This article was carried in the Daily Mirror on 17 October 2024 on International Eradication of Poverty Day Poverty in Sri Lanka has increased significantly with the onset of COVID-19 and the macroeconomic crisis. LIRNEasia’s national survey in 2023 highlighted that 4 million people fell into poverty between 2019 and 2023, causing 7 million individuals — or 31% of the population — to live in poverty at the time. Recent floods in the country have (re)exposed the vulnerabilities of various populations to adverse weather conditions. Robust, effective, and adaptive social protection systems are critical for shielding citizens from crises. Despite of, or perhaps, due to, the crises, Sri Lanka has made notable progress in enhancing social protection in recent years. 
This article was carried in the Daily Mirror on 17 October 2024 on International Eradication of Poverty Day Poverty in Sri Lanka has increased significantly with the onset of COVID-19 and the macroeconomic crisis. LIRNEasia’s national survey in 2023 highlighted that 4 million people fell into poverty between 2019 and 2023, causing 7 million individuals — or 31% of the population — to live in poverty at the time. Recent floods in the country have (re)exposed the vulnerabilities of various populations to adverse weather conditions. Robust, effective, and adaptive social protection systems are critical for shielding citizens from crises. Despite of, or perhaps, due to, the crises, Sri Lanka has made notable progress in enhancing social protection in recent years. 
The 19th World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS-24), a leading global forum for telecommunication and ICT statistics, took place from September 23 to 24, 2024, in Geneva, Switzerland. This year’s edition was held back-to-back with the 15th Meeting of the Expert Group on Telecommunication/ICT Indicators (EGTI) and the 12th Meeting of the Expert Group on ICT Household Indicators (EGH), which took place from September 25 to 26, 2024, also in Geneva. LIRNEasia CEO, Helani Galpaya, spoke at the High-Level Panel titled “Data for Universal and Meaningful Connectivity” at the WTIS 2024. Her interventions presented LIRNEasia’s big data analytics and nationally representative household survey work, which contributed to improving policies and practices around social safety nets in Sri Lanka. She also discussed findings from the work on mapping public-private data-sharing partnerships, highlighting key elements such as trust, capacity, funding, technical architecture, and policies that enable data sharing across sectors. 
In an interview with Mawbima newspaper, LIRNEasia CEO Helani Galpaya highlighted the importance of accurate data in holding governments accountable between elections, emphasising its critical role in ensuring a functioning democracy. She also discussed the impact of misinformation and disinformation on public opinion, the role of fact-checking, and the importance of media independence. Below is the full Sinhala interview which was originally published in Mawbima newspaper on August 26, 2024. ඔබගේ කෑම බීමවල සිට රුචි අරුචිකම් සියල්ල නොදැනුවත්වම ජංගම දුරකථනය විසින් ඩැහැගනු ලබමින් සිටී. මෙකී සයිබර් දේශපාලනය අද වන විට ලෝක ප්රජාතන්ත්රවාදයටද අභියෝග කරමින් සිටී. 
Taxation is a critical tool for sustainable development, playing a vital role in reducing poverty, ensuring food security, and enhancing social protection. In light of these important issues, the Institute of Charted Accountants of Sri Lanka hosted its Annual Economic and Tax Symposium under the theme “Shaping Fiscal Foundations: Tax Policy as a Catalyst for Sustainable Economic Growth,” on 1st and 2nd of August, 2024. Gayani Hurulle, Senior Research Manager at LIRNEasia, was a panellist at a session titled “Taxation on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Factors: Achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and International Trade and Tax Policies” at the symposium. Other panellists included M. Ravindrakumar, Customs Management Expert; Ayesha Ashanthi, Commissioner, Department of Inland Revenue; and Dr. 
The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) represents a landmark regulation aimed at creating a safer and more transparent online environment. Central to the DSA are mandates for large online platforms and search engines, referred to as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs), to conduct Systematic Risk Assessments (SRAs) and engage in meaningful consultations with civil society. At present, VLOPs and VLOSEs in the European Union are conducting their second round of mandatory risk assessments under the DSA. These assessments seek to identify and mitigate systemic risks related to human rights on large platforms. In the meantime, in late June, the Global Network Initiative (GNI) and the Digital Trust & Safety Partnership (DTSP) hosted the European Rights & Risks: Stakeholder Engagement Forum (“the Forum”) in Brussels with the intention of sharing insights on assessing systemic risks to fundamental rights as part of implementing the DSA. 
The implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) extend beyond mere technological advancement. There is no doubt that while the Global North is gaining most of the benefits of AI, the Global South faces significant problems, such as biased language models. AI has the potential to transform our media systems. It can also disrupt business models, spread disinformation, and erode trust in society. However, AI also offers a transformative potential to democratise information access and increase digital participation. 
The report “Social Media Regulation and the Rule of Law: Key Trends in Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh”, which was launched recently in Colombo, examines the balance between state security, human rights, and the role of social media across these South Asian nations. This collaborative effort involves Konrad Adenauer Stiftung’s Rule of Law Programme Asia, LIRNEasia Sri Lanka, the Centre for Communication Governance (CCG) at the National Law University Delhi (NLUD) India, and the School of Law at BRAC University Bangladesh. The report provides several crucial observations and recommendations for policymakers and stakeholders alike: Key observations from the report: Bangladesh and India provide conditional liability exemptions for third-party content hosted by intermediaries, but recent legislative trends suggest a weakening of safe harbour protection. Across all three countries, centralisation of power with the executive is evident, resulting in regulatory frameworks lacking effective judicial and parliamentary oversight over blocking orders, internet suspensions, and user data requests. The centralisation of power with the executive has also fostered a lack of transparency and accountability in government actions, often justified by state security interests. 
In her latest article for Daily FT, LIRNEasia policy fellow Tahani Iqbal critiques the current amendment process of Sri Lanka’s Telecommunications Act, stating it “has not been transparent and open,” and calling for a comprehensive overhaul of the Act, aligning with the newly issued National Digital Economy Strategy 2030, to truly drive Sri Lanka’s digital development. “It is critical that the Government puts a stop to its conservative and traditional approach to telecoms regulation and handles it in a way that will ensure that digital connectivity spurs the development of the nation. Converged markets and services require converged authorities and approaches to governance. The amended Bill has no place in Sri Lanka’s digital future and should be sent back to the drawing board for a proper re-draft.” Despite several attempts to revise the Act, Tahani argues that the lack of substantial updates has left Sri Lanka with a “low level maturity [in] legal and governance frameworks,” as evidenced by its G2 ranking from the International Telecommunications Union. 
In an insightful analysis published in the Daily FT, Professor Rohan Samarajiva, Chair of LIRNEasia, examines whether the proposed amendments to the Sri Lanka Telecommunications Act are ready for the future, or even adequate for the present. While questioning the future-readiness of the legislation in terms of consumer rights and market competition in the telecom sector, Prof. Samarajiva has also asked whether the amendments provide a clear and coordinated legal framework necessary for the future deployment of advanced telecom infrastructure, essential for smart cities. Highlighting several critical issues related to the structure, capacity, and functioning of the Telecom Regulatory Commission (TRC), here are some of the key issues addressed in his analysis. 1. 
With the digital world becoming increasingly intertwined with our daily lives, from studying and working to shopping, the digital economy has seen significant growth. In the global digital landscape, data often flows across borders for various transactions, meaning that data generated in one country may be stored and processed in another. This movement of data across international borders isn’t just a technical matter—it’s a major driver of economic development, innovation, international trade, and social progress. However, these cross-border data flows have raised concerns about privacy, security, and data protection. One major worry is data localisation rules, which insist on keeping data within a country’s borders. 
We are inviting proposals from potential bidders to conduct a study on human factors in the information disorder and finding measures to counter. The full RFP can be found here. Please check our Technical Proposal Template, Financial Proposal Template and the Sample Contract, before sending your proposals. Proposals for the study must be received by LIRNEasia by 17.00 hrs Sri Lankan time on 7th June 2024. 
The following article was originally published on the IDRC – Resisting information disorder in the Global South website. LIRNEasia studied information disorder in Asia for a scoping study on challenges of information disorder in the Global South in 2022[1]. We conducted over 80 key informant interviews, including fact checkers and journalist to gather data for the study. Fact checkers and journalists talked about use of digital tools, including AI tools in their day-to-day work. Some of their Digital tools included ‘the Social-People Index, Facebook Ad Library, Crowd Tangle, Sentione, Google fact-check tool, Claim Buster, and TinEye’. 
Senior Research Manager Gayani Hurulle, in an interview with Echelon for their May issue, discussed Sri Lanka’s readiness for a digital economy. Six experts were interviewed regarding Sri Lanka’s innovation landscape, providing insights into essential components for economic transformation, challenges in digital readiness, parallels with regional models, the intersection of law and technology, climate financing opportunities, and hurdles within the startup ecosystem. Gayani focused on Sri Lanka’s preparedness to embrace a digital economy, emphasising the urgent need to address challenges such as low digital literacy, inadequate infrastructure, and limited female workforce participation. She also highlighted the findings of LIRNEasia’s 2021 nationally representative survey, conducted against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. “According to LIRNEasia’s 2021 nationally representative survey, Sri Lanka grapples with a stark reality: only a fraction of the population possesses the ability to independently perform basic online tasks. 
Before we dive into natural language understanding, the theory, and its applications–it is important from a pedagogical perspective that we understand the historical trajectory of the ideas that led us there. While it would be interesting to go as far as back to Aristotle, we will skip ahead to what is considered the most important flashpoint in modern philosophy & science–referred to as the ‘linguistic turn’. It begins with our Wittgenstein, inspired by Gottlob Frege: “The limits of my language mean the limits of my world. […]” While this line is almost used to the point it has become a cliche in modern NLP research papers, Indeed Wittgenstein himself would go on later to re-write and almost rethink all of the ideas he posited in the original Tractatus–which is why the irony is sweet when you see his famous quote plastered on the beginning of most modern research papers; but it is undeniable that Wittgenstein’s first posit changed the face of philosophical debate, effectively ending the practice of continental philosophy, and the birth of the more ‘logical’ analytic philosophy. In our rush to understand reality, we had lost sight of the tool we were bound by during our examination and […] 
Abu Saeed Khan has taken leave of us. We celebrate a life well-lived and mourn the loss of a valued friend and colleague. The public sphere of Bangladesh and the region is diminished by his demise. I met him in September 2000 in Dhaka, my first visit to Bangladesh, where I had been invited as a former regulator to a regional event organised to welcome and encourage the just-established Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC). Learning that the World Bank had pulled its funding to signal displeasure about some last-minute chicanery to create openings for political interference in the governing statute, I did not limit myself to bland good wishes as is customary. 
Gayani Hurulle, Senior Research Manager at LIRNEasia, recently discussed the challenges facing Sri Lanka’s digital economy in an interview with Yarl TV. Gayani highlighted various policy challenges and opportunities pertaining to the digital economy, drawing on LIRNEasia’s research. She also highlighted the need for policy reforms to align with the rapidly evolving digital landscape. One of the pressing issues she addressed was digital taxation. She underlined that the current tax laws are not designed to/being used to collect taxes from large technology multinationals that don’t have a local physical presence, creating an uneven playing field.