[sgmuser]

Originally Posted by M.Dua

i am travelling to Srilanka in March end with family and friends, will you guys recommend otherwise? i just have ticket cancellation charges to bear as of now. This looks like a very sorry state

I just called my friend who is in Negombo. According to him, tourism is always welcomed and the essentials could be costlier than usual due to the scarcity of diesel and petrol. Nothing to panic yet for the tourists especially from the safety aspect. Covid protocols are still in effect though.

[arbardhan]

Sri Lanka is at last going to lease huge storage tanks for Petroleum on its eastern coast to India. This will help us stockpile more Petroleum when prices are low. India has Old cultural ties to the country which is another reason to help it.

[maddy42]

Sad to see this occur, but in the current globalized world, a lot of island nations have faced this brunt and have to depend on tourism dollars to save their nations economy.

Curious to know if a bridge connecting india and srilanka would be a feasible option to facvilate easier movement of goods and people. That could bring the countries together. It could be an option in the coming decades.

Lastly you do not want a big moneybag neighbour of ours having his ships and artillery at the southern coast. Do note the south has been sheltered from a lot of the wars we have faced since independence, and letting someone park their ship at your southern coast is the last thing we want.

This would be akin to the East india company and the dutch coming by ships and the rest was history!

Maddy

[anjan_c2007]

Enter the Dragon ! You have allowed it to enter into your otherwise peaceful abode, hoping it will augment your commercial and shipping needs. The Dragon has mutated into millions of white ants and termites to eat into your economy. They are in an attack mode now and are destined to destroy your abode.

Effective pest control is called for. Not sure how and when this will happen ?

[JoshMachine]

Originally Posted by TusharK

Sri Lanka is facing a serious energy crisis as its state-owned petroleum company has run out of cash to buy oil.

This will soon lead to a Dominoes effect.

Shortage of fuel > shortage of goods & transport, essential items > shortage of daily supplies, medicines > inflation increase > decrease in civic tolerance > increase in law & order incidents > > rapid deterioration in standard of living > printing more local currency (?) > devaluation of the Sri Lankan rupee (?) > etc.

Hopefully, the intensity for each of these events may not be that severe, since many nations (India, included) will come forward to offer help in this connected global ecosystem.

Difficult times ahead for our neighbors, unfortunately.

[amol4184]

May be OT. Just some insane perspective US$500 million is 0.2% of Elon Musk's current wealth.

A single person on earth can possibly bankroll an entire country.

[sreerknair]

Originally Posted by amol4184

May be OT. Just some insane perspective US$500 million is 0.2% of Elon Musk's current wealth.

A single person on earth can possibly bankroll an entire country.

An another perspective to it. What he has is just paper wealth. The moment he tries to encash that much money by selling stock, the stock will crash and he will be a millionaire instead of billionaire !!

[mac187]

Here is a good report on the current Sri Lankan situation and how they got there and what it means to Indian Ocean geo politics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVHUwvC7Og0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-KcZ12Lupw

[MarutiGuy1977]

With the ongoing Russia - Ukarine war, Brent Crude has now crossed $100 per barrel (rising from around $80 to this level in the last 3 months). That would further compund the problems for Sri Lanka.

[Guru_Shikhar]

Originally Posted by iamahunter

I understand the part of "help thy neighbors" but at what cost!?

Here in India we have been paying through the roof for that liter of petrol, major chunk which goes to the government as tax. Now that tax is apart from the tax that I've paid on my earnings!

This is tax payer's money which is being offered to the other country!

Why not pass this much subsidy to the people who have generated this money!

Totally agreed. And now while the Ukraine & Russia war is going on; its only going to get worse for all countries even if Saudi and Opec members decide to make extra production ( which I doubt since they don't want to lose on their profits).
On the other hand; India will definitely try to raise its image as a big brother ( we already have supplied fuel and money to help this country).

Things are going to be difficult in coming future for all the world. Netherland is already facing an inflation of 40% ( bread costing 1Euro is sold at 1.40Euros already- information given by one of my good friends staying there).

This situation is worrisome for India too since we also might have to use oil reserves if required. China might use this opoortunity.

There are many if's and but's now.

Let's be ready for another roller coaster ride after covid....

cheers.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by maddy42

Curious to know if a bridge connecting india and srilanka would be a feasible option to facvilate easier movement of goods and people. That could bring the countries together. It could be an option in the coming decades.

In the past, there used to be Boat mail service to Ceylon in which you need to go till Dhanushkodi and then use a ferry to reach SL and then take another train. It was quite popular in South TN for businessmen (We have few family friends who still do business in SL) who had businesses (Jute bag used for packing rice is a quite popular one) till the 1964 cyclone washed away the train and rails.

The Lankan politics completely changed the past decade and don't believe any such moves will happen in near future.

The first blow to their tourism was the Easter bombings which really has shaken the tourism industry there. COVID has hit it even harder and they ended up in this situation now.

Originally Posted by iamahunter

Well that's what I meant by understanding "helping thy neighbour"


Trust and good will will be of no use when the decision will come from Beijing.

I am not sure you were aware that India, two months back, thwarted a Chinese investment in Lanka which is a Solar Park very close in the island near Indian border, Dhanushkodi. Please use google map 'Delf island, Srilanka' and 'Dhanushkodi' to see how close they are. Chinese foreign ministry has officially confirmed this pull out without naming India. Solar Park is just a front but in reality it will be a listening post and have a watch on Kudankulam Nuclear reactor. Our line of credit won't go waste.

[Sran]

Once tourism returns to normal and travel restrictions end worldwide our neighbour will rise up again. Till then we must look out for them as big brothers look out.

Tourism driven economies have taken a hit all over the world. One of my relative as a licensed travel agent used to earn very handsomely and he was a newcomer with only 3 years of exposure. Senior licensed guides earn over 10 lakhs a month. They all have been out of job for couple of years and few are surviving on savings while few others are working odd jobs. Central government did bring out a scheme and paid them one lakh rupee each but loss of income and impending EMI's ate that up easily.

[gupta_chd]

Originally Posted by sreerknair

An another perspective to it. What he has is just paper wealth. The moment he tries to encash that much money by selling stock, the stock will crash and he will be a millionaire instead of billionaire !!

Sorry and OT, but very exaggerated statement. He has already encashed few billions very recently. There are plethora of investment fund houses, big investors, corporates who can buy sizeable stake in a good company from a billionaire founder. Most founders like Bill Gates own nothing much in the companies that made them multi billionaire.

Of course, it is also true that such big stakes cannot be sold overnight. Stock price would crash . Also, Tesla is a peculiar case. Musk is the sole big reason for the high valuation. If he leaves, impact would be catastrophic.

[SnS_12]

Originally Posted by gupta_chd

Sorry and OT, but very exaggerated statement. He has already encashed few billions very recently. There are plethora of investment fund houses, big investors, corporates who can buy sizeable stake in a good company from a billionaire founder. Most founders like Bill Gates own nothing much in the companies that made them multi billionaire.

What bhpian sreerknair is trying to say is that Elon is stock rich and not cash rich. As per Forbes his current net worth is $222.4 bln. That wealth is derived from Musk's ownership stakes in Tesla and SpaceX. He currently doesn't take a salary or cash bonuses, and had not sold a large number of shares in Tesla until last year. He had, instead, taken out sizable loans against a portion of his Tesla shares. Since taxpayers only pay taxes on income or stock once it is sold, Elon never paid a large amount in taxes annually relative to his net worth.

Plus the Twitter poll was all a gimmick as he would have sold anyway and he sold most of it at the peak price. Look at where the share price is from its 52 week high now. Finally he and his brother are now being investigated for insider trading.

To give an eg how a person could have been richer by not selling stocks is Steve Ballmer who was the CEO of Microsoft till 2014. If Ballmer had held on to his stakes/stocks in Microsoft he would have been richer today than Bill Gates one of the founders of Microsoft... Stockmarket is all about buying low selling high but getting it right all the time never works...

Going back to the topic Sri Lanka is now seeing rotational power cuts. With Energy costs getting spiked world over things continue to get difficult for our neighbours

[saisree]

This could be the new low for Srilanka

Sri Lanka cancelled exams for millions of school students as the country ran out of printing paper with Colombo short on dollars to finance imports, officials said Saturday

Education authorities said the term tests, scheduled a week from Monday, were postponed indefinitely due to an acute paper shortage as Sri Lanka contends with its worst financial crisis since independence in 1948.
"School principals cannot hold the tests as printers are unable to secure foreign exchange to import necessary paper and ink," the department of Education of the Western Province said.
Official sources said the move could effectively hold up tests for around two thirds of the country's 4.5 million students.

Long queues have formed across the country for groceries and oil with the government instituting rolling electricity blackouts and rationing of milk powder, sugar, lentils and rice

Source