OPINIONUS$ 45.9 million for life sciences research announced at British Business Embassy
Ministers announced substantial new funding awards to boost the UK life sciences industry, when around 300 UK and international delegates met in London for the British Business Embassy Life Sciences summit during the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The event also focused on how translational research can be used to develop novel therapeutics and medical technologies and examine the expanding role of informatics and digital technology in healthcare delivery.
Health Secretary, Andrew Lansley and Universities and Science Minister, David Willetts announced that the first awards amounting to US$ 15.9 million from the UK Government’s US$ 285.5 million Biomedical Catalyst have been awarded to 14 UK universities and 18 Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).
‘Ground Zero’ your organisational structure
As organisations age, their structures get firmly entrenched and run the risk of creating high cost, low agility bureaucracies. Consequently, their ability to sense and respond to new opportunities become impaired (think Kodak).Therefore, rather than make incremental changes to an organisational structure, it is a healthy exercise to go entirely ‘Ground Zero’. Assuming you have no limitations, what should your organisational structure look like? Then, work out how to get from current structure to the ideal. Do not let the implementation barriers get in the way of ‘Ground Zero’ thinking.
Sri Lanka rejoining the world!
The place isn’t a paradise for minorities but the economy is recovering
By Sam Baker
Asuasentinel.com: The Government of Mahinda Rajapaksa in Sri Lanka has probably botched its dealings with the United States, the European Union and the United Nations. Still, the disenchantment with Colombo may be overblown three years after the end of the 26-year civil war, which ended in 2009.
While major countries and agencies continue to wag their fingers in irritation, they are privately moving ahead with interacting with the government.
Share market scandal erupts in Sri Lanka
By Saman Gunadasa
World Socialist Web Site: A scandal over the manipulation of shares on the Colombo Stock Exchange has erupted in recent weeks, after former Sri Lankan Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Thilak Karunaratne accused Government ministers of acting in league with speculators.
Karunaratne was pressured by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to quit his position, just nine months after his appointment. The apparent reason for his ouster was that the SEC had commenced investigations into 17 companies accused of abusing the share market.
Political dynasty wanted for adoption!
It was well past the graveyard shift, but I had to get to Minister Mervyn Silva. Evil-doers had cast a fiendish spell and he had just promulgated his impending suicide. His has been a monumental crusade for the oppressed, goats including. I raced towards Kelaniya. Just then the phone rang. His young son Malaka had, yet again, found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time. Scampered to JAIC Hilton. Why couldn’t they leave him alone to get high on his youthfulness just as any other stripling would?
Private Hospitals Association’s case for employing foreign medical specialists
In the last 15 years, the major hospitals invested over Rs. 50 billion by way of total expenditure to increase capacity building within the private healthcare sector by investing in necessary infrastructure, cutting edge technology and continuous development in human capital in the clinical discipline. The centres have created several hundreds of employment opportunities with more than 45,000 servicing the sector directly and over 100,000 indirectly.
Trouble in the neighbourhood
The social media network Twitter erupted on Monday after several people tweeted that a cartoon in a Sri Lankan weekend newspaper depicting Indian Premier Manmohan Singh and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha Jayaram in a crude way was demeaning to women and an insult to India.
Sri Lanka and the UK: Creative opportunities for the future
As the British Business Embassy events, held on the sidelines of the Olympic Games, got under way at Lancaster House in London, 30-31 July 2012 were dedicated to the UK’s creative industries.
Firms announced deals that could bring in up to £ 82.5m of investment, and UK Trade & Investment announced a new strategic partnership worth £ 400,000 to support the British film industry, while a UK firm announced that it had won two contracts in Malaysia to design projects with a construction value of more than £ 300 million.
Arab world shifts towards unity and justice
By Rashika Fazali
One hundred years ago, the Middle East had a different shape and form, said former Director General of the Al Jazeera Network and Sharq Forum President Wadah Khanfar, delivering a lecture titled ‘Arab Awakening: The New Political Paradigm’.
He was delivering the 15th commemorative lecture of former Speaker of the Sri Lanka Parliament Deshamanya M.A. Bakeer Markar, held at the Sri Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi Auditorium by the Board of Governors of the Bakeer Markar Centre for National Unity (BMCNU).
BMCNU as an organisation promotes the vision of the late Markar, and every year this organisation takes the initiative of promoting what Markar stood for: National unity.
Ceylon Tea in catch 22? Is there a solution?
The analysis of the Tea Plantation Industry (TPI) by Rohantha Athukorala in Daily FT of 22 May 2012 indicates a serious situation in the plantations.
Has the TPI become nonviable mainly due to the wage increases granted and due to the decline in the demand from the Middle Eastern and North African markets? How did the “…model to the world across the value chain, from growing to production and from physical distribution to the most admired auction system in the world” become a God’s worry?
The present situation is certainly a very big worry as the SL Tea Industry (TI) generates US$ 1.5 b annually and gives employment to close to a million people.
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