Modern Sri Lanka Studies

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https://ir.lib.pdn.ac.lk/handle/20.500.14444/267

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    Book review "Dutch and British colonial intervention in Sri Lanka 1780-1815: expansion and reform"
    (University of Peradeniya, 2013) De Silva, B.
    As the tile of the book points to, the study of both Dutch and British periods has been attempted by the author in this single monograph but the British phase is restricted to the intervention in the maritime areas. In this phase, the Dutch experiment formed the guiding principle in laying down the administrative policy except for Governor North's ill-conceived introduction of Madrasi tax farmers which led to revolt and their recall. The Dutch administrator of Batticaloa, the young Swiss merchant, Jacob Burnand had influenced the British system of early administration so much so that the author observes that 'by adopting the image of the former regime to his own ideals, by stressing its stability, experienced and what he called "enlightened" background, Burnand legitimized Maitland's own course in the island, based on his own idea about the progress and development of societies'
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    An assessment of sector specific living wages for Sri Lankan apparel industry workers
    (University of Peradeniya, 2013) Kuruppuge, R.H.; Prasanna, R.P.I.R.
    The workers in the apparel industry are often recognized as precariously employed workers due to low wage. These low wages eventually push the workers into debt, malnutrition, cause health problems, and make workers and their dependents extremely vulnerable to unemployment, disability and faster deterioration in old age. Thus, this study attempts to assess the living wage specific to apparel industry workers to support the contention that living wage can contribute to enhance workers economic and social status in the industry while analyzing the existing wage problem in the industry. The data for the study was sourced from a Local Area Survey carried out both in- and out-side Free Trade Zones during September 2012. The study adopted the nutritional based living wage estimation method to derive the living wage for industry workers by employing actual expenditure patterns of workers on food and non-food consumption. The result indicated a significantly high gap between the actual wage and the living wage, indicating the precarious situation of low wage women workers. Finally, it was evident that filling this high gap between living and actual wage and implementing living wage in the apparel industry lead to solving many problems related to workers and the industry in the country.
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    Diffusion of religious values and repositioning the god Sakra in Sinhalese religious pantheon: The case of new Lakshmi Shrine in Katharagama
    (University of Peradeniya, 2013) Rasnayake, S.; Kamalrathne, T.; Pradeep, H.U.S.
    Historically, Buddhism in Sri Lanka has been shaped by various socio-economic and political frameworks. Within the existing sociological and anthropological literatures on Buddhism's changes in Sri Lanka, the present paper intended on analyzing the impact of Christian teachings on Buddhist religious pantheon as related to the legend of God Sakra at present social context. According to Buddhist teachings, an individual is provided with positive consequences depending on his/her meritorious actions and demerits depending on his/her evil actions. This is a fundamental principle in the Buddhist philosophy. The concept of merit- sin (Pin-paw) is based on this fundamental principle. There is no Buddhist teaching on chasing or flushing of sin. Nevertheless, there is an organized religious cult with ritual performing to god Sakra at Kataragama new Lakshmi shrine which is believed to be influencing the devotees to believe in flushing or canceling their sins in this world. The God Sakra is imaginary god of Buddhist church. Nevertheless, with the development of particular set of ritual practices, god Sakra is being transformed as a living god in the devotee's court.
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    A study on supply chain network of textiles and clothing industry in Sri Lanka
    (University of Peradeniya, 2013) Jayawickrama, A.
    Like many other emerging economies, Sri Lanka relies more on the performance of its textiles and clothing industry for its export-led growth. Textiles and clothing industry has many stages in its value chain: production of fibers, fabrics, other materials and finished clothing. The distribution of stages of production and marketing activities among countries is important in understanding the industry's value chain. This paper intends to identify the position of Sri Lanka in the value chain of the global textiles and clothing industry. Such information is important in shaping economic policies to improve the competitiveness in global market. We found that Sri Lanka's textiles and clothing industry has important linkages with South Asia, East Asia and ASEAN countries as it outsources a large part of textile materials from these countries. The market for the country's final clothing products is dominated by the US and the EU. Though Sri Lanka's textile material production industry is relatively small at present, the country exports such products to China, India and other South Asian countries, the US, ASEAN and EU countries and to countries where the clothing industry is rapidly expanding. Concentrating more on textile material production is important for Sri Lanka when advancing to the next level of industrialization. This will enable the country to enhance the domestic value addition and labour productivity in the industry.
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    Factors affecting total factor productivity growth in Sri Lanka
    (University of Peradeniya, 2013) Gamage, G.G.S.N.; Kankanamge, A.
    Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth has used widely in the growth literature as a proxy variable to measure technological growth. Using aggregate annual data from 1977 - 2007 this study examines factors affecting TFP growth. In the first stage of the study it computes TFP growth for Sri Lanka in a standard growth accounting framework. In the second stage, the study develops OLS and GLS models to test the effect of FDI, openness, and ICT investment on TFP growth. In all models FDI has a significant and positive effect on TFP growth which is consistent with the literature. Import share variable has only a weak effect on TFP growth which questions the effect of liberal trade policies on TFP growth and needs further investigation. Our conclusion on the effect of government investments on TFP growth is not final as it shows a negative impact. We recommend in depth analysis of the effect of government investments on TFP growth in future studies. Investment in ICT related industries also shows a positive but weaker effect on TFP growth and it could be due to limitations in the data. Overall the results are consistent in all models and consistent with the results of other countries. Policies that attract more foreign investments and ICT related investments can be recommended for TFP growth.