Daniel Alphonsus

A crisis manifesto: exorcising debt, hunger and unemployment. Summary 🧵 drive.google.com/file/d/1xJHG9j… 1/14

#SriLanka embarrassingly hosted a South Asian electronic procurement conference over 10 years ago, where we were one of the most backward nations - thanks to scrapping of the National Procurement Agency set up in 2006 and dismantling all progress made till 2008 or so. #PBJ 1/5

And restart coastal shipping. As long as I have paperwork, I should be allowed to ship cargo between India and Lanka in my own vessel - whatever the size and port.

This is happening 275 km away from Colombo. How can we plug into this opportunity. Historic port to future hub: Thoothukudi's giant leap for global reach business-standard.com/industry/news/…

Why not for all countries with a per capita GDP 4x ours?

🚨 Number of women employed in factories by state in India.

Happy to hear Anura Kumara Dissanayake speak out passionately against maintaining low-attendance schools in Parliament today. Here's what a committee I was a part of said in 2024: "Reduce the number of schools with less than 100 students and make optimal use of those resources:…

🚨 Number of factories in each state.

The problem is not exams, it’s badly set and badly marked exams. In the AI era, continuous assessment is going to be especially counter-productive.

Spot on @YohanLawrence3 in this interview themorning.lk/articles/lL0tk…: "need for a dedicated team focused entirely on trade negotiations". We flagged this in @CSFasia April 2025 Policy Note too | 'Eight Priority Trade and Competitiveness Reforms for #SL' csf-asia.org/wp-content/upl… (1/4)

2015-2020: Cohabitation, good governance or just getting things done?

Nothing like concentrating mixed-use buildings, shallow and tall, at the perimeter of the block for optimizing the density to green area ratio. (left Prague mid-rise perimeter block, right Chicago freestanding low-rise block) Prague has more tram and metro/train stops (but fewer…

“The company will get exemptions for import duty, value added tax and excise tax for project related investments.” There maybe some justification for tax breaks that attract talent. No reason for subsidizing real-estate rents.

This is the only competitive sport the Lankan government should be interested in.

Meanwhile in a parallel universe 32 kms away…

Although far from either / or, basic infra is a much higher priority than tourism marketing campaigns.

This is the chart we need for Lanka.

On today’s uni drama - when I pointed out that calculations for the no pay leave penalty is wrong, I was asked to write a separate letter to the Vice Chancellor, through Dean and Head of Department. This is what administration harassment looks like