Five years ago, our Lead Consultant Economist, Dr Harsha de Silva, entered Parliament as an opposition national-list MP. For those unfamiliar with idiosyncrasies of Sri Lankan politics, that is an MP without constituency responsibilities who is appointed by a political party based on the contribution he/she may make to legislative or executive functions. Without doubt, Harsha was one of the best national-list MPs in the 14th Parliament. In the early years, he continued to engage in research-related activities sometimes on behalf of LIRNEasia and sometimes on his own.
Few years back, his party made him a constituency organizer which left him little time for research. The margin by which his constituency voted for his candidate in 2015 suggests he is doing a very good job as a retail politician as well.
Harsha has been appointed Deputy to the Prime Minister with responsibility for Planning and Economic Affairs in the transitional government. We know he can be counted on for informed, evidence-based policy. We wish him well.
6 Comments
Alison Gillwald
Fraternal wishes from ResearchICTafrica Harsha! And to LIRNEasia for nurturing and keeping talent in the country. The journey has just begun …may your administration fulfil our common objectives of deepening democracy and reducing economic inequality in the global South.
Luxman
Dear Harsha keep up to your academic and LIRNEasia credentials. Work on vital economic reforms
William Melody
Great news. Congratulations to Harsha and Lirneasia. It is encouraging to see to see a sign of democracy working in the public interest.
Stephen McGurk
Indeed welcome news and congratulations to Harsha and Lirneasia! I hope that Harsha can continue to keep us on our toes with an insistence on evidence that informs policy.
Grace Mirandilla-Santos
Congratulations, Harsha and LIRNEasia! Onward with informed, evidence-based policy!
Sri Lanka at WAIC 2026: Aligning with a More Inclusive Vision for Global AI Governance
The World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) 2026 was held in Shanghai from 17–20 July and brought global attention to the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), as well as the increasingly important question of who gets to shape the rules governing it. This analysis examines the alignment between Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech and Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eng.
LIRNEasia Senior Research Manager Merl Chandana at NewsFirst Sri Lanka’s Face To Face Programme
LIRNEasia Senior Research Manager and Team Lead for Data, Algorithms, and Policy (DAP), Merl Chandana, was interviewed on NewsFirst Sri Lanka’s Face to Face programme on 9 August 2026. The interview focused on the wonders and dangers of Artificial Intelligence (AI), covering a recent cybersecurity incident where an experimental agentic AI model developed by OpenAI was manipulated to execute multiple attacks on Hugging Face.
More Than a Wheelchair: The Case for Mobility That Actually Works
The economic exclusion faced by people with mobility disabilities in Sri Lanka is substantial. Although Sri Lanka has made genuine investments in this area, yet, for many wheelchair users, the journey to work, school, university or a vocational training center remains difficult.
Links
User Login
Themes
Social
Twitter
Facebook
RSS Feed
Contact
9A 1/1, Balcombe Place
Colombo 08
Sri Lanka
+94 (0)11 267 1160
+94 (0)11 267 5212
info [at] lirneasia [dot] net
Copyright © 2026 LIRNEasia
a regional ICT policy and regulation think tank active across the Asia Pacific