Tag: Jaffna
‘s Institute of Medical Sciences bringing medical careers and care to the Northern Province
By Jekhan Aruliah During the 2020 COVID-19 “Corona” Virus pandemic we really loved our health workers. We all loved them because COVID-19 hit everyone. Not through infection but through curfews. Businesses closing, shopping & socializing banned, incomes lost, economic hardship, and the stress of being locked in with our loved ones. Diseases are usually suffered […]
BBK Partnership, Jaffna’s accountants to the World
I first heard of the BBK Partnership Sri Lanka in 2015. I first spoke with its co-founder Anandan Arnold in 2018, and finally met him in March 2020 at a hospital in Manipay Jaffna. He was dressed rather informally for a Partner of London’s BBK Partnership of Chartered Accountants. Anandan (pictured below on the right) […]
Tourism, the Northern Province Game Changer
By Jekhan Aruliah Tourism is the single most game-changing opportunity for the North. Game changing because for those visitors with eyes to see and ears to hear it opens a wide window to all the other non-tourism opportunities in this province. As they enjoy the hospitality, the food, the sites and the scenery a few […]
Will Jaffna International Airport help the Northern economy take-off at last?
By Jekhan Aruliah The opening, strictly speaking the re-opening, of Jaffna International Airport (IATA airport code JAF) in October 2019 was one of the more startling events in the North since the end of the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009. In the North we held our breaths as the promise, unfulfilled for years, approached […]
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 Nietzsche. While perhaps over-dramatic and often not true, this does apply to the Yarl Geek Challenge (YGC). YGC is a competition I have observed and in a small way supported over the […]
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 need to impress your colleagues with the latest baubles, gadgets and fancy cars. Whether you are coding apps, handmaking ornaments, cultivating mangoes, or […]
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 of Jaffna’s leading schools, Vembadi Girls High School, Jaruza’s mother would ask to be warned which teachers would be complaining. Now that young girl who says she failed to […]
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. Having fled the Sri Lankan Civil War 25 years ago as a teenage schoolboy, Suganthan came back to Jaffna from Canada in 2014 with his wife and […]
‘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 land connecting the causeway to Karainagar with its famous Casuarina Beach, and Vaddukoddai with its famous school Jaffna College. Moolai would have been quite unknown but […]
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 they found it somewhere on the A9 near Killinochchi in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. It was a year before I actually got round to visiting the […]
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 only attraction in the Northern Province is the airport in Jaffna. I suppose we should be grateful the map at least has the airport. The SLTDA map shows the rest of the […]
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 extra Rs30). I pay many times more for two dosai with accompaniments at a fancy Colombo 5 star hotel I know. The difference […]