The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) brought together top government officials, industry leaders, and business delegates in Mumbai recently (13) for the India–Sri Lanka Business Forum and CEOs Interaction, spotlighting a new era of bilateral economic cooperation. 

The high‑level engagements underscored optimism about deepening trade, investment, and connectivity ties, while opening fresh opportunities across sectors from renewable energy and logistics to tourism, technology, and manufacturing.

The discussions reflected growing optimism about India-Sri Lanka economic relations and focused on expanding collaboration in trade, investments, connectivity, tourism, renewable energy, logistics, digital transformation, infrastructure, healthcare, education, manufacturing, and technology.

Participants included Mahishini Colonne, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India;  Mr Duminda Hulangamuwa, Senior Economic Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka; Dr Rajesh Ravindra Gawande, Secretary (Protocol, FDI, Diaspora & Outreach) and Chief of Protocol, Government of Maharashtra; Ms Priyanga Wickramasinghe, Consul General of Sri Lanka in Mumbai;  Mr Krishan Balendra, Chairperson, The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and Chairperson, John Keells Holdings PLC; Mr Anurag Agarwal, Co-chairman, CII Western Region Sub-committee on International Trade & Investment and Chief Executive Officer, Polycab India Ltd;  Mr Vishal Kamat, Chairman, CII Western Region Sub-Committee on Tourism and Hospitality and Executive Director, Kamat Hotels India Ltd; Mr. Bingumal Thewarathanthti, Vice Chairperson of the Ceylon Chamber and CEO Standard Chartered Bank Sri Lanka, Mr. Vinod Hirdaramani – Deputy Vice Chairperson of the Ceylon Chamber and Chairman Hirdaramani Group, and Mr Shiran Fernando, Secretary General & CEO of the Ceylon Chamber.  

Welcoming the delegates, Anurag Agarwal, highlighted the growing momentum in India–Sri Lanka economic relations and the emergence of future-oriented sectors driving bilateral cooperation.

He noted that India and Sri Lanka are at an important phase of economic collaboration, where connectivity, investments, innovation, and sustainable partnerships are creating new opportunities for shared growth. He further emphasised the significant potential for deeper engagement in sectors such as renewable energy, tourism, ICT, logistics, digital services, healthcare, manufacturing, education, and infrastructure. 

Agarwal also stated that improved maritime connectivity, ferry services, enhanced air links, and digital payment integration are strengthening ease of doing business and regional commerce. He reiterated CII’s commitment towards facilitating greater business-to-business engagement, investment partnerships, and sectoral cooperation between India and Sri Lanka.

Addressing the forum, the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India, Mahishini Colonne, said, “The sectors represented here – renewable energy, infrastructure, technology, tourism, financial services, logistics, manufacturing and digital innovation – reflect where the next phase of India-Sri Lanka economic cooperation will increasingly be shaped. This is not simply about increasing trade volumes.  It is about building long-term partnerships, joint ventures, regional value chains, technology collaborations, skills partnership and stronger private sector connectivity between our two countries”.

Duminda Hulangamuwa, Senior Economic Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka, stated that “Sri Lanka has shifted from economic stability to growth. As we shift into a sustainable growth path, India will be a key partner in our efforts to drive trade, investment and tourism. We invite investment from India into high growth sectors such as transport and logistics, digital services, tourism and high-value manufacturing.”

Speaking during the forum, Krishan Balendra, Chairperson, The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and Chairperson, John Keells Holdings PLC, said, “At the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, we see our role as going beyond facilitation. We aim to be an active catalyst and bridge, bringing together businesses, enabling partnerships, and supporting investment flows that contribute meaningfully to Sri Lanka’s economic transformation. Sri Lanka is now pivoting towards a growth-oriented future. In this context, India is not just a neighbour, but a critical partner.”

The discussions during the forum reflected strong optimism regarding the future of India-Sri Lanka economic relations and highlighted opportunities arising from enhanced maritime and air connectivity, digital payment systems, energy cooperation, and logistics integration. The role of tourism, people-to-people linkages, skilling, sustainability, and technology partnerships also featured prominently during the deliberations.

The forum witnessed active participation from industry leaders representing sectors including infrastructure, hospitality, logistics, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, ICT, manufacturing, financial services, and trade facilitation. Business networking interactions and B2B engagements enabled delegates to explore potential collaborations and investment opportunities.

Delivering the concluding remarks, Vishal Kamat, Chairman, CII WR Sub-Committee on Tourism & Hospitality and Executive Director, Kamat Hotels India Ltd, stated that the India–Sri Lanka partnership is entering a new era driven by trust, resilience, connectivity, and shared regional aspirations. He underlined the important role of industry in translating opportunities into actionable partnerships and reaffirmed CII’s commitment towards supporting sustained economic engagement between both countries through policy advocacy, business delegations, CEO interactions, and investment facilitation initiatives.

The India–Sri Lanka Business Forum concluded with strong optimism regarding the future of India-Sri Lanka economic relations and a shared commitment to deepen private sector engagements, strengthen regional connectivity and build long-term strategic partnerships that contribute to inclusive and sustainable regional growth. (Newswire)

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The Minister of Transport, Highways, and Urban Development, Bimal Rathnayake, represented Sri Lanka at the XVII International Economic Forum held in Kazan, Russia, under the theme “The Role of International Routes in Developing Foreign Trade.”

The Ministry said the session highlighted the importance of international transport connectivity for trade, shipping, and regional economic stability. 

Addressing the forum, Minister Rathnayake emphasized that the expansion of global trade routes creates greater opportunities for developing nations to integrate into international markets and strengthen their economies. (Newswire)

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India has ranked at 127 out of 146 countries in terms of gender parity — an improvement of eight places from last year — according to the World Economic Forum’s annual Gender Gap Report, 2023.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) ranked India at 135 out of 146 countries in the Global Gender Gap Index in the report’s 2022 edition.

India has improved by 1.4 percentage points and eight positions since the last edition, marking a partial recovery towards its 2020 parity level, the report stated.

The country has attained parity in enrolment across all levels of education, it said.

India has closed 64.3 per cent of the overall gender gap, the report said. However, it underlined that India has reached only 36.7 per cent parity on economic participation and opportunity.

The index ranked India’s neighbours Pakistan at 142, Bangladesh at 59, China at 107, Nepal at 116, Sri Lanka at 115 and Bhutan at 103.

Iceland is the most gender-equal country in the world for the 14th consecutive year and the only one to have closed more than 90 per cent of its gender gap, according to the report.

In India, while there has been uptick in parity in wages and income, the share of women in senior positions and technical roles have dropped slightly since the last edition, the report pointed out.

On political empowerment, India has registered 25.3 per cent parity, with women representing 15.1 per cent of parliamentarians — the highest for the country since the inaugural report in 2006.

Out of the 117 countries with available data since 2017, 18 countries — including Bolivia (50.4 per cent), India (44.4 per cent) and France (42.3 per cent) — have achieved women’s representation of over 40 per cent in local governance.

This comes after Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani earlier this year said the WEF recognised the need to enumerate women’s participation in local government bodies in its Gender Gap Report after the government raised the with it in Geneva.

For India, the 1.9 percentage point improvement in sex ratio at birth has driven up parity after more than a decade of slow progress, the report said.

However, it also said that for Vietnam, Azerbaijan, India and China, the relatively low overall rankings on the Health and Survival sub-index is explained by skewed sex ratios at birth.

“Compared to top scoring countries that register a 94.4 per cent gender parity at birth, the indicator stands at 92.7 per cent for India (albeit an improvement over last edition) and below 90 per cent for Vietnam, China and Azerbaijan,” it said.

Overall, the Southern Asian region has achieved 63.4 per cent gender parity, the second-lowest of the eight regions.

The score in South Asia has risen by 1.1 percentage points since the last edition on the basis of the constant sample of countries covered since 2006. The improvement is partially attributable to the rise in scores of populous countries such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

In terms of the share of women in ministerial positions, 75 countries have 20 per cent or less female ministers.

Populous countries such as India, Turkey and China have less than seven per cent women ministers while those like Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon have none.

Overall, the report said gender parity globally has recovered to pre-Covid levels but the pace of change has stagnated as converging crises slow progress.

While no country has yet achieved full gender parity, the top nine countries have closed at least 80 per cent of their gap.

The report found that the overall gender gap has closed by 0.3 percentage point from last year.

The overall progress in 2023 is partly due to the improvement in closing the educational attainment gap, with 117 out of the 146 indexed countries now having closed at least 95 per cent of the gap.

The report stated, “For the 146 countries covered in the 2023 index, the Health and Survival gender gap has closed by 96 per cent, the Educational Attainment gap by 95.2 per cent, Economic Participation and Opportunity gap by 60.1 per cent, and Political Empowerment gap by 22.1 per cent.”

Parity has advanced by only 4.1 percentage points since the first edition of the report in 2006, with the overall rate of change slowing significantly.

Closing the overall gender gap will require 131 years. At the current rate of progress, it will take 169 years for economic parity and 162 years for political parity, the report stated.

“While there have been encouraging signs of recovery to pre-pandemic levels, women continue to bear the brunt of the current cost of living crisis and labour market disruptions,” said WEF Managing Director Saadia Zahidi.

“An economic rebound requires the full power of creativity and diverse ideas and skills. We cannot afford to lose momentum on women’s economic participation and opportunity,” Zahidi said.

The Global Gender Gap Report, now in its 17th edition, benchmarks the evolution of gender-based gaps in four areas: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment.

It is the longest-standing index which tracks progress on closing these gaps since its inception in 2006. It also explores the impact of recent global shocks on the gender gap crisis in the labour market. (Indian Express)

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