Data-driven decision-making for economic prosperity and good governance – II By Dr. Ranga Prabodanie Source:island.lk By Dr. Ranga Prabodanie (The first part of this article appeared yesterday (05) The previous part of this article series explained how the great insurgence of digital data has revolutionized the institutional decision-making process in both business and governance. This latter part will look at the Sri Lankan context: Where we are currently and the way forward to a data-driven decision-making culture. Let’s first have a glance at how decisions are made in data-intensive public services. Education Schools, universities and vocational training institutions, throughout the country, collect, record and report data on admissions, enrolment, completion, drop-outs, results, graduations and expenditure for various programmes, courses and subjects. The Examinations Department does have digital records of GCE O/L and A/L results. However, the data is used only for the preparation of annual statistical reports, rather than for ...
Articles
Gold in her heart trumps gold in hand BY ALLAAM OUSMAN Canada-born award winner Anna-Marie moves ahead of her peers as a budding sports entrepreneur unlike any other: Source:sundayobserver.lk Sri Lanka’s iconic rhythmic gymnast Canadian-born Anna-Marie Ondaatje wears many hats but the 21-year-old sports star is focussed on winning a medal for her motherland next year. Having made her debut at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games, Anna-Marie has shrugged off her disappointment of missing out on the Tokyo Olympics 2020 by steaming ahead with her ambitions to become Sri Lanka’s global sports ambassador. A multi-faceted personality, the stunningly beautiful Anna-Marie Suzanne Quint Ondaatje aims to follow the path of her great aunt Maureen Hingert, the only Sri Lankan to pose as Miss Universe runner-up in 1955. It was a heart-warming experience catching up with this talented teenager who returned to Sri Lanka after a two-year hiatus to receive ...
Margaret Machado – A life very well Lived for the glory of God The outpouring of grief, messages of sympathies, assurances of masses and prayers, and the most amazing and touching tributes from all the world only emphasises what we have lost when our beloved Mummy breathed her last on Monday, November 1. Fittingly, Mummy died on the morning of All Saints Day as she was Our Saint for many, many years. Margaret Mary Therese Little Flower Machado nee Roche passed away aged 96, in Melbourne. She was the last in her wonderful family to leave this world for her Heavenly Home. Born on October 17, 1925, Mummy was the daughter of Pagnani and Annie Roche, and sister to Gerard, Bertie, Matilda, Sr Fortunata and Joe. She studied, and later taught at the Holy Cross Convent in the south Indian city of Tuticorin, before moving to Sri Lanka, along with ...
“The ultimate Country love story” – By Des Kelly He was a “Rock-Star” to begin with, singing and playing his guitar, backed by several guys who became “stars” in their own right, as the years went by. Waylon Jennings, a tall, handsome figure of a man, singing songs in a deep gravelly voice, was an attraction to many gals who attended his shows, who, in reverse, was also attracted to many pretty girls, married three, even becoming a dad, in the process, was then picked out by guitar great, Chet Atkins, who was convinced that this guy would make a superb Country Entertainer, who, not much later, founded the “Outlaw” movement & together with Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, & Willie Nelson, began touring and entertaining thousands of Country music fans, wherever they went. A beautiful female by the name of Jessie Colter, now comes into ...
“THE GOOD LIFE” – By Des Kelly How can one forget the halcyon days spent in what was once our lovely Island home ?. I will never forget them. Things are much different now, from an older perspective, I am afraid. Ceylon was this Island paradise that I was lucky to call “home”, eternal summer, days and weekends spent having a glorious time on beaches surrounding the Island, spotless beaches, without any rubbish strewn around, thosai shops, where we could have a good feed, followed by milk-coffee, or kiri-kopi, to wash it down for a couple or three rupees, a Peacock or “5 Roses” fag, afterwards, costing about 2 cents a-piece, to strut around with, showing how grown-up we were, at around fifteen years of age, Picture-palaces such as the Regal, Liberty, Savoy, Plaza etc., where, for a 50cent gallery ticket, we could watch great movies coming all the way ...
An inspirational campaign with piles of positives by our young T 20 team – By Sunil Thenabadu (Sports editor – eLanka) The national cricket team journeyed back home on Friday night having been away for approximately a calendar month and their showing during the seventh edition of the ICC T-20 World Cup held successfully in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai organised to precision which even the pessimistic fans commended and endorsed the performance by beating the formidable West Indians the reigning champions in the sixth edition with so many famous names. Sri Lanka former champions in year 2014 and twice runners up of course had little impetus behind them when they left the island having been whitewashed by touring South Africa 3-0 at our own backyard. home. It is pertinent to quote that more than half the members in the tour party had played less than a handful of T-20 Internationals and there ...
“The Gracious Villager” who lavishly donated Rupees two hundred and a half lakhs for refurbishment activities of RUWANWELI SEYA By Sunil Thenabadu. The Day was the 3rd June year 1912 which was the POSON full moon Poya Day. There were thousands of devout Buddhist devotees observing Eight Merits clad in untainted white attires were ardently attending to Bana preaching and Meditation activities to invoke blessings , in the Ruwanweli Seya .A group of girls also dressed in spotless white clothing approached the devotees to collect donations. It was for the untainted purpose for the refurbishment of the Ruwanweli Seya stupa. There was an arrogant yet a pleasing looking elderly devotee who was crushing a beetle mix in a brass pounder .”Seeya for the refurbishment activities of the stupa give us a donation” a talkative soul among the girls exclaimed. “Seeya”? how do I become a “Seeya “ to you all? The aged devotee questioned with a smile in a mild manner. Sans an answer all the girls looked on ...
Tribute to JANAKA BALASOORIYA Dreaded Parkinson snatches life cruelly at young age of 45 years By Sunil Thenabadu “To every man upon the earth/death cometh soon or late”, is a memorable phrase of literary legend William Shakespeare. There is also a famous saying that ‘good die young’. It was dreadful Parkinson decease that snatched away the precious life of much loved Janaka Balasooriya at the age of only 45 years, when his life had just commenced to blossom while living in Melbourne having migrated perhaps in search of greener pastures in year 2008.After his secondary education at Isipathana College Janaka had graduated from the Ceylon-German Technical Training Institute in Moratuwa in the year 1991 when he was barely 20 years old. With the training received at the German Tech he was able to find employment effortlessly. He had been the transport Manager at DS Jayasinghe, Nawaloka group and Jefferjee brothers for one and a half decades before opting to migrate. In ...
RoyGrafix Film presents – Halloween 2021 ...
Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB’s) – how do they lower your high blood pressure-by Dr Harold Gunatillake Transcript: What are ARBs? They block the action of angiotensin 11 resulting in lowering of blood pressure. Angiotensin 11 a vasoconstrictor i.e., narrows blood vessels causing increase of blood pressure. Further, angiotensin 11 is a stimulus for salt and water retention in the body, which further increases blood pressure. Angiotensin 11 is derived from an inactive Angiotensin 1 produced from Angiotensinogen a protein made in your liver. ARBs reduce or blocks the action of this hormone angiotensin 11, thereby causing dilatation of blood vessels resulting in lowering of blood pressure. ARBs blocking the action of Angiotensin 11, lowers the blood pressure and prevent damage to the heart and kidneys caused by high blood pressure. So, those who take ARBs should realize that they are also effective in heart and kidney health, in addition to ...
