු හරහා කළ යුතුය. ප්‍රායෝගිකව මෙම පරිපාලනය ආරම්භ වීමට නියමිත වන්නේ ඔක්තෝබර් මාසයේ සිටයි.
This report is to evaluate the impact of interventions (written comments on the draft bill during the stakeholder consultation) by LIRNEasia on the Personal Data Protection Act, No. 9 of 2022, which was passed by the Parliament of Sri Lanka on 9th of March 2022. The report also provides details of media coverage of LIRNEasia interventions on the Act.
(Note: This was originally published in the Daily FT) The Director General of the Department of Samurdhi released a circular on 29 August stating that monthly cash transfers to senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs), and kidney patients must be administered through Samurdhi banks from September 2022. In practice, this will occur from October. This disbursement mechanism deviates significantly from that used earlier, where each of these schemes had different collection points. Samurdhi banks were used exclusively as distribution points for the Samurdhi monthly cash transfers. Senior citizens’ allowances, PWD benefits and kidney patients’ allowances were disbursed via post offices, State banks and divisional secretariats, respectively (Table 1).
Helani Galpaya is part of global set of experts who were asked to sit on the Expert Group for the 67th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67).
South Asia has some of the lowest female labor force participation (LFP) rates in the world, second only to the Middle East. Employment flexibility, also known as workplace flexibility, flexi-work, among other terms, has long been argued as an enabler of women’s increased and sustained participation in the labor market.
Can nation states, especially those in the Global South effectively regulate Global Tech Companies? Should they try? Why is it important to separate the data localization issue from data protection? GDPR is not fully enforceable even in Europe; should it be the model for countries in the Global South?
Digital Futures Lab, in partnership with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, recently published an edited volume on the ethics and governance of AI in Asia.
Tariq Zaman, Gayani Hurulle, Riki Manarangi, Crystal Kewe, Isha Suri & Rodrigo Balbontin at ApRIGF 2022 Gayani Hurulle participates in panel on Connecting the Unconnected at APrIGF 2022 in Singapore
LIRNEasia’s Chair Professor Rohan Samarajiva participated as one of the speakers for the session on ‘role of bureaucracy for a better Sri Lanka’ during the 35th Annual Conference of the Organization of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka (OPA), held on the 17th of August at the Cinnamon Lakeside Hotel, Colombo. He addressed the question of whether digitization can make Sri Lanka’s bureaucracy more effective.
Sri Lanka Social Safety Net - Qualitative Study
Gayani Hurulle at Advocata ReformNow Conference The fragmented social protection system in Sri Lanka has been in need of reform for many years. There is a need to reform many areas, including targeting and the delivery of benefits — areas we have, and continue to, stress the importance of. The specific reforms that we prioritise may differ in the short and long term. The current economic crisis (which has thrown millions into poverty) has highlighted the gaps in the system. In this light, ensuring that the cash transfers are adequate to meet the needs of individuals and all those who need assistance are covered by the programme are key.
Gayani Hurulle speaking on Social Safety Nets I was invited to speak on Social Safety Nets in Sri Lanka on ‘The People’s Platform’ a 45 minute live TV programme on NewsFirst. I drew on LIRNEasia’s research on the area to highlight problems in targeting the poor and the possibility of using bank accounts and mobile technology to deliver benefits to the poor.  
Slides presented at the Advocata Institute’s #ReformNow conference on 5 August 2022