LTTE manipulating Colombo stock marcket?

The roller coaster ride of the pivotal Colombo stock exchange despite the overwhelming success of the governments USD 500 million sovereign bond has raised fears of a possible manipulation of the bourse by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

In the backdrop of the Sri lankan Central Bank warning that a person failing to report a suspicious financial transaction could face a fine of up to one million Sri Lankan Rupees, a former Secretariat for Coordinating Peace Process (SCOPP) official has revealed the possible participation of the LTTE in the Colombo Stock Exchange.

The Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) is the only stock exchange licensed by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka.

Shanaka Jayasekera, a researcher of the Centre for Policy, Intelligence and Counter Terrorism of Macquarie University, Australia has alleged that it was revealed by the SCOPP of the "possible participation of the LTTE in the CSE".

In his research paper, the expert said that with LTTE's main supply and procurement lines disrupted by the Sri Lankan Navy with its 10th -- floating ware house -- ship sunk south east off Dondra Head recently, the tigers were being pushed to find new avenues of raising finances to continue their arms conflict.

In this backdrop, investment in the CSE provides a good opportunity to raise funds for the rebels to fight the government, Jayasekara said, adding this allegation had come to light during British investigations on the Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO), a known LTTE supporter.

Mukesh becomes world's richest

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Monday became the richest person in the world, surpassing American software czar Bill Gates, Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim Helu and famous investment guru Warren Buffett, courtesy the bull run in the stock market.

Following a strong share price rally today in his three group companies -- India's most valued firm Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd -- the net worth of Mukesh Ambani rose to 63.2 billion dollars (Rs 2,49,108 crore).

In comparison, the net worth of both Gates and Slim is estimated to be slightly lower at around 62.29 billion dollars each, with Slim leading among the two by a narrow margin.

Warren Buffett, earlier the third richest in the world, also dropped one position with a net worth of about 56 billion dollars.

Ambani's wealth of about Rs 2,49,000 crore includes about Rs 2,10,000 crore from RIL (50.98 per cent stake), Rs 37,500 crore from RPL (37.5 per cent) and Rs 2,100 crore from RIIL (46.23 per cent).

Slim's wealth has been calculated on the basis of his stake in companies like America Movil (30 per cent), Carso Global (82 per cent), Grupo Carso (75 per cent), Inbursa (67 per cent), IDEAL (30 per cent) and Saks Inc (10 per cent).

According to information available with the US and Mexican stock exchanges where these companies are listed, Slim currently holds shares worth a total of USD 62.2993 billion, with more than half coming from Latin American mobile major America Movil. Slim is closely followed by Gates with a net worth of 62.29 billion dollars currently.

TiGo Introduces Per Second Billing

For the first time in Sri Lankan mobile history TiGo introduces per second billing for it’s pre paid customers. By this method subscribers only have to pay only for what they use. Under this new method outgoing calls to any network will be 10 cents per second and outgoing to TiGo numbers will be 5 cents. And also incoming calls from any network are 2 minutes free and thereafter 10 cents per second. Incoming from TiGo numbers are totally free at any time.

TiGo also offers a total incoming free plan without any daily rental.

Longest Bridge

The longest bridge ever built in Sri Lanka declared open on 25^th October. This bridge links North Central Province and Eastern Province across Mahawali at Manampitiya. The Bridge 302 m. in length, 10.4 meters wide is located at the 81st kilometer of Maradankadawala, Habarana-Thrikkundiyadimadu road in the Pollonnaruwa district.

This has been built at a cost of Rs.1.3 billion with help from the Japan international co-operation agency. The importance is it has took only two years to complete the construction work of this bridge

Air Force Loose 9 Air Crafts Due To LTTE Attacks

According to official statements by Defence Ministry of Sri Lanka, SLAF has lost 9 aircrafts after the LTTE attack on Anuradhapura airbase.

Pictures of aircrafts destroyed by LTTE attack on Anuradhapura airbase.














Beach Craft (Surveillance aircraft) - one



PT-6 (Basic trainer) - three













BELL 206 (Basic helicopter trainer) - one





MI 24 (Helicopter gun ship) - one














K-8 (Advance trainer) - one


A Picture of BELL 212 helicopter crashed in Mihintale due to technical failure.

SLT Mobitel Reduces Call Charges

Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel has reduced their tariff one again. Now Mobitel subscribers can experience the lowest outgoing rates within the same mobile network which is Rs.2/= per minute(Between 6.00 a.m to 6.00 p.m and 11.00p.m to 6.00am). SMS are just Rs 1/=(24 Hrs) and MMS 2/=(24Hrs).
SLT offers variety of pre paid and post paid packages and SMART5 is the most famous pre paid revolution among them.

SMART5 Call Charges

Outgoing : Rs. 5.00 (Any Network)
Rs. 2.00 (Between 11.00 p.m -6.00 a.m) (Any Network)

Incomming : 2 mins Free. Thereafter 5 per minute. Rs. 2.00 (Between 11.00 p.m -6.00 a.m)

The good thing is subscribers will get a 10% discount on all above charges and 20% discount after using a SMART5 connection for 2 years. Apart from above smart features subscribers can even activate “Any8” feature and “Total Incoming Free” feature for just Rs. 5/= per day. Total Incoming Free is good if you are a crazy listener. Any8 is similar to Dialog’s My5 but in Any8 you can add 8 numbers of any networks(even land lines). Outgoing will be Rs. 3/= and SMS will be 0.75 Cents. The other good thing is you can change these numbers 8 times a month without any extra cost.
You can activate these features by sending and sms saying “allincfree” to 7678. Then you can dial 141 and add your most frequently called numbers.

LTTE Attack on Anuradhapura Airbase - Sri Lanka

Pictures of recent LTTE attack on Anuradhapura Airbase, Sri Lanka. Videos will be uploaded if available in the future.

Sri Lanka Telecom Reduces Tariff

Sri Lanka’s largest fixed line operator Sri Lanka Telecom has recently announced a tariff revision in compliance with the recent court order. A group of SLT customers filed a case in Supreme Court against current billing system of SLT.
New SLT tariff plan:
Monthly Rental : Rs 350.00 (Domestic) / Rs 950.00 (Business) / Rs 50 (Religious)
Free Outgoing : Rs 400.00 there after usage will be calculated on per second basis.

Hutch Connects One Million Users

Sri Lanka’s budget mobile telephony operator Hutch recently passed one million subscriber base hurdle. Although almost all four companies figure out their subscriber base in millions actual active numbers of connections are not exposed to public.
Hutch caters lower usage market of Sri Lankan mobile telephony market and has been able to reach even most rural parts of Sri Lanka. Although Hutch subscribers frequently experience call drops, delayed message delivery, poor signal quality and network busy, most of them are bound to Hutch’s unique low tariff plans. However it is expected Sri Lankan mobile phone charges will be reduced more when Airtel launch it’s operations next year.

Sri Lanka Air Base comes under attack by LTTE Terrorists

Several small groups of LTTE carders and a light air plane started an attack on Sri Lankan air base at Anuradhapura at about 3.20am (22 October).
According to officials, a MI 24 helicoper and a K8 air craft have severely damaged. Another Bell 212 helicoter has crached in to a jungle near Mihinthale along with two pilots and two gunmans. Officials say this is due to a technical fault of the helicopter.

New Players

One of the few IT related competitions, National Best Quality Software Awards 2007 was recently held in Colombo with the participation of IT proffesionals, University students and many other key personals of various industries.
The National Best Quality Software Awards (NBQSA) competition is an annual event organized by the British Computer Society Sri Lanka (BCSSL) Section. The avowed objectives of the NBQSA competition are threefold : To provide recognition to outstanding achievements of individuals and organizations in Sri Lanka who/which have contributed to the development of ICT, to create a window to gain international recognition for locally developed ICT products and to improve standards and the quality of local ICT products and services to be able to compete in the international market place.
Three groups from Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) won Gold, Silver and a Merit award at this event.

Business People

Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology -SLIIT is calling applications for Business Management degree. This is a new degree level course which is offered by the institute which is designed to fulfill the industry requirements for qualified business personals. This three year degree course is offerd with collaboration of Sheffield Hallam University-Uk. By this approach Sri Lankan students can earn an foreign degree at an affordable price. For more info visit SLIIT web site.

Two army soldiers injured in shooting incident - Colombo

Two army personnel clad in civil dresses were shot and injured by an unidentified pistol man around 2.30 p.m in Colombo today, October 05th.

According to the available information, the incident took place in the close vicinity to the Darusalam School in Maligawaththa, Colombo.

Two victims were rushed to the National hospital in Colombo for immediate medical attention, sources further added.

Valuable Information on this incident are being revealed by the police questioning few suspicious people who have been arrested in the subsequent search operation conducted in the area.

Air Force targets top LTTE leader; confirms hideout destroyed - Vishvamadu

Sri Lanka Air Force fighter jets targeted a hideout of a very senior LTTE leader which was located at Vishvamadu, in the north of Iranamadu this morning (October 2). Air force sources said that the target was completely destroyed in the air raid that took place at 6.30 a.m.

The sources further said that the target was taken after keeping it under air surveillance for a long time whilst the ground intelligence sources had continuously updated its recent activities.

Defence intelligence sources said that the hideout also was a frequent meeting place for the LTTE kingpins where they used to plan major terrorist attacks.

SLT partners with PC House to distribute Broadband Internet

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the country’s only integrated telecommunication service provider recently signed an agreement with PC House, a leading IT Solutions provider in Sri Lanka to expand its sales distribution channel for the company’s Broadband products. Through this initiative SLT will be able to offer Broadband products to its customers via 41 PC House branches including North and East in addition to SLT teleshop’s and Regional offices island wide.



PC House will serve customers with SLT Broadband products such as Entrée Package, Home Express Package and the Office Express Package on ADSL technology which provides download speed up to 2Mbps connectivity. Any customers can purchase equipment such as PCs/Laptops, ADSL modems and routers from any PC House branch with the technical support for the configuration. Also with this initiative PC House will accept new applications for the SLT Broadband products.



Speaking on the significance of the tie up, Shoji Takahashi, CEO of SLT said: “I am proud to go forward with this venture with an innovative company such as PC House. Their support will go a long way in helping us to popularize Broadband service in urban and rural areas of the country equally.”



This partnership will expand SLT’s sales outlets for its Broadband products through PC House branch network and their Mobile PC buses becoming the authorised dealer of SLT Broadband services.



“We have tied up with SLT in order to go to rural areas and provide connectivity via ADSL through the company. The partnership ensures that PC House provides the hardware component while SLT provides the software component to supply Broadband connectivity. This will enable potential customers from rural areas to be able to access the Internet. We will be going for a joint marketing venture with SLT and we will take this forward through synchronizing the strengths of both companies,” S H M Rishan, Chairman, PC House.



The business partnership between the two companies will help the customer with giving the opportunity of purchasing PC/Laptop, ADSL modems, ADSL Routers as well as supply for a SLT Broadband connection under one roof. It is also convenient as there would be more sales outlets through authorised dealers. SLT is ready to cater to future demands on broadband services such as IP TV, which will be aware in the very near future. The company looks forward to delivering more products and services through business convergence between business partners.



PC House is renowned for offering customers the best options in computers and accessories with an innovative product portfolio and an unparalleled after-sales service. Today, PC House is the business partner in Sri Lanka for a wide variety of prestigious international brands such as Intel, Philips, Gigabyte, US Robotics, Logitech/Labtec range of products, Power Tree Uninterruptible Power Supply Systems and Philips PC Peripherals. PC House also boasts of their own branded PC ‘PANORA.’ Further they are also business partners for the IBM range of Computer Solutions and Gold System Builder for Microsoft.



Sri Lanka Telecom (www.slt.lk) is one of the country’s most valuable blue chip companies with an annual turnover in excess of Rs 40 billion. Whilst NTT Communications Corporation of Japan owns a 35.2% stake in Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), 49.2% is owned by the Government of Sri Lanka and 15.3% is listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange. The company was also awarded an AAA (sri) rating by Fitch Ratings Lanka followed by a BB- international rating by Fitch International.



SLT Group has a customer base of over two million including multinational corporations, large and small corporate, retail and domestic customers. Today with NTT Communications of Japan as a strategic partner, SLT provides facilities and services: voice, data, video and mobile to its customers, which are unmatched in scope. These services range from domestic and international voice, advance data transmission services which include internet services on leased lines, broadband [on ADSL] and dial up, data circuits, frame relay solutions to IP services such as IP-VPN based on IP-MPLS technology, total corporate solutions of multiple services, satellite uplink services and mobile telephony through the fully owned subsidiary Mobitel.

With a view to making Sri Lanka a broadband island, SLT is in the process of introducing the necessary infrastructure in the form of NGN [Next Generation Networks] using optical fibre backbone and broadband services such as IMS, IPTV etc. SLT also provides high speed global connectivity to countries in the South Asian region through its investments in international submarine cables such as SMW3, SMW4 and the Bharat Lanka submarine cable [between India and Sri Lanka] and Dhirragu-SLT submarine cable system between Maldives Islands and Sri Lanka. Newly incorporate SLT Hong Kong Ltd, a fully owned subsidiary of Sri Lanka Telecom, fully geared to provide services such as IP transit, IPVPN, IPLC and International voice traffic transit services to global telecom operators and corporates in Hong Kong.