SenzMate, the Internet of Things tech company born in Jaffna
By Jekhan Aruliah I visited SenzMate a few months ago, and am only now getting around to writing about them. The reason for my hesitation has been although …
Yarl Geek Challenge and Arima Technologies Bringing Silicon Valley to Jaffna
By Jekhan Aruliah “That which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”, a much used saying originating from the 19th Century German philosopher Friedrich …
Fishing For Sustainable Profits in the Northern Province
By Jekhan Aruliah I have so often heard from well meaning cash rich Diaspora that they can’t find sensible investment opportunities in the North. As the Good …
HappyMarket.lk Helping Small Entrepreneurs Bust the Sales Barrier
By Jekhan Aruliah If your objective is to make money you’d better be sure you know how to sell. If you need to feed and house and educate your family. Or you …
Small Northern Businesses Struggle for Funding
By Jekhan Aruliah There is an old joke: “The fastest way to become a millionaire is to be a billionaire and buy an airline”. The airline will lose …
Jaffna’s Emerging Women Entrepreneurs
By Jekhan Aruliah Jaruza Jayachandran states with no embarrassment that she didn’t do well at school. When she used to go for parent-teacher meetings at one …
From Toronto to Toddy, a Jaffna Entrepreneur’s Journey
By Jekhan Aruliah When it comes to investment in the North there is far more talk than there is action. A rare example of action is Suganthan Shanmuganathan. …
Birth, Death and Rebirth of Jaffna’s Moolai Cooperative Hospital
By Jekhan Aruliah In the North-West corner of the Jaffna Peninsula close to the causeway to Karainagar Island is the small village of Moolai. It is a patch of …
Jaffna to New York’s Wall Street and back to Jaffna
By Jekhan Aruliah Back in the day Raj Janan’s father was a successful industrialist in Jaffna, owning at various times an aluminium factory, a knitwear …
Dr. Ravi Perumalpillai, Oxford Surgeon who became a Jaffna Farmer
By Jekhan Aruliah I write this piece as my appreciation of a Diasporan who came back to Jaffna and made a difference, sowing economic and medical seeds in the …
Entrepreneurs in Jaffna? Take a look in Ammachi!
By Jekhan Aruliah Soon after I moved to Jaffna in 2015 I heard rumours of this fantastic food court run by war widows. Friends driving North from Colombo said …
OPINION: 90,000 Northern families in shanties or homeless. What happened to Govt. promised housing?
By Jekhan Aruliah In October last year I had the privilege of participating in the blessing of a new water well in the Killinochchi District of the Northern …
OPINION: The Sri Lankan tourist industry’s ignorance of the North starts at the top
By Jekhan Aruliah I must first congratulate the Sri Lanka Tourist Development Authority (SLTDA) before I criticise it. Just a few days after the publication of …
Opinion: Northern Province Tourism? Is there more in the North than just Jaffna’s airport?
By Jekhan Aruliah According to the Sri Lanka Tourist Development Authority’s (SLTDA) map of “Tourist Attractions” at the time of writing this post, the …
Opinion: Northern poverty and poor health reduced by lessons from wartime foraging
By Jekhan Aruliah The British author Charles Dickens created a character, Mr.Micawber, who was permanently in debt. Translated into a Sri Lankan context, …
Opinion: Northern Province had highest growth rate in 2015. Good news for North or not?
By Jekhan Aruliah Don’t be misled by the 2014-2015 Provincial GDP Growth figures . The Northern Province had the joint highest GDP growth rate that year. …
Opinion: Is Jaffna a hotbed of crime and vice? The official data says no
By Jekhan Aruliah We have all made excuses to explain why we didn’t do stuff. I still remember a boy at school attempting the legendary “dog ate my …
Opinion: Why are Tamil Medium junior school students doing so abysmally in Sri Lanka?
By Jekhan Aruliah At my usual breakfast haunt in Jaffna I pay Rs40 for two fresh dosai with all the spicy pol sambal and tasty sambar I can eat (tea is an …
Opinion: Government, Private Sector and Diaspora are failing to revive Northern economy
By Jekhan Aruliah More than seven years since the end in 2009 of the decades long Sri Lanka civil war, job creation initiatives in the North remain mainly …
Opinion: Jaffna, high literacy, low employment and lowest income. How come?
By Jekhan Aruliah Despite the Jaffna district having the second highest Literacy Rate in Sri Lanka, it does badly on employment and dismally on incomes. …