First-ever Sri Lanka Capital Markets Investor Forum kicks off in UK today

• Large contingent of around 50 from Sri Lanka in London for one-day event at Savoy Hotel
• Over 150 fund managers and investment bankers from UK to attend
• Central Bank Chief Cabraal to keynote Forum, showcasing post-war growth potential and investment opportunities
• Presentation by world’s largest asset manager BlackRock a key highlight in the event organised in association with London Stock Exchange and Bloomberg
• Heads and senior executives of 9 listed companies and 15 broking firms to woo more UK investments

By Nisthar Cassim
in London
The first-ever Sri Lanka Capital Markets Investor Forum kicks off today in London as the industry makes a concerted effort to woo fresh interests from the UK to the post-war resurgence in the country.
A large contingent of around 50 business leaders from private sector and capital markets is attending the event at Savoy Hotel, London along with several Government officials.
The full-day event is organised by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Colombo Stock Exchange in association with the London Stock Exchange and Bloomberg.
As of yesterday around 150 UK fund managers, investment bankers and investors have registered to listen to the opportunities in Sri Lanka, which has shown considerable improvement in macro-economic fundamentals as well as rise in foreign direct and portfolio investments since the end of the war in May 2009.
A spokesman for the CSE described the extent of registrations as “unprecedented”.
The event will focus on the growth potential and opportunities available in the capital market as well as Sri Lanka in general.

Warren Buffett Teach kids financial literacy to spark entrepreneurship

Reuters: Billionaire investor Warren Buffett has a double life – as a cartoon character. In his ‘Secret Millionaires Club,’ an animated series online and on television, Buffett teaches a group of kids about financial literacy and entrepreneurship.
In real life, the club includes an annual ‘Grow Your Own Business Challenge’ for kids who come up with business ideas.
The winners were chosen on Monday: Beaux Up, a customisable bow tie business by 15-year-old Jake Johnson of North Carolina in the individual competition; and WiseGuide, an intergenerational online community, from Krystal and Allyson Graylin and Kei Chua from Seattle, Washington, in the team contest. The winners each received $ 5,000, and all finalists received 10 Berkshire Class B shares, worth $ 1,271 at the closing of the market on Monday.
Buffett, the third-richest person on the Forbes list of wealthiest people and the chairman and chief executive of conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, took some time to talk to Reuters about kids, financial literacy and why he still bets big on the US economy. The questions and answers have been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Q: Are you seeing any trends among the entries?
A: There’s a greater tech aspect to some of the entries than there was in the past. They know a lot at age 10 or 11 that I don’t know at age 83. They’re incorporating into their projects tech features now even more than a couple years ago.

Q: Are they changing your own feelings on the tech sector?
A: I’ve always said I don’t know enough about tech to compete with the rest of the world, and I don’t think I know enough to compete with a bunch of 12-year-olds.

Modi-Mahinda talks: Indian PM renews 13 Plus call

• Indian Foreign Secretary says Modi discussed 13A in detail with MR
• Modi calls for reconciliation that meets aspirations of Tamils during bilateral talks
• Presidents Office omits references to 13A talks
• Indian leadership vital to SAARC: MR

By Dharisha Bastians
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, whose Government has been euphoric about the BJP victory, held his first official talks with the newly-sworn-in Premier of India yesterday, but found that Narendra Modi echoed the call of his predecessors for full devolution under the terms of the 13th Amendment and beyond for Sri Lankan Tamils.
The two leaders met for their first bilateral discussions at Hyderabad House in New Delhi at 10:30 a.m. yesterday.
Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh told reporters following the meeting between the two leaders that Prime Minister Modi had called for “full implementation of the 13th Amendment and beyond” – the infamous ‘13 Plus’ mantra that Indian Government has been insistent about since the end of the war.

Singh said the 13th Amendment had been “discussed at some length” between Prime Minister Modi and President Rajapaksa.
The new Indian Prime Minister had appealed to President Rajapaksa that the process of reconciliation should be undertaken in a way that meets the aspirations of the Tamil people within a united Sri Lanka, the Indian Foreign Secretary noted following the meeting.

Aitken Spence ups bottom line by 12% to Rs. 3.7 b in FY14

Blue chip conglomerate Aitken Spence PLC yesterday reported profit attributable to shareholders of Rs. 3.7 billion in Financial Year 2013/14, an increase of 11.7% over the previous year’s profit of Rs. 3.3 billion.
Profit before tax was Rs. 5.4 billion and profit after tax was Rs. 4.5, recording growth of 7.6% and 5.5% respectively. The diversified Group’s annual revenue declined marginally to Rs. 36.6 billion whilst earnings per share improved by 11.7% to Rs. 9.04 for the financial year.
In a statement Aitken Spence said the Group’s bottom line was driven primarily by the Tourism sector. Sri Lanka welcomed over 1.27 million tourists during the year 2013, with a target of 1.5 million set for 2014.The boom in the tourism industry was reflected in the Group’s performance with the revenue of the Tourism sector for the financial year growing by 9.4 % to Rs. 16.9 billion and profit before tax surging by 26.3 % to Rs. 4.4 billion.

What is Apache Lucene

Apache LuceneTM is a high-performance, full-featured text search engine library written entirely in Java. It is a technology suitable for nearly any application that requires full-text search, especially cross-platform.
Apache Lucene is an open source project available for free download. Please use the links on the right to access Lucene.

LuceneTM Downloads

LuceneTM Features
Lucene offers powerful features through a simple API:
Scalable, High-Performance Indexing
over 150GB/hour on modern hardware
small RAM requirements -- only 1MB heap
incremental indexing as fast as batch indexing
index size roughly 20-30% the size of text indexed
Powerful, Accurate and Efficient Search Algorithms
ranked searching -- best results returned first
many powerful query types: phrase queries, wildcard queries, proximity queries, range queries and more
fielded searching (e.g. title, author, contents)
sorting by any field
multiple-index searching with merged results
allows simultaneous update and searching
flexible faceting, highlighting, joins and result grouping
fast, memory-efficient and typo-tolerant suggesters
pluggable ranking models, including the Vector Space Model and Okapi BM25
configurable storage engine (codecs)
Cross-Platform Solution
Available as Open Source software under the Apache License which lets you use Lucene in both commercial and Open Source programs
100%-pure Java
Implementations in other programming languages available that are index-compatible



Lucene implementations in languages other than Java:

• CLucene - Lucene implementation in C++ 
• Lucene.Net - Lucene implementation in .NET 
• Lucene4c - Lucene implementation in C 
• LuceneKit - Lucene implementation in Objective-C (Cocoa/GNUstep support) 
• Lupy - Lucene implementation in Python (RETIRED) 
• NLucene - another Lucene implementation in .NET (out of date) 
• Zend Search - Lucene implementation in the Zend Framework for PHP 5 
• Plucene - Lucene implementation in Perl 
• KinoSearch - a new Lucene implementation in Perl 
• PyLucene - GCJ-compiled version of Java Lucene integrated with Python 
• MUTIS - Lucene implementation in Delphi 
• Ferret - Lucene implementation in Ruby 
• Montezuma - Lucene implementation in Common Lisp 

LuceneTM Tutorials

Marianne Page sees value in the market

One of the longstanding promoters of foreign portfolio inflows Marianne Page yesterday declared that she sees value in the Colombo stock market.
Operating out of Singapore, Marianne told journalists in Colombo yesterday that recent foreign outflows were largely on a particular stock with funds taking profit and regional phenomenon of overall re-allocation of assets. However she said that frontier market funds remain upbeat on Sri Lanka with renewed focus and growing interest.

$ 430 m TATA Slave Island housing project kicks off

Secretary Defence and Urban Development Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday kicked off the proposed commercial and residential complex at Slave Island, Colombo 2, as the Chief Guest.
He participated at the ground-breaking ceremony along with senior officials of the project’s developer, Tata of India.
In keeping with tradition, the Defence Secretary cut the first sod of soil with the blessings of the Maha Sangha and other religious dignitaries. The project will be executed by the Urban Development Authority in collaboration with the TATA Housing Development Company Ltd. of India.
The housing complex will be built on an eight acre plot in Slave Island encompassing Malay Street from the east, Justice Akbar Street from the south, the railway track from the west and the land used by the Ministry of education from the north.
The primary goal of the project is to uplift the living standard of the people in the area and providing them a better living environment thereby improving the liveability of the city.
According to a suggestion of the Secretary Defence, each beneficiary will get a more spacious house compared to their old houses.The TATA Housing Development Company has pledged an investment of $ 430 million towards the project.

Sri Lanka court gives nod to graphic tobacco warnings: report

May 12, 2014 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Court of Appeal has approved graphic pictorial warnings on tobacco packs after Ceylon Tobacco Company challenged new health ministry rules.


Sri Lanka's Daily Mirror newspaper said in its website that the Court of Appeal had dismissed a write application by CTC and allowed graphic health warnings covering 50 to 60 percent of cigarette packs.However there is also a Supreme Court stay order on the rules until May 27, the company had disclosed earlier.




Ceylon Tobacco Company has seen sales shrink over the past year, amid rising prices and greater awareness of the health risks of tobacco smoke.

The Strategy Behind Weird Interview Questions

There’s no shortage of unorthodox or off-beat interview questions to ask job candidates. But what’s the point?


For some managers, quirky questions go beyond catching someone off guard. Non-traditional questions help managers such as Patrick Brandt, chief executive officer ofZimbra Inc. Frisco, Texas decide if a candidate will fit in with the team. “My style isn’t to compromise on culture,” he explains. “For us, it’s really attitude over aptitude.”


Brandt says he relies on open-ended questions that create a dialogue and move the candidate away from rehearsed answers. He says his strategy is more than just a way to humanize the hiring process. Brandt believes his unpredictable questions help uncover issues that others may have been missed or excused. Sometimes people get desperate to fill a position and overlook red flags, he notes, and he says he’s prepared to pass on an otherwise-qualified candidate if he or she isn’t a good fit for the sociable atmosphere at the software development company.


We talked to hiring managers about which non-traditional questions they use – and why – to help you land your next all-star hire.

HSBC launches 30 day service pledge for Credit Cards and Lifestyle Loans

HSBC has announced the launch of its 30-Day service pledge as part of its commitment to fair dealing with customers in line with the ‘Treating Customers Fairly’ principles followed by the HSBC Group. The ground-breaking campaign valid until 29 August 2014, further enhances the bank’s service to its customers. The new proposition offers customers time to review their financial decisions following the purchase of HSBC credit cards and lifestyle loans with a 30-day cooling off period. Within this time, should there be a change in their needs or financial situation, customers can terminate their contract and request for a refund or waiver of the related fees or charges. The new offering further reiterates HSBC’s commitment to building sustainable relationships with its customers by delivering products and services that meet their needs.

Billionaires brawl: Packer and best friend trade blows on Bondi Beach

SYDNEY (AFP): Billionaire gambling tycoon James Packer and his former best man, the Head of Australia’s Nine Network, insisted Monday they were still friends despite being involved in an ugly punch-up at Bondi Beach. The Sydney Morning Herald said more than 50 images show Packer and David Gyngell throwing and receiving punches and wrestling on the ground on Sunday afternoon. It sparked a bidding war for the photos, which Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. appears to have won, publishing the first four pictures online Monday afternoon.

Buffett defends Coke, BNSF at Berkshire annual meeting

REUTERS: Warren Buffett on Saturday defended his recent controversial vote on executive pay at Coca-Cola Co and disappointing performance at railroad BNSF, as investors grilled him on his Berkshire Hathaway Inc conglomerate at its annual shareholder meeting.
The investment guru was peppered with questions at the meeting, part of a mostly festive weekend that Buffett calls “Woodstock for Capitalists,” following concerns that Berkshire last year missed Buffett’s five-year growth target for the first time in his 49 years at the helm.
Buffett, 83, and Vice Chairman Charlie Munger, 90, took the stage at a downtown Omaha arena as they faced off with the audience and a hand-picked panel often excusing recent worries at the sprawling conglomerate. “Over any cycle we will over-perform, but there’s no guarantee on that,” he said. Berkshire, he said, is designed to perform best when markets are at their worst, unlike in 2013 when the Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 30%.

Buffett was immediately questioned about Berkshire’s decision to abstain from the shareholder vote on Coca-Cola’s equity compensation plan for executives, even though Buffett thought the controversial plan was excessive.
That revelation drew sharp criticism in the run-up to the meeting – particularly since Buffett has in the past called options wasteful and akin to a free lottery ticket.

The Surprising Benefits of Hiring Your Kids

As a father of five children, I know all too well how expensive kids can be. It’s always, “Dad, can you loan me $20 for the movies?” or “I saw the cutest pair of jeans and they are only $350.”

How is a small-business owner supposed to keep the company lights on and keep the kids happy? Well, here’s one great way: hire your kids.

Image credit: Shutterstock

Your company can hire your kids, pay them $6,100 per year, and in most cases the business takes the write off and neither the kids nor your household is taxed on the wages.

Putting your kids to work provides some amazing benefits. Not only does it allow them to learn the value of work, but it also gives them insight into the family business and provides you with a pretty nice tax deduction. (It’s always a good idea to check with your accounting professional prior to taking business deductions.)

Audi A3 named World Car of the Year

the premium compact bestseller from the German automaker, has been named the 2014 World Car of the Year.
This is the second overall title for Audi in the ten year history of the World Car of the Year Awards as the Audi A6 won the inaugural overall title in 2005, a statement said.

The third generation of the Audi A3 overcame the challenge from 23 other cars to win the prestigious World Car of the Year title in 2014.
The A3 was voted as the winner by an international jury panel comprising 69 top-level automotive journalists from 22 countries around the world. Rupert Stadler, chairman Audi AG, said: “The Audi A6 was the first ever winner of this award and we are delighted that the Audi A3 has repeated that achievement by being voted 2014 World Car of the Year.”

Seylan Bank ups pre-tax profit by 9% to Rs. 798 m

Seylan Bank recorded a strong quarterly performance with profits before income tax reaching Rs. 798 Million, a 9% increase for the three months ended 31 March 2014. Profits after tax reached Rs. 514 million compared to the Rs. 505 million reported in the corresponding period in 2013.

Nations Trust Bank opens 76th branch at Gothatuwa

Nations Trust Bank opened their newest branch in Gothatuwa offering a wide array of financial services to the people of the area. With the opening of this branch, the branch network of Nations Trust Bank extends to 76 locations across the island. The bank is confident of their promise to deliver world-class products and services powered by a deep understanding of what emerging Sri Lankan needs in terms of financial solutions. All this combined with an unmatched digitalised service experience and growing network. The bank continues to offer their signature service 365 Day Banking and extended Banking Hours and these pioneering concepts have been validated by the customer demand for convenience, which is now becoming the standard across the industry.